Maybe one does not fully understand the opportunities available at the Cairo International Book Fair where the United Kingdom is this year’s Guest of Honor.
Besides exchanging words with renowned writers – writers with biting intellect, inspiring imagination, and quotable turns of phrases – you could just meet the person who helps your secret scribbles see the light of day.
Bloomsbury Publishing House founder Nigel Newton gives you his card. Much later, you realize you’ve managed to open a direct phone line with the man that made magic happen by publishing the British writer J K Rowling’s phenomenally successful Harry Potter series.
Newton set up Bloomsbury in 1986 along with David Reynolds, Liz Calder and Alan Wherry with the aim of publishing quality fiction by signing marquee authors such as John Irving, Margaret Atwood, Joanna Trollope and Nadine Gordimer.
Setting up base in the United States the following year, Bloomsbury also acquired the independent German house Berlin Verlag in 2003.
With a strong base in the world s three largest book markets, Bloomsbury launched a publishing house in Qatar last October, and the publishers are keen to “translate and find Arabic writers.
Doha-based Bloomsbury Qatar Foundation Publishing has already acquired over a 100 titles, half in English and half in Arabic, Newton told Daily News Egypt.
Qatar Finance – The Ultimate Resource, a comprehensive print and online information resource for finance professionals, in partnership with the Qatar Financial Center Authority will also be launched in October 2009.
The Bloomsbury Chief Executive noted that the Diwan bestseller list at the Cairo Book Fair was “peppered with Bloomsbury titles, ranging from Elizabeth Gilbert’s personal, autobiographical “Eat Pray Love to Daniel Goleman’s theory of emotions titled “Emotional Intelligence.
But there is no real secret recipe to bestselling books; they may even come from different ends of the spectrum.
Newton – who came at number 13 in the Guardian’s top 50 most influential literary players list in 2006 – does not claim to know the “indescribable chemistry of books. He can tell with precision, though, that Khaled Hosseini’s “A Thousand Splendid Suns has sold 921,000 units in 2008.
“It had ‘it,’ says Newton. “We know it when we see it. We can tell which are great but not which will sell.
Newton cannot really pinpoint the magic of Rowling. All you know is from legend – that when he gave his daughter a sample chapter, Alice Newton was in wonderland, and insisted he bring home the next installment.
So when Rowling first shot straight up bestseller lists, the sales “exceeded our expectations, said the chief executive. Rowling’s latest work “The Tales of Beedle the Bard was an instant and surefire 2008 Christmas bestseller.
Yet is it safer to bet on established authors now that the world is complaining of the financial crisis?
“Bloomsbury was always about finding new authors, says Newton, citing examples such as American writer David Guterson and his debut “Snow Falling on Cedars and Canadian poet Anne Michaels’ debut novel “Fugitive Pieces.
Among recent runaway successes is Kate Summerscale’s detective debut, “The Suspicions of Mr. Whicher. While Summerscale is doing very well for herself in the UK, other Bloomsbury authors have a more universal appeal.
While retail sales have gone down about 3 to 4 percent, says Newton, Bloomsbury’s sales remain “robust.
With an eye also on the developing digital market, Bloomsbury has already digitized its entire catalog. Newton expects the sales of digital books to be about “the same as the audio market, which he pins at around 5 percent. He sees some potential following Waterstone’s promotion of the Sony e-reader which sold over 30,000 handsets.
Given Bloomsbury’s “disposition towards news writers, are established writers at a disadvantage?
“No, says Newton, pointing out what should have been evident; it’s simply that they usually already have a publisher.
They have already met with up and coming Egyptian writers at the fair, among them established names such as Alaa Aswany.
Journalism affords you the opportunity to ask, “How easy is it to approach the publisher?
“You just come up to us and say ‘Hello,’ Kathy Rooney, managing director of Bloomsbury Information Limited, tells Daily News Egypt. Rooney, who is responsible for Bloomsbury Qatar Foundation Publishing and QFinance, said they are actively seeking Arabic writers.
“We want writers to come to us, says Mohana Rajakumar, who also works at the Doha-based Bloomsbury office, noting that the best business is “person to person.
Rooney senses the skepticism and counters with the zap: “Do you write?
Well, in case I do, I know whom to call.
