The Make Books Travel podcast offers a behind-the-scenes look at the international publishing scene. Literary agent Marleen Seegers interviews the industry's key players, who all have one thing in common: they make books travel, for instance from one language to another, from manuscript to published book, or from page to screen. Find out how and why they do what they do, and so much more!
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S3 E9: A Close Look at the Romanian Publishing Market with Ana Lotts-Nicolau
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Today’s guest is Ana Lotts-Nicolau of Nemira Publishing House in Romania. Ana has had an impressive career so far: she currently is the CEO of Nemira, was for many years a member on the Board of the Romanian Publishers’ Association, and if that wasn’t enough on her plate already, in 2021 Ana founded the first audiobook platform on the Romanian mark…
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S3 E8: Agent Yasmina Jraissati on Selling Arabic Literature Internationally
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Today I’m speaking with Yasmina Jraissati, owner of Raya Agency for Arabic Literature. Yasmina and I covered many different topics, including her beginnings as a literary agent and how one particular Frankfurt Book Fair played an essential role, the current publishing and bookselling landscape in Lebanon where she resides most of the time, the chal…
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S3 E7: The Place of Literary Agents in France: An Interview with Sophie Langlais
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It’s been a while since I recorded and published the previous episode. Landing back on my feet after my 5-week trip to Europe around the London Book Fair was a bit more challenging this time, due to some lingering fatigue after I caught Covid at the fair, like many others. Luckily that’s all behind me now! Today I’m speaking with Sophie Langlais, l…
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S3 E6: Les Argonautes Founder Katharina Loix Van Hooff on Making European Literature Travel to France
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This is the last episode I recorded before traveling to Europe again at the end of March, to attend the London Book Fair but also to visit publishers in Amsterdam and Paris. I wanted to alert you before you listen to today’s interview with Les Argonautes Editeur founder Katharina Loix Van Hooff that Russia comes up a couple of times during our conv…
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S3 E5: The Australian Publishing and Bookselling Landscape: An Interview with Penny Hueston
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Today’s interview features Penny Hueston, who is Senior Editor at Text Publishing in Melbourne, Australia as well as a literary translator from the French. Independent publisher Text Publishing has been championing translations from languages around the world since it started out in 1994. And Penny is passionate about her work as a translator. I wa…
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S3 E4: A Close Look at the Finnish Publishing Market with Outi Karemaa
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Today I am speaking with Finnish publisher Outi Karemaa. I personally find the Nordic publishing market fascinating, not least because it is relatively difficult to sell into those markets. I like challenges! Outi and I speak about those challenges, the state of the Finnish publishing market, and also about the rising popularity, and therefore comp…
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S3 E3: Amélie Louat on Leaving International Publishing to Open an Indie Bookstore
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Today’s guest is Amélie Louat, whom some of you may know from her time at the French independent publishing house Editions Zulma. Amélie did something that I believe is incredibly courageous: during the pandemic, she quit her job at Zulma, moved away from Paris with her family to a small town in Brittany, and opened an independent bookstore. I had …
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S3 E2: Looking at the Japanese Publishing Market with Manami Tamaoki
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Today’s guest is Manami Tamaoki, Director of Tuttle-Mori Agency, Inc in Tokyo. We recorded this interview a little while ago, when Manami just got out of a true virtual meeting marathon that took place before, during and after the Frankfurt Book Fair. I did not envy her! I just wanted to mention that at some point during the interview, Manami talks…
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S3 E1: A Conversation with Stella Jóhannesdóttir, Director of the Reykjavík International Literary Festival
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I am very excited to be back with season 3 of the Make Books Travel podcast. I took a two-month break from recording, one of which I spent on the road, in Europe. I actually had in-person meetings again, and drinks, and dinners, meeting publishers in Amsterdam, at the Frankfurt Book Fair, and in Paris. It was amazing! Today’s guest, Stella Soffia J…
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S2 E22: A Discussion with Edward Nawotka, international and bookselling editor at Publishers Weekly
