China, Eastern Europe on the rise in rights market

China, Eastern Europe and the countries of the former Soviet bloc are on the rise and Korea may be making a comeback, according to a recent survey of Australian rights managers and literary agents. Japan, on the other hand, appears to be in decline.

Every year Australia's trade magazine, Bookseller+Publisher polls the country's rights managers and literary agents on trends in international rights business. The results are published in Think Australian, the annual magazine about Australian books that is produced for the Frankfurt Book Fair.

As well as reporting on growing and declining markets, the survey also asks respondents to nominate the most effective conduits for selling rights. While Frankfurt continues to be the number one choice, it's interesting to note that all book fairs have experienced slight drop in recent years, while the use of internet-based selling tools has increased. This is perhaps especially understandable given Australia's remoteness from the world's major book markets.

The top 10 list of conduits follows:

MOST IMPORTANT CONDUITS FOR SELLING INTERNATIONAL RIGHTS 2008
(Last year’s ranking is in brackets.)

1. Frankfurt Book Fair (1)
2. Formal arrangements with overseas rights agents (3)
3. London Book Fair (2)
4. The Australia Council’s Visiting International Publishers (VIP) program (5)
5. Bologna Children’s Book Fair (4)
6. Internet rights databases (8)
7. Book Expo America (5)
8. Literary scouts (9)
9. Think Australian export magazine (10)
10. Formal arrangement with sister companies overseas (7)

[Source: Think Australian survey of Australian literary agents and rights managers, July 2008.]

Does this match your own experience? I'd be interested to know.