Visiting International Publishers (VIPs) Program
The Visiting International Publishers (VIPs) program supports a delegation of international publishers, scouts and literary agents to participate in a week-long schedule of business meetings, networking events, industry forums, writers’ festival events, and panel discussions with Australian publishers and agents each year.
The visiting delegation are immersed in Australia’s unique literary culture, share insights into global publishing trends, strengthen relationships with their Australian counterparts, and expand opportunities for Australian authors overseas.
The selection of participants is made by Creative Australia staff in collaboration with the VIPs Committee of industry representatives, currently comprising Annabel Barker, Emma Dorph, and Marika Webb-Pullman. The VIPs represent a range of territories; genre specialties; boutique and multinational publishers; and English-language and translation markets.
Australian publishers and literary agents who publish or represent literary titles, in the areas of fiction, narrative non-fiction, poetry, or children’s books (i.e. creative writing) participate in the program.
2024 program observations
In 2024, the Visiting International Publishers (VIPs) program invited 10 international publishers, editors, and literary agents to Sydney to participate in the 27th iteration of the program. It was held alongside the Sydney Writers’ Festival dates from 20–24 May.
The invited delegates were:
- Tamar Brazis, Vice President and Publisher – Viking Children’s Books and Philomel, Penguin Random House, USA
- Eamon Dolan, Vice President and Executive Editor – Simon & Schuster, USA
- Kim Laura Franzke, Editor for Picture Books – Annette Betz Verlag, Ueberreuter Verlag, Germany
- Allison Hellegers, Rights Director & Literary Agent – Stimola Literary Studio, USA
- Lisa Labbe, Acquiring Editor – Éditions Leduc, France
- Adam Levy, Publisher – Transit Books, USA
- Juan Milà, Editorial Director – HarperVia, HarperOne Group, HarperCollins, USA
- Claudia Müller, Senior Editor Fiction – Bastei Lübbe AG, Germany
- Teresa Pütz, Senior Commissioning Editor, Fiction – Penguin Verlag, C. Bertelsmann, Manesse, Penguin Random House, Germany
- Andrea Stratilová, Foreign Rights Manager – Albatros Media, Czech Republic.
View the full bios and areas of interest of the 2024 VIPs below.
2024 program participants
Main areas of interest:
- Picture books (fiction and non-fiction)
Tamar Brazis joined Viking Children’s Books in 2018, specialising in children’s picture books. In 2023, Viking celebrated its 90th anniversary and Brazis became its eighth Publisher. Her background in poetry led her to acquire the debut picture book, Change Sings, by presidential inaugural poet and #1 New York Times bestselling author Amanda Gorman, as well as Gorman’s first full-length poetry collection for adults Call Us What We Carry. Other New York Times bestselling picture books at Viking include Just Because by Matthew McConaughey, Tomatoes for Neela by Padma Lakshmi, and Hattie Harmony: Worry Detective by Elizabeth Olsen and Robbie Arnett.
Brazis began her career at HarperCollins two weeks after graduating from Sarah Lawrence College. She then moved to Abrams where she worked for nearly fifteen years and during which time she completed an MFA in creative writing at the New School. She was promoted to Editorial Director of Abrams Books for Young Readers, where she cultivated her passion for illustrated publishing and fine bookmaking. There, she acquired and edited the #1 New York Times bestselling I Am series by Susan Verde and Peter H. Reynolds, Princesses Wear Pants by Savannah Guthrie and Allison Oppenheim, and the Caldecott Honor- and Coretta Scott King Medal-winning Trombone Shorty by Troy Andrews and Bryan Collier. Other titles acquired and edited by Brazis received the Pura Belpre, Coretta Scott King, Sibert, and Schneider Honors.