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Welcome to the last episode of season two of the Make Books Travel Podcast! I’ll be taking a break for the next month or so in order to focus on my virtual and in-person meetings before and during the Frankfurt Book Fair. I’m SO excited to be taking part in the fair, and to be back in Europe for the entire month of October after having stayed put i…
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S2 E21: Author, Translator, Publisher Lawrence Schimel on Book Hunting and Much More
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Welcome to another episode of the Make Books Travel Podcast! Usually I give a short introduction on the person that I’ll be interviewing on this episode. However, as you’re about to find out, it is a seemingly impossible task to do so for today’s guest Lawrence Schimel, as he wears a multitude of hats... So I'll just let Lawrence introduce himself!…
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S2 E20: An Interview with Astra Magazine's Editor-in-Chief Nadja Spiegelman
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Welcome to another episode of the Make Books Travel podcast! I’m happy to be back after having taken some time off this summer. I’m preparing a trip to Europe (I still can’t believe I’m saying this!), we just sent our Fall Rights Lists out, and both my virtual and my in-person meeting schedules are filling up, so it’s safe to say that the fall seas…
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S2 E19: Marie Vinter on Danish Publishing & Starting Vinter Forlag
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Today I’m excited to welcome my first guest from Scandinavia: Danish publisher Marie Vinter. Marie is founder and publisher of Vinter Forlag, which she started last fall. Among the different Scandinavian markets, the Danish publishing market in particular has seen many changes in recent years. Imprints were discontinued, publishers merged or were b…
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S2 E18: A Deep Dive into the Audiobook Market with Lance Fitzgerald
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Welcome to a new episode of the Make Books Travel podcast, on which I’m speaking to Lance Fitzgerald, VP, Content and Business Development for Penguin Random House Audio. On season 1 episode 15, I interviewed Jamie Dupras, General Manager of audiobook producer Deyan Audio. What I took away from that interview was that the audiobook format is an eve…
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S2 E17: Prashant Pathak on Weathering the Pandemic in India and Publishers Without Borders
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Welcome to a new episode of the Make Books Travel podcast! Today I’m excited to speak with Prashant Pathak, who joins us from just outside of New Delhi in India. Prashant gives us insights into the current situation of the Indian publishing market and explains how the publishing house he started 4 years ago, Wonder House Books, has weathered the ch…
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S2 E16: Natalia Poleva on the Current State of the Russian Publishing Market
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Welcome to another episode of the Make Books Travel podcast. This time we’re traveling all the way to Moscow, Russia to speak with Natalia Poleva. Natalia started out on the acquisitions side, and more recently made the switch to selling translation rights to fiction and non fiction titles published by Eksmo Publishers. I was interested in hearing …
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S2 E15: Sherif Bakr Discusses the Latest Developments in the Egyptian Publishing Industry
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Welcome to another episode of The Make Books Travel podcast! Today I have the pleasure of speaking with Sherif Bakr, General Manager of the Egyptian publishing house Al Arabi. To say Sherif is well-travelled is quite an understatement; in fact he explains during the interview how important it’s been for him to participate in fellowships around the …
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S2 E14: Challenging the Amazon Empire: Bookshop.org Founder & CEO Andy Hunter
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Today’s guest is Andy Hunter, Founder and CEO of Bookshop.org. Often referred to as the indie alternative to Amazon.com, Bookshop.org proposes a socially conscious way to buy books online. On the day our interview was recorded, it had since its launch in January 2020 raised close to $14 million for local bookstores in the US. Amazon has seen an ala…
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S2 E13: Being an Acquisitions Editor in the Educational Publishing Market: A Conversation with Allison Scott
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Today’s guest is Allison Scott, who works as Senior Acquisitions Editor in the book publishing arm of ASCD, a Washington, DC-based nonprofit education association that provides professional learning products and services for K-12 educators. That is quite a mouthful! What it boils down to is that Allison works on books that help teachers and school …
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S2 E12: An Interview with Deborah Kaufmann, VP of Literary Affairs at Legendary Entertainment
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Today's guest is Deborah Kaufmann, VP of Literary Affairs at Legendary Entertainment. Translated into lay, non-Hollywood terms, this means that Deborah is some sort of in-house scout for Legendary, in charge of finding literary properties that can be adapted to the big or small screen. As you’ll find out, such properties can include books, but also…
