Today I’m speaking with Yasmina Jraissati, owner of Raya Agency for Arabic Literature. Yasmina and I covered many different topics, including her beginnings as a literary agent and how one particular Frankfurt Book Fair played an essential role, the current publishing and bookselling landscape in Lebanon where she resides most of the time, the challenge brought on by piracy in the Arab-speaking publishing market, the position of audiobooks in Arabic, and much more. Show Notes: Yasmina's book recommendation: - Foundation by Isaac Asimov About Yasmina: Yasmina Jraissati has a PhD in Philosop ..read more

It’s been a while since I recorded and published the previous episode. Landing back on my feet after my 5-week trip to Europe around the London Book Fair was a bit more challenging this time, due to some lingering fatigue after I caught Covid at the fair, like many others. Luckily that’s all behind me now!  Today I’m speaking with Sophie Langlais, literary agent at #BAM - Books and More Agency in Paris. We discussed many topics, including the rise of literary agents in France, where the publishing landscape was pretty reluctant to embrace this role for a long time, bringing new translatio ..read more

This is the last episode I recorded before traveling to Europe again at the end of March, to attend the London Book Fair but also to visit publishers in Amsterdam and Paris. I wanted to alert you before you listen to today’s interview with Les Argonautes Editeur founder Katharina Loix Van Hooff that Russia comes up a couple of times during our conversation. We mention it in the context of European literature, and more precisely because Katharina has acquired the French rights in two novels written by Dutch author Marente de Moor. Marente used to live in Russia and one of the two novels is set ..read more

Today’s interview features Penny Hueston, who is Senior Editor at Text Publishing in Melbourne, Australia as well as a literary translator from the French. Independent publisher Text Publishing has been championing translations from languages around the world since it started out in 1994. And Penny is passionate about her work as a translator. I was looking forward to speaking with her about these two subjects, that are at the heart of this podcast. Show Notes: Some of the books mentioned by Penny:  - Olga Tokarczuk, Flights, The Books of Jacob, Drive Your Plow over the Bones of the D ..read more

Today I am speaking with Finnish publisher Outi Karemaa.  I personally find the Nordic publishing market fascinating, not least because it is relatively difficult to sell into those markets. I like challenges!  Outi and I speak about those challenges, the state of the Finnish publishing market, and also about the rising popularity, and therefore competition, of English-language books on the Finnish market which we're seeing in other Nordic countries and the Netherlands as well. Show Notes: Outi's book recommendations: - The Spy and the Traitor (Crown, 2019) and Agent Sonya: Moscow ..read more

Today’s guest is Amélie Louat, whom some of you may know from her time at the French independent publishing house Editions Zulma. Amélie did something that I believe is incredibly courageous: during the pandemic, she quit her job at Zulma, moved away from Paris with her family to a small town in Brittany, and opened an independent bookstore. I had so many questions for her, not only about how this major life change unfolded, but also about her bookstore, since she is the very first bookseller I had on the podcast. Show Notes: Amélie's book recommendations:  - Voyage au bout de l'enfance ..read more

Today’s guest is Manami Tamaoki, Director of Tuttle-Mori Agency, Inc in Tokyo. We recorded this interview a little while ago, when Manami just got out of a true virtual meeting marathon that took place before, during and after the Frankfurt Book Fair. I did not envy her!  I just wanted to mention that at some point during the interview, Manami talks about the Swedish bestseller titled Smart Phone Brain, which was indeed as she indicates the bestselling book of the year in Japan, and topped several year-end lists. However, Manami would like to correct that it has won one award, and not thr ..read more

I am very excited to be back with season 3 of the Make Books Travel podcast. I took a two-month break from recording, one of which I spent on the road, in Europe. I actually had in-person meetings again, and drinks, and dinners, meeting publishers in Amsterdam, at the Frankfurt Book Fair, and in Paris. It was amazing! Today’s guest, Stella Soffia Jóhannesdóttir, had the pleasure of hosting one of the few in-person fellowships of this year, back in September, in her capacity as director of the Reykjavík International Literary Festival. Besides this role, she is also acquisitions editor for Stor ..read more

Welcome to the last episode of season two of the Make Books Travel Podcast!  I’ll be taking a break for the next month or so in order to focus on my virtual and in-person meetings before and during the Frankfurt Book Fair.  I’m SO excited to be taking part in the fair, and to be back in Europe for the entire month of October after having stayed put in California for the last 19 months.  Today’s guest, Edward Nawotka, is the international and bookselling editor of Publishers Weekly and co-founder of Publishers Weekly en Español. He’d just returned from a trip to the Madrid Book F ..read more

Welcome to another episode of the Make Books Travel Podcast!  Usually I give a short introduction on the person that I’ll be interviewing on this episode. However, as you’re about to find out, it is a seemingly impossible task to do so for today’s guest Lawrence Schimel, as he wears a multitude of hats... So I'll just let Lawrence introduce himself! Lawrence's book recommendations - Alyssa Cole's Reluctant Royals series - Alex Pavesi's The Eighth Detective About Lawrence Lawrence Schimel (New York, 1971) is a full-time author, writing in both Spanish and English, who has published ov ..read more