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A gathering of German and French fiction publishers in Frankfurt am Main

The application deadline has expired.

In celebration of the 60th anniversary of the Élysée Treaty on Franco-German cooperation, Frankfurter Buchmesse invites fiction publishers from Germany and France to "Salon Francfort" (5- 7 July 2023). This is a publishers' meeting for selected German and French fiction publishers which will take place at the Haus des Buches in Frankfurt.

The compact programme will focus on the development of a Franco-German book industry network, as well as on the promotion of literature and translation.

German publishers will be given the chance to present contemporary German-language authors whose works have not yet been translated into French.

The agenda of Salon Francfort includes a panel discussion, a pitching session for German publishers, licensing discussions and numerous networking opportunities.

The salon is planned as a curated, focussed event, so the number of participants is limited to a maximum of 10 people per language.

For German participants, we are looking for fiction publishers and rights and licensing managers with several years of work experience and a good command of English (knowledge of French is an advantage).

French participants can be fiction publishers, programme directors or editors with several years of work experience and a good command of English (knowledge of German is an advantage).

Salon Francfort is supported by the Federal Foreign Office of the Federal Republic of Germany, and curated and organised by Frankfurter Buchmesse GmbH in cooperation with BIEF-Bureau International de l’Édition Française.

The participants 2023

Jean-Daniel Belfond

Publisher

Publisher

Editions de l’Archipel

Founded in 1991, Editions de l'Archipel publish about 100 new books each year, including 25 books translated mainly from English, German, Spanish and Italian. Novels include women's sagas, thrillers, books linked to Netflix series... Under the brand name "Editions Ecriture" some short novels are published that have won literary prizes.

Jean-Daniel Belfond: I have been the director of Editions de l'Archipel since it was founded in 1991 and since 2019 has been part of Editis, the second largest French publishing group. I follow German-language novels with interest.

Website L'Archipel, tous les livres de la maison d'édition | Lisez!

Katharina Loix van Hooff

Publisher

Publisher

Les Argonautes Éditeur

Les Argonautes is a new independent publishing house specializing in European literature that will eventually publish 10 to 12 titles per year. Rich in emotion and emblematic of the history and culture of a country, a city, or a region in Europe, each publication is developed like an event. In order to reinforce the relationship with our readership and attract a new generation of readers to European literature, Les Argonautes has developed a community platform enabling the exploration of major translated texts from all four corners of the continent.

Katharina Loix van Hooff : I was born in Berlin and studied history and comparative literature. Before joining the French publishing scene, I worked as a journalist in the United States, Ukraine, and Russia and as a publisher and author in Germany. I then worked as the head of the foreign literature department at Editions Gallimard, before I founded  my own publishing house, Les Argonautes Editeur, in 2021.

Website Nos publications - Les Argonautes Éditeur (argonautes-editeur.fr)

Inka Ihmels

Foreign Rights Director

Foreign Rights Director

Aufbau Verlage GmbH & Co. KG

Aufbau Verlage GmbH & Co. KG is an independent publishing house with a broad program of fiction and non-fiction titles. Each year, about 200 new titles are published by its six imprints Aufbau, Rütten & Loening, Blumenbar, ATB, Chr. Links and Die Andere Bibliothek. Aufbau was founded in 1945 with the motivation to create a new cultural orientation for the people in post-World War II Germany. It soon became the leading literary publishing house in East Germany.

Inka Ihmels: As Foreign Rights Director at Aufbau Publishers I handlestranslation rights for all imprints worldwide – from literary fiction to commercial fiction, from modern classics (for many years a particularly successful genre for Aufbau) to non-fiction.

Website Aufbau Verlage

Marie-Pierre Gracedieu

Publisher

Publisher

Le Bruit du Monde

Marie-Pierre Gracedieu and Adrien Servières worked in the Parisian publishing scene for 20 years before founding Le Bruit du Monde in March 2021, with the goal of bringing literature to the fore that is capable of enriching our imaginations and widening our horizons. Convinced that a book can enable us to better understand distant realities as well as complexities that are closer to home, they decided to launch this editorial adventure in Marseille, a bustling port city that is both a point of arrival and departure; a city-world in its own right.

Marie-Pierre Gracedieu: As co-founder of Le Bruit du Monde, I manage the composition of our catalog, which features approximately 15 new books per year. Half of these are translations from many different foreign languages and the other half are written in French by authors from the Maghreb, Quebec, Belgium, etc. Adrien Servières, a former bookseller and distributor, heads up sales and marketing.

