SA’s delegation to the Salon du livre at de la presse jeunesse

The Salon du livre is in its 29th year in 2013. It is not a “rights/trade fair” nor an international fair, but an opportunity for French publishers to showcase their children’s books to the book-buying French public. The Paris-Monteuil International Children’s Book Fair is the largest literary festival for children and young people in Europe. In relation to the theme of the year “Heroes”, writers and artists of South Africa were invited to participate in the fair. The delegation, convened by the South African Book Development Council, were afforded the opportunity to share their experiences with communities around Paris through workshops as well as running workshops and having talks at the fair itself.

Elinor Sisulu, Writer and children’s literature activist led the South African charge along with writer / Illustrators Karlien De Villiers and Maja Sereda, Youth Writer Kgebetli Moele, Graffiti Artist Maxwell Southgate, Cartoonist Mqapeheli Mngadi and Storyteller and gumboot dancer Thanduxolo Bezana. Elitha van der Sandt and Raynia Gaffoor of the South African Book Development Council (SABDC) completed the delegation. The SABDC managed the project on the South African side and also led the delegation to the fair. Publisher representative Michelle Cooper reported that, “Children seem to be the main visitors to the event, with school groups being brought to the venue daily on school days, as well as families visiting the fair together on the weekend.”

Also attending, through the French Institute in South Africa, was Frankie Murrey of Open Book Cape Town. Open Book is looking for ways to encourage young readers through their Youth Festival and sees the Salon du livre as an ideal festival from which to learn. The
International Association of Independent Publishers will be holding their annual conference in Cape Town at the same time as Open Book Cape Town (September 2014) and Frankie Murrey was able to meet with them over the course of the festival. As publisher representative to the fair Michelle had rights catalogues from Shuter& Shooter, NB and Lapa Publishers on hand to distribute at meetings and to hand out from a display table in the area where the South African authors’ talks and South African interest panel discussions were held.

“The organising team of the Salon set up meetings for me with French publishers who expressed an interest in meeting a South African publisher. However, while these publishers seemed genuinely interested in hearing about our book market and some individual projects, I did sense that they were not that focused on the trading of rights, because of the Salon not being a trade fair,” reports Michelle.

“I also met with representatives from one of the French publishers’ associations as well as with representatives of the International Association of Independent Publishers, together with Elitha van der Sandt.”

“On the last day of the fair I took part in a panel discussion on ‘New developments in YA books in South Africa’ along with prof Njabulo Ndebele, Frankie Murrey of Open Book and
Jerome Chevrier of the French Institute, Johannesburg.” The discussion focused on the importance of youth in South African literature and questions addressed some of the challenges facing the South African publishing industry, through to some of what is happening in South Africa currently to attract new readers.

“It was interesting to compare what was on show of the French children’s publishing industry at the Salon, to the South African offering for children. It is obvious that their industry is slanted towards the trade, while ours is educational. Following from this it was also interesting to note their lively independent book seller industry;
strengthened by the strict price control measures by government (discounting below 20% of the RRP is not allowed, I believe). They also have a system in place by which authors earn royalties each time a book is borrowed from a library.

This, coupled with the strong trade market, makes it possible for authors and illustrators to earn a decent living from their writing/art,” reported Michelle.

After meeting with several representatives from festivals happening within France, Frankie was able to say that, “Festivals generally seem to get the bulk of their financial support from some level of government.” She added that she firmly believes that it is this kind of support that has enabled French
Literature to thrive as it does.

Michelle found that none of the publishers were interested in picture books or anthologies of stories. Afrikaans titles were problematic as well, because a French publisher would have to translate an Afrikaans work into English to consider it for publication. There are French versions of best-selling international titles available, but many of these are
from English-speaking territories and were first published in English. Frankie disagreed here and felt that some of the titles she showed were looked at with interest – these were not however the titles aimed at the educational market.

With thanks to Michelle Cooper, Commissioning Editor, NB Publishers, Frankie Murrey Open Book Festival Coordinator and Elitha vander Sandt, CEO SABDC.