While children’s books were the focus of her list at Abrams, she also acquired across categories and edited many photography collections for adults, mostly on music-related themes. Notable titles include CBGB & OMFUG: Thirty Years from the Home of Underground Rock, Danny Clinch: Still Moving, and Patti Smith: 1969-1976. She also edited five illustrated books with the bestselling author of The Time Traveler’s Wife, Audrey Niffenegger, and the first illustrated book for adults by Caldecott-winning illustrator Brian Selznick.
Which books do you wish you had published?
The Gift of Nothing by Patrick McDonnell; Alma and How She Got Her Name by Juana Martinez-Neal; The Important Thing About Margaret Wise Brown by Mac Barnett and Sarah Jacoby.
Main areas of interest:
- Current affairs
- History
- Hard and soft science
- Memoir
- Popular culture
Eamon Dolan has worked as an editor at HarperCollins, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, and Penguin Press. He is currently Vice President & Executive Editor at Simon & Schuster US. During his thirty-year career, he’s published virtually every genre except cookbooks.
His high-water marks include Eric Schlosser’s Fast Food Nation, Stefan Fatsis’ Word Freak, Richard Dawkins’ The God Delusion, David Sheff’s Beautiful Boy, Joshua Foer’s Moonwalking With Einstein, Jay Shetty’s Think Like a Monk, and Patrick Bringley’s All The Beauty in The World. He’s also published fiction by Lisa See, Paul Theroux, and Donna Leon, among others.
When he’s not editing, he’s likely to be writing or shooting. He’s a professional photographer whose work has been shown at the International Center of Photography and elsewhere. And he’s writing a book called The Power of Parting, which will be published in 2025 by Putnam (US & Canada) and Bluebird/Macmillan (UK & ANZ), along with several editions in other languages. The Power of Parting draws on his own experience of physical and psychological abuse in childhood, as well as research on trauma and interviews with other survivors like himself, to show how survivors can sever ties with abusive relatives to find freedom and peace.
Which books do you wish you had published?
Empire of Pain by Patrick Radden Keefe; Out of Egypt by Andre Aciman; The Body Keeps The Score by Bessel van der Kolk.
Main areas of interest:
- Picture books (fiction and non-fiction)
- Board books
- Sound books
- Children’s books (early readers, middle grade, graphic novels)
- Young Adult
Kim Laura Franzke joined the picture book imprint of Ueberreuter in 2018. She has always had a passion for children’s books and for literary translations, so she decided to study Comparative Literature in Augsburg, Madrid and Berlin. While studying for her Master’s degree in Berlin, she gained practical experience working for Schneiderbuch/Egmont and completing a traineeship in the rights and licensing department of Argon Verlag.
She has worked with many well-known German children’s books authors and illustrators and is always keen on supporting young illustration talents as well as searching for exciting international picture books. At Annette Betz, they have published many internationally successful authors and illustrators, such as Rachel Bright, Helen Stephens, Marianne Dubuc and Britta Teckentrup.
Annette Betz publishes picture books, combining high literary and artistic quality. The publishing house is known for its true classics, such as I Have a Little Problem, Said the Bear by Heinz Janisch and Silke Leffler, which has been translated into ten languages. Other well-known authors and illustrators on their list are Michael Engler and Joëlle Tourlonias, whose picture book A Tiger like Me was very successful in the US, or Katharina Grossmann-Hensel and her inventive picture books, which have been translated into nine languages. Especially popular are their beautifully illustrated musical picture books, that give young children a gentle introduction into the world of classical and modern music.
Ueberreuter Kinder- und Jugendbuch publishes realistic and fantasy literature for children and young adults. Their books are aimed at girls and boys alike, and the program balanced for all kinds of reading preferences. Most famously, their bestselling Little Bad Book series by Magnus Myst (almost 320,000 copies sold), inspires reluctant readers (age 8+) to engage in reading through an interactive approach, witty games and an unconventional structure – to the great delight of children and parents alike. Little Bad Book has been sold to fifteen countries.
Which books do you wish you had published?
