Sofia International Book Fair 2024
From the 10th to the 13th of December, the LitGround team visited the Sofia International Book Fair (Bulgaria), which is held for the 51st time, but this year was special - publishers, literary agents, rights managers from 15 countries exchanged experience, professional interests and contacts during the first professional program - Sofia International Literary Fellowship organized by The Bulgarian Book Association, The National Book Centre of Bulgaria and Sofia Literary Agency.
Anhelina Trofymchuk was one of the SILF participants. She presented Ukrainian books from LitGround's catalog to foreign partners with a proposal to purchase licenses for translation into other languages, sought interesting collaborations, and took part in one of the panel discussions of the professional program.
Discussion: How Authors Make it to Foreign Markets? Breakthroughs and Sustainability.
Anhelina Trofymchuk: “Participation in this book fair was very important for us, because in our work we want to get to know each other better and build connections with book markets that are geographically close to Ukraine. Bulgaria was the first country in this initiative. During the fair, we managed to establish professional contacts with several Bulgarian publishers and cultural figures. We hope that in the future this cooperation will develop into translated publications.
In addition, SILF itself was incredible. For three days in a row, we talked and shared our experiences. Of course, this is not my first year in publishing, but I really appreciate the information I received from my senior colleagues. What was new for me was the realization of how similar and even common the problems are in non-English-speaking countries. We all need to translate texts into English (invest at the start) to offer our publications for translation. We all lack translators. During conversations with colleagues, they mentioned one single translator from Ukrainian into Danish, who in turn is also the only translator from Bulgarian into Danish. And quite often she chooses to translate Zhadan (which is very good for Ukraine), rather than Bulgarian authors (which is quite unfortunate for Bulgaria).”
World bestsellers in Bulgarian
Meanwhile, Olha Leonova and Inna Kirchuk got to know the Bulgarian book market better, looking for bestsellers, studying covers and formats.
Inna Kirchuk:“It was my first foreign book fair, and in my new role as an employee of a literary agency. The book fair's atmosphere was very cozy. For 4 days, we not only listened to discussions of important topics for book publishing, but also visited the stands of Bulgarian publishing houses, which were filled with a wide variety of books of all genres, types, and designs. It was interesting to compare everything with the Ukrainian market, to find titles that are already published in Ukraine, and to notice those that are not yet available in our country. It was a pleasure to meet new people, everyone was very friendly and open to communication and exchange of experience. In general, I can say that after this trip I had the impression that some secret curtain was opened for me and I was able to look where not everyone can. It's so exciting!”
For Olha, this book fair is also her first foreign fair, but not her first international one.
Olha Leonova: “I adore book fairs - I have visited many in Ukraine over the past 10 years, so I am happy to have a similar experience abroad. The Sofia International Book Fair was held at the National Palace of Culture, a huge building with 5 floors and high ceilings. We were quite impressed by the scale of the fair - a large number of publishers and other representatives of the book business.
We noticed their tendency to publish most titles in paperback. They later make a special gift edition in hardcover only for some particularly popular books. For example, we spoke to the Bulgarian publisher of the sensational "Fourth Wing" - their hardcover edition came out only a year after the paperback, contained the author's facsimile signature, and cost 10 leva more (22.5 UAH = 1 leva), i.e. 30 and 40 leva, respectively.
Speaking of prices, in Bulgaria, book prices are fixed and printed on the back, just like in the UK and the US. I believe that our book market will also come to this when the situation in the country stabilizes. In Ukraine, the Laboratoriia publishing house tried to introduce a similar practice, but with the beginning of Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine, prices became so unstable that it became impossible to continue selling at the prices we had in 2021.”
In addition to Bulgarian publishers, the fair featured the Romanian national stand, which presented new publications and those that might be of interest to foreign readers. We got acquainted with them in detail and noted several books that we offered to our partners in Ukraine for review. In general, the Romanian market is very interesting, but we critically lack Romanian-Ukrainian translators. We have already planned to visit the book fair in Bucharest this summer. We will definitely share our impressions with you.
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