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S2 E11: Promoting French Publishing Abroad during the Ongoing Pandemic. An Interview with Nicolas Roche
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On this episode I’m joined by Nicolas Roche. Nicolas and I were colleagues for a short while, in another lifetime it seems, at Editions Stock. I am glad I got to interview him in his capacity as Managing Director of the Bureau International de l’Edition Française, or in short, the BIEF. Together with his team, Nicolas is charged with promoting Fren…
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S2 E10: Gunnar Cynybulk Discusses Founding His Independent Publishing House (during a Pandemic)
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Today’s guest is Gunnar Cynybulk, who recently founded his own independent publishing house in Germany called Kanon Verlag. Gunnar’s publishing career spans 25 years. Previously he was publisher of Aufbau, and most recently publisher of Ullstein. Founding an indie publishing house in the midst of a pandemic may sound like a crazy idea. I wanted to …
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S2 E9: The Infamous "Three Percent" - An Interview with Chad Post
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Welcome to a new episode of the Make Books Travel Podcast! Joining me today is Chad Post, publisher of Open Letter Books at the University of Rochester in upstate New York, which is dedicated to publishing contemporary literature from around the world. At Open Letter, he also oversees the Three Percent website, the Translation Database, and the Bes…
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S2 E8: Literary Scouting: John Bowers Lifts a Tip of the Veil
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Welcome to season 2, episode 8! After having spoken with editors, agents, translators, and people who work for cultural and governmental organizations that promote books, I’m excited to be talking to a literary scout today. Scouting is one of the more obscure parts of the international publishing scene. My guest, John Bowers of Sanford J Greenburge…
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S2 E7: A Close Look at the Central & Eastern European Publishing Markets with Livia Stoia
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On this podcast episode, I am speaking with Livia Stoia, founder of the Livia Stoia Literary Agency. Based in Bucharest, Romania, Livia and her team represent international publishers and agents into many Central and Eastern European countries and the Baltic States, as well as Western Europe, Latin America and Asia. For the sake of brevity, our con…
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S2 E6: The Resilience of the Greek Publishing Market. An Interview with Evangelia Avloniti
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Today’s guest is Evangelia Avloniti, founder of Ersilia Literary Agency. Her agency represents Greek and foreign authors in Greece and worldwide, and foreign publishers and agents, including 2 Seas Agency, in Greece. Greece has had its share of crises these last 10-15 years or so, even before the arrival of the Covid-19 pandemic. On this episode, w…
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S2 E5: Ruben Padilla Discusses this Year's Digital Edition of the Guadalajara Book Fair
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This is the last podcast episode I am recording before the end of this crazy, intense, and just straight out tough year that 2020 turned out to be. So I just wanted to say thank you to the guests of all 26 episodes I’ve recorded so far. I really appreciate that you set aside some of your precious time to talk with me, sometimes during quite stressf…
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S2 E4: Olivia Snaije Discusses the Arab-Speaking Publishing World
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Today’s guest is Paris-based journalist, author, translator and editor Olivia Snaije. For those of you who read the international publishing industry news, Olivia’s name probably sounds familiar as she is a contributing editor to Publishing Perspectives. Besides Publishing Perspectives, she has written for a variety of magazines and newspapers incl…
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S2 E3: The Turkish Publishing Market Seen from Within. An Interview with Amy Spangler
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My guest of Season 2, episode 3 is Amy Marie Spangler, Co-Founder and Co-Director of Istanbul-based AnatoliaLit Agency. Like several of my previous guests on this podcast, Amy took part in the Jerusalem Book Fair fellowship in which I took part as well, in 2017. A few months later, we started working with AnatoliaLit to represent our list in Turkey…
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S2 E2: "Good Literature Has Universal Appeal:" an Interview with Judith Uyterlinde
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Welcome to Season 2, episode 2 of Make Books Travel Podcast, during which I interviewed Judith Uyterlinde. Judith has had a diverse career in publishing, and for the past few years she’s been Publishing Director of the very internationally-minded publishing house World Editions. It's one of the few publishing houses that focuses on bringing interna…
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S2 E1: Gillian Fizet Discusses Canada's Guest of Honor Program at the Frankfurt Book Fair 2020/21