The Merle Trilogy by Kai Meyer; The Lion Inside by Rachel Bright and Jim Field; The Dark and the Light by Kerstin Hau and Julie Völk.
Main areas of interest:
- Children’s, Young Adult, Middle-Grade, graphic novels
- Memoir, pop culture
- Contemporary fiction, book club
Allison Hellegers is Foreign Rights Director and Literary Agent for Stimola Literary Studio. After being a literary scout, she worked as a director of foreign rights for Alloy Entertainment and Rights People, and she continues to oversee all foreign, subsidiary and film rights for Stimola Literary Studio while growing her client list. Allison is drawn to works for all ages that push boundaries, evoke emotion, and have something new to say.
Her Adult co-agent clients include New York Times bestselling author Lucy Adlington (The Dressmakers of Auschwitz), and Reese’s Book Club Pick Holly Smale (Cassandra in Reverse). She’s looking to take on more fiction and non-fiction clients, and is interested in pop culture, comedy, science, journalism, history, and health/wellness.
Her Young Adult clients include award-winning authors Colby Cedar Smith (Call Me Athena) and Rebecca Caprara (Spin) and as well as graphic novel clients Teo Duvall (Brooms) and Mari Costa (Belle of the Ball). In Young Adult, she loves a big hook and bold characters that sweep her off her feet.
Middle-Grade will always be a favourite, as it’s the age she fell in love with books, and she enjoys a classic, literary voice with humour and heart, and/or a touch of magical realism. Her Middle-Grade clients include ALA Notable Elaine Dimopolous (The Remarkable Rescue at Milkweed Meadow) and beloved Australian author Nova Weetman (Sick Bay, It All Begins With Jellybeans), who also has her first adult memoir coming out this year (Love, Death & Other Stories).
She also represents picture book clients, including bestselling illustrator Alison Oliver (the Babylit series), Horn Book Award and ALA Notable Dinah Johnson (H is for Harlem) and Ezra Jack Keats-honour winner and beloved Slovenian artist Marta Bartolj (Every Little Kindness). She’s especially looking to grow her author-illustrator list for graphic novels for all ages.
Allison attends Frankfurt and Bologna each year and has been an industry speaker and on staff at numerous conferences and events. She is honoured to participate in the Creative Australia Visiting International Publishers Program, and she looks forward to continuing to find voices domestically and around the globe that inspire, surprise, and delight readers of all ages.
Which books do you wish you had facilitated the sale of?
Heartstopper by Alice Osman; Circe by Madeline Miller; I’m Glad My Mom Died by Jeanette McCurdy.
Main areas of interest:
Upmarket, literary and commercial fiction
Lisa Labbe has been working in the French publishing industry since 2013. She started her career in foreign fiction at Éditions Stock and joined Éditions Robert Laffont in 2019.
Since 2022, she has been the acquiring editor of the Charleston imprint at Éditions Leduc, a publishing house of the Albin Michel group. They publish 40 novels per year (around 12 French-speaking titles and 28 foreign titles). She’s looking for new strong, contemporary and original voices in foreign literature.
Which books do you wish you had published?
Where the Crawdads Sing by Delia Owens, Small Great Things by Jodi Picoult, The Light Between Oceans by M.L Stedman.
Main areas of interest:
- Literary fiction
- Essays
- International fiction (both in English and translation)
Adam Levy is co-founder and publisher of Transit Books, an independent publishing house established in 2015, with a focus on international literature, and based in the San Francisco Bay Area. His authors include Jon Fosse, winner of the 2023 Nobel Prize in Literature, Namwali Serpell, Laurent Mauvignier, Tezer Özlü, Iman Mersal, Andrés Barba, and Noémi Lefebvre. His authors have received the National Book Critics Circle Award and the PEN Translation Prize, and have been finalists for the National Book Award, the International Booker Prize, the National Translation Award, and more.
