Spring Conference Blog: Scotland Meets the World

Posted on April 5, 2019 in Scotland

Chaired by Sasha de Buyl, Manager, Scottish Books International

Panelists:

Andrea Joyce, Rights Director, Canongate

Sophie Moxon, Executive Director, Edinburgh International Book Festival

Marion Sinclair, CEO, Publishing Scotland

*

As the first panel of the day, ‘Elsewhere, Home’ underlined the focus on international outreach from the Scottish publishing industry. The discussion focused on the opportunities and challenges arising from taking an international approach.

Initially, panellists described how their work does look outward, and how they benefit from international contacts. Describing publishing as a ‘people industry’, Marion Sinclair stressed that close personal contact to publishers and authors from other countries is essential in succeeding on an international level, a statement seconded by Sophie Moxon, who emphasised how much there is to learn from people with a different perspective.

The panellists agreed that international outreach is not restricted to big publishing houses but can be pursued by indies as well. While conceding that setting up a rights department would take time and financial effort, Andrea Joyce insisted that it would be worth it in the long term. Rather than a matter of size, internationalisation is more about the products on offer, as Sinclair noted that ‘not all books travel well’, although the panellists admitted to often being surprised about which books are successful internationally and which aren’t.

Discussing barriers, the first to be mentioned was costs, a point which could be partly circumvented due to strong support by Publishing Scotland and the Scottish government. The lack of ambition on the publishers’ side was identified as more problematic, as establishing personal contacts is time consuming and doesn’t necessarily pay off right away. The dominance of the English language in international publishing would furthermore make publishers reluctant to go through the process of translation which is both time and money consuming.

Establishing and upholding contacts would be further complicated by Brexit. The panellists shared their frustration about still being in the dark about what future relationships will look like. While Joyce relayed that Canongate has a Brexit team meeting once a week, she also admitted that due to lack of information, proper preparations were impossible. Sinclair stressed the same point, saying that all they could do right now was work together with other publishers and societies in the same position in the hope of mitigating the impact of Brexit.

The audience questions shed further light on the lack of imports into the British market, again with Brexit being expected to make matters worse. De Buyl, especially, stressed the necessity of having a two-way conversation, stating that there isn’t enough influence from the outside at the moment, given that Scottish writing isn’t solely regional.

Blog by Jannik Gehde, SYP Scotland Conference Committee