IP Picksđ: A True-Life Space Tragedy
â A Black prosecutor who took on the mob and artists who became political heroes
Welcome to The Optionist. As always, thanks for reading along.
The 61st Bologna Children's Book Fair took place this week. It's the leading marketplace for YA books and those targeted to even younger readers. Like other book fairs, this one started primarily as a marketplace for international rights â American books selling to Europe, European books selling to Asia, stuff like that. But it has evolved over the years to include branded-content licensing and even some wheeling and dealing in TV and film options.
There isnât one predominant trend or theme thatâs emerged this year, but there are several smaller ones worth noting. Big picture: Kidsâ literature feels like it has been a hard sell in the screen rights market lately. Even the perennially strong YA market has felt a bit sluggish. But in Bologna, it finally appears to be on the uptick again. As for âRomantasy,â attendees reported that the genre was strong, as was straight romance. Horror, though, seems to have cooled off from its peak.
A lot of these trends seem driven by BookTok and social media, which I've mostly thought of in the American context, but it also seems to be driving international sales. China, in particular, appears to have a robust book/social media culture. On the home front, there seems to be a lot of concern that the Republican push for book bans and censorship is going to have a chilling effect on sales. After all, YA tends to be the most progressive literary category in terms of dealing with racial and sexual identities.
Middle-grade remains a tough nut to crack, which I think is true in Hollywood as well. One bright spot: Elevated girls â that is, as one attendee told Publishers Weekly, stories that are more than "pink and glitter" â attracted a lot of attention, which seems fitting since Barbie was named the licensed product of the year. You donât need me to tell you, but middle-grade girls are smart. And it strikes me that if you give them entertainment that talks up (not down) to them they'll flock to it. Take the just-published The Liars Society, which The Optionist spotlighted a couple of months ago and wound up getting some attention in Bologna this year.
Younger kids have also been a tough sell for on-screen development, but those in attendance at the fair reported that this segment did robust business, with Chinese publishers in particular expressing interest in lots of foreign titles. There's an interesting insight here about how humor aimed at kids â the most basic, elemental stuff â resonates around the world in a way that grown-up comedy, which is often more culturally specific, does not. (Fart jokes, for example, are universally funny.) Two examples are the Taiwan-born, Atlanta-raised artist X. Fang's recently published feel-good alien invasion tale We Are Definitely Human and Jack Noel's forthcoming Dadbot, a graphic novel about a cool robot and the evil genius trying to steal it for world domination, Dr. Egg.
Four More Bologna Takeaways:
â˘On the AI front, it was interesting to hear agents and publishers report using the technology to do quick on-the-fly translations of excerpts so potential buyers would get a better feel of how something would read in their language.
â˘Licensed IP comic books and graphic novels are also doing strong business around the world, which is a good data point to consider when thinking about how to build out ancillary revenue from a kidsâ franchise.
â˘The market for Manga and anime-related material remains strong globally.
â˘Audiobooks for kids is a fast-growing segment of the business. But if I can be honest, this is where you lose me. I love podcasts. I love books. But I just can't listen to audiobooks. I have trouble digesting a story (fiction or nonfiction) that way. I know, I know, I'm an outlier on this.
Onto this weekâs picks, which are heavy in real-life historical dramas. They include:
A real-life drama about the worst disaster in NASAâs history
A historical drama about artistic freedom and censorship in 1930s America
A mystery about the hunt for a missing social-media star thatâs also a smart commentary on influencer culture and youthful fame
A courtroom procedural about the Black prosecutor who brought down the notorious gangster, Lucky Luciano