He is proud to publish a number of writers from Australia, including Maria Tumarkin, Antigone Kefala, Anwen Crawford, and Suneeta Peres da Costa.
He is also a translator of the Hungarian language, and was awarded a Fulbright Fellowship to translate Gábor Schein’s The Book of Mordechai (Seagull, 2017). His most recent translation is The Story of the Everything, the Nothing, and Other Strange Stories by Gyula Gábor Toth, which is forthcoming from Transit’s new imprint for children’s literature, Transit Children’s Editions. He received a BA from Dartmouth College and an MFA in fiction from Columbia University, and began his career in publishing at The Wylie Agency.
Which books do you wish you had published?
Soon after founding the press we tried unsuccessfully to acquire Olga Tokarczuk’s Flights, which would’ve given us a nice lift in our early days. I’m also a great admirer of Helen Garner’s The Children’s Bach and Gerald Murnane’s The Plains.
Main areas of interest:
- Literary fiction
- Literary crime
- Upmarket/book-club fiction
- Narrative non-fiction (genre-blending memoir, travel, nature)
A native of Barcelona, Juan Milà went to university in the United States and had his first job in publishing in New York. After moving back to Spain, he held editorial positions at leading publishers like Planeta, Muchnik Editores/El Aleph and Ediciones Salamandra. He has edited a wide range of Spanish language authors, from Eugenia Rico and Ray Loriga to Juan José Saer, as well as authors in translation, from Primo Levi to Elizabeth Strout and James Salter, among many others.
After returning to New York, he joined publisher Judith Curr’s team at HarperCollins in 2018 and is currently the Editorial Director of HarperVia, an imprint dedicated to publishing international authors and stories. In its first five years, HarperVia has published 97 original titles, including English-language originals and translations from 23 languages.
Juan is interested in a wide range of fiction, from voice-driven family sagas to detective novels with a twist. He is also looking for narrative non-fiction – including unconventional memoirs and travel/nature writing. Some of his fiction titles are Alan S. Portero’s Bad Habit, Bernhard Schlink’s Olga, Sosuke Natsukawa’s The Cat Who Saved Books, Tony Birch’s The White Girl, Anne Eekhout’s Mary and the Birth of Frankenstein, Joël Dicker’s The Enigma of Room 622, Andrey Kurkov’s The Silver Bone, and the forthcoming The Last Dream, by Pedro Almodóvar. Among his non-fiction titles are Wuhan Diary by Fang Fang and Consent, by Vanessa Springora.
Juan also acquires for the HarperCollins Español list.
Which books do you wish you had published:
Cutting for Stone by Abraham Verghese; Hamnet by Maggie O’Farrell; Do No Harm by Henry Marsh.
Main areas of interest:
- Upmarket Women’s Fiction
- International fiction (both translated from English and other languages)
- Fiction for a Young Female Readership (about age 25-35)
- Literary/Upmarket Crime
Claudia Müller studied Scandinavian Literature, History of Art and German Medieval Literature at the universities of Göttingen, Stockholm and Bonn. After the Magister Artium she worked for the Goethe Institut Helsinki, teaching German. She returned to the university of Bonn to work there as an assistant lecturer and to write a thesis about the Mödruvallabók, an Icelandic Codex of the 14th century.
Since 2000, Claudia has worked as an editor (and as an editorial director) for the fiction list at Bastei Lübbe, an independent trade publisher in Cologne. Founded in 1953, the publishing house is the home to (inter)national bestselling authors such as Dan Brown and Ken Follett, Arnaldur Indridason, Lars Kepler and Tove Jansson.
Claudia acquires upmarket general fiction as well as literary fiction and upmarket suspense.
Which books do you wish you had published?
The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo by Stieg Larsson; Lessons in Chemistry by Bonnie Garmus; Normal People by Sally Rooney.