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I am really excited to be back with Season 2 of The Make Books Travel Podcast! I took a break from recording new episodes earlier this fall to focus on the virtual Frankfurt Book Fair season. On this episode I’m joined by Gillian Fizet. Gillian is Executive Director of the Canada FBM2020 Committee, the entity responsible for representing the Canada…
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S1 E21: How Publishing Trends Are Influenced by Historical Context. A Conversation with Daniel Bunyard
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Welcome to episode #21 of the Make Books Travel podcast. Today's guest is Daniel Bunyard, Publishing Director and Head of Non-Fiction Publishing at Penguin Michael Joseph in the UK. Dan has been looking in detail at historical sales of books, in an effort to better understand what people’s book buying motivations and patterns are. Why did certain b…
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S1 E20: Translating from French to English, Its Challenges and Rewards, with Eve Bodeux
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Today I’m speaking with French-to-English translator Eve Bodeux. As a translator, Eve is someone who literally makes books travel. We discuss many things on this 20th episode of the Make Books Travel Podcast, including her professional journey, the challenges and rewards of being a translator from French to English, the American Translators Associa…
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S1 E19: The Lisbon Book Fair, a Breath of Fresh Air for the Portuguese Publishing Industry. An Interview with Rita Fazenda
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For today’s show we’re going back overseas (at least from an American standpoint) as I’m speaking with Rita Fazenda from Portugal. Rita works as a publisher at one of Portugal’s major publishing houses called Leya Portugal. The Portuguese publishing market has seen many challenges over the years. I wanted to ask Rita how things are looking now, wit…
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S1 E18: Always Be Learning. Author & Writing Coach Becca Puglisi Shares Tips for Aspiring Writers
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On this episode of the Make Books Travel podcast I’m speaking with Becca Puglisi. Becca is an international speaker, writing coach, and bestselling author of The Emotion Thesaurus and other books for writers. Not only does Becca help make books travel in the US and other English speaking countries through her creative writing books and her coaching…
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S1 E17: How a Bestselling Author Became a Successful Publisher. An Interview with Rohit Bhargava
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Today’s podcast guest is Rohit Bhargava. Not only is Rohit a #1 Wall Street Journal bestselling author, a much-demanded speaker worldwide on disruption, trends and marketing, and an adjunct professor of marketing and storytelling at Georgetown University, he has also co-founded his own publishing house: IdeaPress Publishing. 2 Seas Agency handles f…
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S1 E16: How the Dutch Foundation for Literature Helps Foreign Publishers during the Pandemic (and beyond). An Interview with Barbara den Ouden
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Today I’m speaking with Barbara den Ouden of the Dutch Foundation for Literature. Anyone who has traveled to an international book fair is bound to have run into Barbara, who I believe to be something like a fixture at such events! The Dutch Foundation for Literature supports writers and translators, and promotes Dutch literature abroad. A few mont…
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S1 E15: All Things Audio. The Audiobook Production Process, the Industry's Explosive Growth, and Working with the German Voice of Brad Pitt. An Interview with Deyan Audio's Jamie Dupras
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On episode 15 I’m speaking with Jamie Dupras, General Manager of Los Angeles-based Deyan Audio. Deyan Audio is the largest independent producer of audiobooks and has won multiple awards for their productions. I was eager to learn more about the actual production process of an audiobook, and hearing about overall trends in the industry. As a rights …
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S1 E14: Talking Movie, TV and Podcast Adaptations with Maylis Vauterin
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Today I’m speaking with Maÿlis Vauterin, Rights Director at Editions Stock in France. I’ve previously interviewed various rights sellers about one specific type of subsidiary rights sales: the sale of translation rights. This means that a book is translated in another language and published in the local market of that language. In this episode howe…
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S1 E13: Championing European Literature in English Translation. An Interview with Trafika Europe's Andrew Singer
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The 13th episode of the Make Books Travel Podcast welcomes Andrew Singer, Director of the literary journal Trafika Europe and of the literary radio station Trafika Europe Radio. This is the first time that the podcast features an interview with someone who is not either a rights seller or a rights buyer. Yet Andrew plays a very important role in ma…
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S1 E12: "Think Outside the Book." An Interview with Quebec Publisher Antoine Tanguay
