SCBWI at the Bologna Children's Book Fair

​Is it spring yet? The calendar says we’re well on our way to summer but the weather has been actively disagreeing with that for weeks now.

Whatever the season, it has been busy!

In February I spent a week in New York City. First I met my best friend who traveled up from Texas to join me for some awesome sightseeing - we packed as many museum visits, Broadway shows and fabulous meals into our days as possible. Then she flew home and I switched hotels to attend the SCBWI Winter Conference. This was my third conference so when I enter the Hyatt it feels like my home-away-from-home, complete with my creative family.

This year, in addition to working behind the scenes and attending wonderful breakout sessions and keynote addresses, I had another commitment on my calendar: a planning session with SCBWI’s Team Bologna.

SCBWI Team Bologna (L-R): Patti Buff, Kathleen Ahrens, me, Susan Eaddy. Not pictured: Angela Cerrito & Christopher Cheng. photo copyright 2016 Christopher Cheng. used by permission.

SCBWI has a booth at the Bologna Children's Book Fair in even years (the next time SCBWI will be there is 2018) and this year the booth was double in size from past years, complete with fabulous new banners that showcased not only the organization, but the artwork of some of our members, including the winners of the SCBWI Bologna Illustration Gallery.  (For many more pictures of the booth, including our duelling illustrator events, click here).

At the end of 2015 I decided to attend the Bologna Children’s Book Fair to experience for myself the world’s largest rights fair focused exclusively on books for children and young adults. I learned so much from attending and helping with the SCBWI booth. Patti Buff, Regional Advisor for SCBWI Germany-Austria, and I were joining the team for the first time and what a fun and rewarding experience that has been!

So what did I think of Bologna, both the city and the fair?

The gelato is amazing. The city is beautiful.

photo copyright E Norton 2016

People tend to think about the Bologna book fair as an event primarily for artists, and there’s no question that the famous walls, covered with promotional postcards, as well as the portfolio review opportunities available at the booths of many publishers, are tremendous opportunities for artists. For writers, I think the value is in the programming. There are talks, panels, and discussions happening throughout the fair every day. My critique partner was visiting the fair with her artist partner, and she really enjoyed the programs that she visited.

While I didn’t visit any panels (but my critique partner is going to share her notes with me :-), on a few occasions I did walk around some of the buildings (I never did make it into all of them!) and I especially enjoyed networking with the publishers and agents based in Switzerland with the hope of bringing some of those professionals to future programs in our region.

Just one part of the SCBWI booth at Bologna. Shown here are just a portion of the picture books that were showcased. Also showacased were middle grade and young adult titles. photo copyright E Norton 2016

I spent most of my time at the SCBWI booth, talking with booth visitors about SCBWI. Some of our visitors were already members and I know of at least two SCBWI members who visited the booth who have since been connected with critique opportunities with other members, thanks to their visits to the booth. Others were not familiar with SCBWI and we were able to tell them about how being a part of this professional organization could help them grow in their careers.

It was amazing to be at the booth as publishers stopped to talk to an artist or author and artist from SCBWI during their one hour personal showcases, and realize that deals were being made! 

Publishers really do go to this fair looking for material that they can introduce into their market. Not everyone was able to travel to the fair to have a personal showcase, but many other authors and/or illustrators were part of the SCBWI showcase. It was a great feeling to gesture to the books on display and tell people that they represented just a fraction of SCBWI member books published in the last two years. 

One day I was standing near the books and noticed two people very excitedly looking at a picture book. When I introduced myself and asked if they had any questions, one of them said “I am a translator. I am here on behalf of my friend who is a publisher, and I WANT THIS BOOK!” Each book in the showcase had a label on the back detailing the rights that were available, as well as contact information for those interested in the rights. I was able to direct her to another stand at the fair, with the names of the persons to ask for, so that she could talk to them about acquiring the rights for that book. As she walked away with one of our promotinal postcards that had information about and links to the online showcase where all the same rights information is listed for each book, I got a thrill from knowing that I might have just helped an SCBWI member’s book reach a wider audience. 

And that’s what Bologna is all about.