Main areas of interest:
- Contemporary upmarket and literary fiction
- Modern classics
Teresa Pütz is Senior Commissioning Editor at Penguin Verlag, the German home of Salman Rushdie, Abdulrazak Gurnah, Jenny Erpenbeck and Clarice Lispector. Based in London, she acquires a wide range of literary and upmarket fiction, as well as modern classics from all around the world. She also reads French and Portuguese. Her most recent acquisitions include Richard Powers’ Playground, the work of Danish grand dame Helle Helle as well as Healing Season of Pottery by Korean author Yeon Somin, and Claire Lynch’s highly anticipated UK debut The Family Allowance.
Previously, she worked as Senior Scout for Translation and Book to Film at Daniela Schlingmann Literary Scouting in London, and for many years as editor at S. Fischer in Frankfurt, where her authors included Jennifer Egan, Regina Porter, Emma Stonex, Andrew O’Hagan, Peter Carey, Petina Gappah, Itamar Vieira Junior and Makoto Shinkai. One of her favourite Australian authors and acquisitions is Charlotte McConaghy, whose debut novel Migrations was a major SPIEGEL bestseller and shortlisted for the Favourite Book of the Independent Booksellers Prize in Germany.
Founded in 2016, Penguin Verlag is the imprint within Penguin Random House Verlagsgruppe Germany, which finally gave the world’s most famous publishing brand a German home. Their list is independent from Penguin UK and US, but they are committed to what Penguin stands for all over the world – “the best stories are published by Penguin” is their slogan. They are very excited to have been able to establish Penguin Verlag as a strong player in the German fiction market. On the translated fiction side, they publish voices from all around the world, bestselling and award-winning contemporary literary and commercial fiction as well as modern classics, by authors such as Richard Powers, Salman Rushdie, Abdulrazak Gurnah, Gary Shteyngart, Helle Helle, Anne Enright, Clarice Lispector, Xiaolu Guo, Paolo Cognetti, Lucy Foley, Nicci French, Jonas Jonasson and Kaliane Bradley.
Which books do you wish you had published?
Small Things Like These by Claire Keegan; Shuggie Bain by Douglas Stuart; The Bee Sting by Paul Murray; Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow by Gabrielle Zevin; Burial Rites by Hannah Kent.
Main areas of interest:
- Crime and thriller
- Women´s fiction and romance
- Literary fiction
- General non-fiction
- In general we acquire more commercial titles (80%) vs literary titles (20%)
Andrea entered the publishing industry in 2002. After nine years of acquiring children’s and Young Adult (YA) books for Fragment Publishing House, Andrea landed at Albatros Media and moved to fiction and non-fiction for adults.
On the children’s and YA side she discovered and acquired Czech and Slovakian rights to such bestselling authors as Christopher Paolini and his Eragon series; Suzanne Collins’ Hunger Games series, one of the first books in the popular dystopian genre for YA; Rick Riordan’s Percy Jackson series; and relaunched the classic series The Chronicles of Narnia by C.S. Lewis.
Moving to books for adults has been a big challenge for her. Albatros Media is the largest publisher in the Czech Republic with 19 different imprints, and Andrea looks for great books for all imprints across adult literature. This requires a great overview of books and authors in many genres, to match to the different imprints. She looks for commercial thrillers and women´s fiction; literary novels; and interesting and unique popular non-fiction.
She has acquired Czech rights for bestsellers such as The Tattooist of Auschwitz by Heather Morris (Australia); and thrillers The Woman in the Window by A.J. Finn (USA), The Silent Patient by Alex Michaelides (UK), and The Chestnut Man by Soren Sveistrup (Denmark).
Her favourite literary speculative novel is Before the Coffee Gets Cold, written by Japanese author Toshikazu Kawaguchi, a huge bestseller in Japan.
When she doesn´t read manuscripts or books, she likes salsa dancing, hiking, swimming.
Which books do you wish you had facilitated the sale of?
The Book Thief by Markus Zusak; the Millenium series by Stieg Larsson; The Witcher by Andrzej Sapkowski.
