Vom 4. bis 19. Oktober 2008 besuchen 16 Fellows auf Einladung der Frankfurter Buchmesse die Verlagsbranche in Frankfurt, München und Berlin. buchmarkt.de stellt Ihnen täglich einen der Teilnehmer vor.
Sarina van der Ploeg ist Verlegerin von Uitgeverij Sirene in Amsterdam www.sirene.nl. Auf ihrem Buchmarkt beobachtet sie einen starken Preiswettbewerb – trotz des festen Ladenpreises.
buchmarkt.de: Bitte beschreiben Sie uns Ihren Verlag …
Uitgeverij Sirene started as an imprint of Uitgeverij Maarten Muntinga, the biggest independent massmarket paperback house in the Netherlands. Sirene became independent in 2005. We still work closely together with Uitgeverij Maarten Muntinga.
Uitgeverij Sirene publishes around 20 new books per year: international and Dutch literary fiction and upmarket commercial fiction, literary thrillers (suspense) and non-fiction (travel, memoirs/biographies, divers) – written, mainly, by women for women. To name a few authors: Waris Dirie, Sabine Kuegler, Claudia Schreiber, Lisa Unger, Sara Gruen, Marita van der Vyver, Ouarda Saillo, Fatou Diome, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, Patricia Highsmith and others.
Wir würden Sie den niederländischen Buchmarkt beschreiben?
Characteristics for the Dutch book market are:
– a very close and tight network of bookshops: from very small kiosk-like shops till huge, specialised bookshops.
In NL there are approx 1.500 bookshops. Besides these 1.500, there are other outlets where books, among other things, are being sold.
– fixed bookprice.
The publisher fixes the price of a book and it is only after 2 years that this fixed price expires. In those 2 years it is only the publisher who can decide to lower the price of a book. With the fixed bookprice you could say that the „cultur“ of the publishing and book market is being protected: small publishers and bookshops can still exist and stay in business.
– growing number of online bookshops, e.g. Bol.com.
The online bookshops give the publisher the chance to keep on selling his backlist which would otherwise not be sold or stand still – as bookshops only have place for recently published books, apart from the „eversellers“ of course.
Difficulties are:
– the concentration buyers of different bookshop chains (the socalled decision makers).
A small group of buyers decides which books are being sold in their shops. Booksellers are more and more directed by these buyers which makes it more and more difficult for publishers to get their books in the bookshop.
– the strong emphasis on the price competition in spite of the fixed bookprice.
More and more cheaper editions of books are being produced. The average bookprice goes down.
Welche Erwartungen haben Sie an das Fellowship-Programm und die Frankfurter Buchmesse 2008?
Re. the fellowship: to learn more about the German book market and German publishing houses; to expand my international network; to exchange information on interesting titles; to learn how publishers are dealing with similar problems; to learn how/what the book cultur is in other countries (the characteristics and difficulties); to (learn how to) make successful book deals, and hopefully in the near future to buy books from / to sell books to the other fellows.
Re. the Book Fair: keeping informed on the international book market and to know what’s going on; to meet again and keep in contact with my international contacts.
Das Fellowship Programm wurde anlässlich des 50. Jubiläums der Frankfurter Buchmesse 1998 ins Leben gerufen. In den vergangenen zehn Jahren hat sich ein enges Netz innerhalb der internationalen Verlagsbranche gebildet. Über 165 Teilnehmer aus 45 Ländern konnten bereits von diesem Programm profitieren. In diesem Jahr wird es von Martina Stemann von der Frankfurter Buchmesse organisiert und vom ehemaligen Fellow Laurenz Bolliger vom Berlin Verlag begleitet.
