Frequent flyers of all stripes are heading for the hangar, as book fairs and other conventions suffer dampened numbers if not dowsed spirits. Sources tell PT that attendance at the Salon du Livre was off 20%, despite extra ebullience from the Canadian contingent, after young Quebecer Marie Hélène Poitras took home the third annual Prix Anne Hébert for her first novel Soudain le Minotaure (Tryptique). And ditto for the London Book Fair: though energy may have been credibly soulful under the global circumstances, the general take was “lots of talk, little biz.” Among the US/UK axis at LBF, Simon & Schuster’s Marcella Berger reported no cancellations, and Clare Alexander of the Gillon Aitken Agency noted only that Harcourt’s Andre Bernard and St. Martin’s Jennifer Weiss were among the missing, the latter replaced by George Witte.
Meanwhile, much pouting in Cannes this week, where MILIA, “the premier interactive content industry event,” took place concurrently with MIPTV — Reed Midem’s flagship confab for the television industry — in the hopes of revving up what was touted as “cross-media licensing synergies between games, digital media, and global broadcasting content.” Press reports noted, however, that the 9,000 buyers at MIPTV were 1,000 fewer than last year and 2,000 under expectations. (Reed was still gung-ho for its World Education Market, on May 20-23 in Lisbon.)
And the Jerusalem Book Fair has changed dates, though not due to fears of errant Scud missiles. The event was switched to June 23-27 after Frankfurt last year, where it was learned that the previous dates clashed with German sales conferences (Germany being a prominent presence there). Deborah Harris, a fair board member, reports that though of course “the world could be a different place” by the end of June, indicators are looking good and there’s been no word of cancellations to date.