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On episode 12 of the Make Books Travel podcast I’m talking to Antoine Tanguay, who founded the Quebec publishing house Editions Alto in 2005. When I asked Antoine if there were any specific topics he wanted to discuss on the podcast, he mentioned that for the past few years he’d been focusing quite a bit on publishing innovations, on new ways to sp…
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S1 E11: The Italian Publishing Scene Before, During and After the Covid-19 Lockdown. An Interview with Chiara Scaglioni
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Welcome to episode 11 of the Make Books Travel podcast. Today’s guest is Chiara Scaglioni, editor of international fiction at Mondadori in Italy. Chiara and I met a couple of times at various book fairs last few years, and had in fact scheduled to meet at the Mondadori offices in Milan early April this year. That obviously did not happen... Italy w…
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S1 E10: A Close Look at the Global Children's Book Industry with Stephanie Barrouillet
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On today's show I am talking to Stephanie Barrouillet, founder of SB Rights Agency in Tel Aviv that represents foreign rights in children's books around the world. The 10-hour time difference between California and Israel didn’t stop us from having a great conversation about the global children’s book market. As we were talking, I realized Stephani…
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S1 E9: "Readiness Is All." Luciana Villas-Boas & Anna Luiza Cardoso Talk about Brazil's Publishing Industry, and Life, during these Challenging Times
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For this episode I am talking to not one but two guests, Luciana Villas-Boas and Anna Luiza Cardoso from the Villas-Boas & Moss Literary Agency & Consultancy in Brazil. Luciana Villas-Boas founded her literary agency in 2012, just one year after 2 Seas Agency was launched. Yet we knew each other from before, when I was working in French publishing …
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S1 E8: Current French Publishing Industry Challenges Seen from an Indie Point of View. An Interview with Florent Massot
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Today I am talking to Florent Massot, who founded the independent French publishing house Massot Editions in 2017. This isn’t Florent’s first publishing venture however, as he has been publishing books for over 35 years. I wanted to sit down with him and discuss amongst others the impact of the strict lockdown measures the French government imposed…
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S1 E7: "You Don't Have to Be A Comics Reader to Read Comics." An Interview with Amber Garza
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Joining me today from Los Angeles is Amber Garza, Director of International Licensing at Sequential Rights. Amber sells translation rights in English language comic books, a genre - or rather, as Amber rightfully points out during the episode - a medium that I am not very familiar with.On paper she and I both do the same thing: we sell translation …
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S1 E6: The Chinese Publishing Industry Emerging from Covid-19 Lockdown. An Interview with Gloria Masdeu
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After having interviewed publishing professionals from Mexico, Spain and Germany and heard about their experiences connected to the Covid-19 pandemic, I now wanted to focus on a country in Asia. I’m truly delighted to be joined today by Gloria Masdeu, who works for the Rights Department of the Thinkingdom Media Group in China. Among many things, Gl…
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S1 E5: How the German Book Market Is Coping with Covid-19. A Discussion with Elisa Diallo
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For this episode, I’m talking to Elisa Diallo who recently joined the independent German publishing house Schöffling as their foreign rights manager. Elisa and I met quite a few years ago at the London Book Fair, I believe. However, like with Wendolín Perla who I interviewed for the 3rd episode, I feel like I really got to know Elisa when we were b…
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S1 E4: Marina Penalva on Spain's Strict Covid-19 Lockdown and the Impact on Its Publishing Industry
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On episode 4 of The Make Books Travel podcast, I’m joined by Marina Penalva, an agent at the Barcelona-based Casanovas & Lynch Literary Agency. Marina and I have known each other for many years — in fact we couldn’t even remember when it was exactly that we first met. I’m very happy she is joining me today to give an insight into the current situat…
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S1 E3: Wendolín Perla, or What It's Like to Start Your Own Publishing House One Month before the Start of a Pandemic
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On episode 3 of The Make Books Travel podcast I got together, virtually speaking, with Wendolín Perla, founder of Perla Ediciones in Mexico City. Not only was I interested in hearing about the state of the Mexican publishing scene in light of the current COVID-19 crisis, but I was also eager to talk to her about her specific experiences of having f…
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