Website https://www.lebruitdumonde.com

Anna Ludgen

Foreign Rights Manager

Foreign Rights Manager

DuMont Buchverlag

DuMont Buchverlag was founded in 1956 and today combines a fiction, non-fiction and illustrated book list. Its literary list includes German and international contemporary fiction, crime fiction and upmarket commercial fiction. The non-fiction and illustrated book list comprises general non-fiction, biographies, cultural history, art, design, living and cookery.

Anna Ludgen: Together with our wonderful Rights Director Judith Habermas, I work as (Foreign) Rights Manager and I handle foreign language rights for Central & Eastern Europe & France. I visit the most popular international book fairs, coordinate sample translations, prepare sales material and handle license sales agreements. Additionally I am responsible for contracts and image rights.

Website https://www.dumont-buchverlag.de

Aurore Touya

Editor

Editor

Editions Gallimard

Editions Gallimard was founded in 1911 in Paris and is one of the most prestigious publishing houses of France. It publishes many of the most important contemporary authors, along with classics, and has on its list a total of 44 Nobel prizes laureates.

Aurore Touya: I have worked for the imprint “Bibliothèque de la Pléiade” at Gallimard from 2011 to 2016, and then entered the department of Foreign literature within the same house. Since 2019 I have been the editor in charge of the translations from the German, Dutch, languages from Eastern and Central Europe, and have also been coordinating since 2021 the program of the imprint “Du Monde entier”, an international imprint that turned 90 years old in 2021.

Website https://gallimard.fr

Bénédicte Adrien

Editor

Editor

Editions Gallmeister

Founded in 2006, Editions Gallmeister is devoted to the discovery of the many facets of world literature, offering readers unforgettable moments of escape. Initially focused on North American literature, we started opening up to the rest of the world in 2021 with the addition of new foreign voices to our catalog.

Bénédicte Adrien : I am in charge of the development of foreign literature for Editions Gallmeister. Prospecting with agents, launching translations, writing pitches: I work alongside our sales and marketing department to promote our works to sales representatives, bookstores, and, of course, readers.

Website https://gallmeister.fr

Chiara Gardella

Foreign Rights Manager

Foreign Rights Manager

Hanser

Founded in 1928, Carl Hanser Verlag publishes a catalogue ranging from contemporary authors to literary classics and is one of the few publishers of its size to remain under family ownership. German authors compose the cornerstone of the fiction list (Herta Müller, Arno Geiger, Fatma Aydemir, and many others), in concert with international literary voices such as Jorge Luis Borges, Susan Sontag, and David Grossman. Its rigorous non-fiction list spans topics such as history, politics, current debates, society, cultural studies and nature.

Chiara Gardella: I have been working as a foreign rights manager at Hanser since 2019. My tasks include maintaining and creating new relationships with international publishing houses, presenting and promoting our fiction and non-fiction titles abroad, and negotiating contracts and licences, all the while working closely with the other departments of the publishing house.

Website https://www.hanser-literaturverlage.de

Ronit Zafran

Rights Director

Rights Director

Kein & Aber

Kein & Aber, founded in 1997, is an independent publishing house based in Zurich and Berlin, which covers the whole German speaking market and stands for literary and quirky stories, intelligent entertainment and beautifully and lavishly designed books.

Our list includes out-standing contemporary voices as well as wonderful classic writers. We have often published exceptional books that have become international bestsellers or have made it into a film or TV Series.

Ronit Zafran: As Kein&Aber’s Rights Director I’m responsible for selling and licensing the translation rights of our authors to international publishers as well as film-and TV, theatre, and audio book rights. Therefore, I’m attending all the important Bookfaisr and film festivals. Besides this I’m also responsible for our contracts department and dealing with permission requests ..etc.

Website https://www.keinundaber.ch

Laura Mertens

Foreign Rights Manager

Foreign Rights Manager

Kiepenheuer & Witsch

Kiepenheuer & Witsch was founded in 1948 and is based in Cologne. We publish German-language and translated literature, commercial fiction and critical and popular nonfiction. Our list includes established and renowned names like Eva Menasse, Virginie Despentes, Julian Barnes, Zadie Smith, Uwe Timm, Frank Schätzing, Cho Nam-Joo and Alina Bronsky, as well as debuts by talented emerging voices.

Lara Mertens: As a foreign rights manager for Kiepenheuer & Witsch and our Berlin-based imprint Galiani, I am responsible for selling translation rights into several foreign territories. Besides the French-speaking countries, these include Asia, Arabic-speaking countries, Israel, Africa, Iran and parts of Europe.

Website https://www.kiwi-verlag.de

Corinna Kroker

Programme Manager

Programme Manager

Klett-Cotta Verlag

Publishing house Klett-Cotta Verlag, based in Stuttgart, Germany, was founded in 1977, continuing the 300-year tradition of Cotta Verlag. It publishes around 140 books a year, including non-fiction works on history, politics and philosophy, as well as specialist books on psychology and psychotherapy, and fantasy novels, literature and modern classics.

Corinna Kroker: I oversee the literature programme at Klett-Cotta and am responsible for German-language and international contemporary literature, as well as modern classics. The literature programme publishes about twenty books a year, including award-winning literature by Anna Burns, Iris Wolff, Philippe Lançon, Ulrich Alexander Boschwitz and others.

Website https://klett-cotta.de/home

 

Aurélie Bontout-Roche

Editor

Editor

Libella

An actor on the publishing scene since the 1980s, the Libella Group is comprised of Editions Buchet/Chastel, Noir sur Blanc, Phébus, Libretto, Les Cahiers dessinés, Delpire éditeur, Photosynthèses (France), Noir sur Blanc and Favre (Switzerland), and Oficyna Literacka Noir sur Blanc (Poland). The group is unique in its total financial independence and the diversity of its editorial production: French and foreign literature, travel writing, essays, documentaries, music, ecology, illustrated books, and creative activities. Quality – particularly in terms of the writing – is always a priority.

Aurélie Bontoutroche: Currently in charge of translations for the Libella Group (Buchet-Chastel, Phebus, Delpire and Co, Les Cahiers dessinés), I have been working in publishing for nearly 20 years. I am passionate about literature, languages, and travel, and share my time between Paris and Brussels. As head of translations, I work alongside our translators to coordinate ongoing projects, revise their work, participate in prospecting for foreign titles, and manage grants.

Website https://www.libella.fr

Céline Hostiou

Editor

Editor

Le Quartanier

Founded in Montréal in 2003, Le Quartanier is one of the most adventurous and challenging literary publishers in Québec.  It has spearheaded a new generation of writers, discovering innovative and distinctive voices in both fiction and poetry, while reaching a wide readership. It has established itself as the leading Québécois publishing house for daring, cutting-edge writing — for books that push the boundaries of genre and keep literature exciting and unpredictable.

Céline Hostiou: At Le Quartanier, I am developing a collection of translations of German-language novels, at the rate of one title per year. I look for titles, talk to agents, rights sellers and translators, read the requested novels in German, buy the worldwide French rights, hand over the translation to a translator, read his or her work, coordinate revision and correction, and accompany the distribution.

Website https://lequartanier.com

Claire Do Sêrro

Programme Manager

Programme Manager

Editions Robert Laffont

Founded in 1941, Editions Robert Laffont publishes works in all fields, from fiction to nonfiction. Numerous collections – highly acclaimed by both booksellers and readers – make up our catalog: “Pavillons” brings the best of world literature to France; “R” is our collection for teenagers and young adults; and “La Bête Noire” focuses on thrillers, detective novels, and mainstream fiction. Numerous novels, documentaries, biographies, memoirs, and essays constitute the rest of our backlist.

Claire Do Serro : As editorial director in foreign literature, I am in charge of the Pavillons collection (Margaret Atwood, Bret Easton Ellis, Jennifer Egan, etc.), Pavillons Poche (J.D. Salinger, Dino Buzzati, Alice Walker, etc.), and authors that don’t fall into a particular collection (Ken Follett, Rupi Kaur, Dan Simmons, etc.) I primarily focus on fiction, although I sometimes venture into poetry and narrative nonfiction.

Website https://www.lisez.com/robert-laffont/2

Tatjana Jandt

Foreign Rights Manager

Foreign Rights Manager

Rowohlt Verlage

Founded in Leipzig, Germany, in 1908, Rowohlt Verlage is part of the Georg von Holtzbrinck publishing group. Rowohlt imprints include Rowohlt Buchverlag, Rowohlt Berlin, Wunderlich, Kindler, Polaris, Hundert Augen, Rotfuchs and rororo. Rowohlt publishes 360 titles a year – literature, entertainment, crime novels, thrillers and non-fiction (serious and commercial).

Tatjana Jandt: As a Foreign Rights Manager, I am responsible for the sale of foreign licences in Belgium, China, Japan, Korea and other Asian countries, as well. as France, Netherlands, Russia, Scandinavia, Spanish-speaking world and Ukraine.

Website https://www.rowohlt.de

Laure de Vaugrigneuse

Editor

Editor

Le Seuil

Le Seuil was founded in 1935 and is principally known for its non-fiction catalog and its foreign literature list, which includes various Nobel prizes : Heinrich Böll, José Saramago, Gabriel García Márquez, Günter Grass, J.M. Coetzee, Elfriede Jelinek, Mo Yan, as well as internationally acclaimed authors such as John le Carré, John Irving, William Boyd, Antonio Muñoz Molina, Juan Gabriel Vásquez, Rodrigo Fresán, Arturo Pérez-Reverte, Paolo Giordano.

Laure de Vaugrigneuse: I have been working at le Seuil for seven years. I am now the acquisitions editor for the Spanish, Portuguese, and German languages. I also take care of our backlist. Our latest publications in German include: Jacob Nolte, Schreckliche Gewalten ; Wolf Wondratschek, Selbstbild mit Russischem Klavier ; Philipp Weiss, Am Weltenrand sitzen die Menschen und lachen ; Benjamin Quaderer, Für immer die Alpen.

Website https://seuil.com

Elisa Diallo

Head of Licensing sales

Head of Licensing sales

S. Fischer Verlag

One of the most important publishing houses in Germany, S. Fischer Verlag was founded in 1886. They publish contemporary literature and non-fiction, as well as many great names of classic modernism, such as Thomas Mann, Franz Kafka and Virginia Woolf. S. Fischer includes the Krüger and Scherz imprints, which offer entertaining books, along with several children's book imprints. 

Elisa Diallo: I am the head of book licensing at S. Fischer Verlag and am responsible for foreign rights and domestic licences, i.e. book clubs, paperback, collaborations.

Website https://fischerverlage.de

Marie Luise Jansen

Rights & Licensing Manager

Rights & Licensing Manager

Schöffling & Co.

Founded in 1994 in Frankfurt am Main, Schöffling & Co. is the award-winning independent publishing home of some of the twentieth century’s most brilliant and critically acclaimed authors, such as Joshua Cohen, Gabriele Tergit, Grace Paley Amy Waldman and many more. We publish around 30 titles a year and our backlist comprises over 400 titles by more than 140 authors – including Pulitzer Prize laureates.

Marie Luise Jansen: I am responsible for the Rights & Licensing department at Schöffling & Co. My main task is the placement of our titles abroad. This includes regular exchange with various publishing houses from all over the world, as well as staying in contact with literary agencies and scouts. I also choose the titles from our program that are suitable for international markets and prepare our rights guide.

Website https://www.schoeffling.de

Christoph Hassenzahl

Senior Rights and Foreign Rights Manager

Senior Rights and Foreign Rights Manager

Suhrkamp und Insel Verlag

Suhrkamp (est. 1950) and Insel (est. 1899) is an independent publishing group with approx. 130 employees, five publishing brands and ca. 400 new titles per year. Suhrkamp focuses on both contemporary German-language and international fiction and non-fiction as well as the humanities, with more than 20.000 works published in the last seven decades, of which more than half are still in print.

Christoph Hassenzahl : As a senior rights and foreign manager, I am in charge of finding publishing partners for our authors in many countries worldwide, with a focus on France, Scandinavia, Greece and Korea, also administratively assisting the publishers and editors with acquisitions. In addition to selling audio book rights to third parties, I am since 2021 furthermore the content manager for our own audio book list.

Website http://www.suhrkamp.de/foreignrights

Florian Torres

Publisher

Publisher

Les éditions du typhon

Les éditions du typhon publish Literature. The main theme is crisis and reconstruction after personal or political crisis. We are very interested in German literature. We have published books by E.T.A. Hoffmann, Ernst Wiechert, Wolfgang Koeppen, Irmgard Keun.

Florian Torres : I am the publisher and co-founder of Les éditions du typhon.

Website https://leseditionsdutyphon.com

Frankfurt Fellow

Application requirements

  • Several years of publishing experience
  • For German participants: Experience in the rights and license trade in fiction
  • For French participants: Experience in the rights and license trade in fiction
  • Good command of English. Knowledge of French and German is an advantage

Salon Francfort FAQs

Salon Francfort is aimed at German and French literary fiction publishing houses. For the German side of participants we are looking for publishers and rights & licensing managers, for the French side for publishers, programme managers, and editors. All applicants should have several years of work experience; additional knowledge of German or French respectively would be an advantage.

Salon Francfort will take place at the Haus des Buches in Frankfurt am Main in the first week of July 2023.

Day 1 (5 Juliy 2023)  Arrival in Frankfurt, cultural programme, meet-and-greet dinner.

Day 2 (6 July 2023)  Moderated podium discussion with German experts, pitching session for German publishers, pre-booked individual meetings, networking dinner.

Day 3 (7 July 2023)  Departure.     

The Francfort Salon is a curated format, which means that the number of participants will be limited to a maximum of 20 overall. The selected participants will be informed in May.” The Francfort Salon is a curated format, which means that the number of participants will be limited to a maximum of 20 overall. The selected participants will be informed in May.

Salon Francfort depends on the provision of funding from the German Foreign Office. If the programme can take place, Frankfurter Buchmesse will cover two nights' hotel accommodation in Frankfurt for all participants. For French participants, travel expenses will also be covered.