Wednesday 22 May 2024 – Industry forum and networking lunch
Venue: Terrace Room, L’Acqua – Roof Top Level, Cockle Bay Wharf, Darling Harbour, Sydney
9.00am – 9.30am
Arrival, tea and coffee
9.30am – 9.35am
Welcome to Country, Introduction
9.35am – 10.15am
Panel 1 – Wake in Fright: Thrillers, Crime, and Literary Fiction
Moderator: Emma Dorph
Panellists: Lisa Labbe, Juan Milà, Andrea Stratilová
Stuart Evers once noted that ‘…crime writing offers unique insights into society, psychology and human behaviour. It can be both engaging and literate; compelling and well-written. It can be innovative and surprising, but what it can’t be, it seems, is feted in the same way as literary fiction.’
Thankfully the binary between literary fiction and crime has long since dissolved, but the rest of his statement may explain why the demand for mystery, crime and thrillers remains strong. Our panel have published a diverse range of books in this genre, and will share their observations on what’s working in their respective markets. Is there still a heart of darkness for Aussie noir in both English-language and translation markets?
10.15am – 10.40am
Morning tea
10.40am – 11.40am
Panel 2 – Achtung Baby: German Market Update
Moderator: Nerrilee Weir
Panellists: Kim Laura Franzke, Claudia Müller, Teresa Pütz
According to Publishing Perspectives, the German book market experienced a year of mixed performance in 2023, though adult fiction showed ‘above-average’ growth, and adult non-fiction, children’s and YA also experienced an increase in turnover. Publishers Weekly also noted a recent increase in rights sales to European publishers for English-language rights, as well as for translation rights.
Our panellists will delve into the current trends, challenges and successes of the German market; share their areas of interest; and confirm if the death of translation has been greatly exaggerated.
11.45am – 1.00pm
Panel 3 – Striking Gold: Unexpected Success Stories
Moderator: Annabel Barker
Panellists: Tamar Brazis, Eamon Dolan, Allison Hellegers, Adam Levy
From New York Times Best Seller lists to Nobel Prizes, our panellists and their authors have enjoyed significant literary success across a variety of genres, in children’s, YA and adult. But not every wild success was a foregone conclusion, and creative marketing, fortuitous timing, current affairs, and the vagaries of social media can all have a part to play.
What are some of the factors that led to unlikely literary success for our panellists? How has this influenced (or not) what, and how, they acquire? Our panel will share their tips and insights on what to expect when you’re not expecting.
1.00pm – 3.00pm
Informal networking lunch – free
Thursday 23 May 2024 – Networking drinks
Venue: Creative Australia offices, Level 5, 60 Union Street, Pyrmont, Sydney
5.00pm – 7.00pm
Informal networking drinks – free
Delivered in partnership with the Australian Publishers Association (APA).
Since its inception, Creative Australia’s Visiting International Publishers (VIPs) program has been delivered in consultation with a committee of industry representatives.
The committee members are selected on the basis of their extensive industry expertise and international market knowledge, representing a range of skills and experience across the Australian publishing industry. Having worked in independent publishing houses, multinational publishing houses, and literary agencies across the industry; they have strong connections internationally and are passionate about Australian writers and writing.
Responsibilities of the committee include:
- Selecting the VIPs each year
- Assistance with planning and events for the program, including the industry forum
- Hosting the VIPs throughout their time in Sydney
- Promoting the program internationally to encourage applications from potential VIPs.
The committee members are:
Annabel is a rights agent specialising in books for children and young adults. Her career in children’s books has spanned more than 15 years. She has worked for publishers including Hachette, Pan Macmillan and Hardie Grant, where she was Managing Director of Hardie Grant Egmont, one of Australia’s leading independent children’s publishers.
Annabel’s background is in international rights and she has negotiated co-editions, English and translation rights and film and TV deals for some of Australia’s best children’s writers and illustrators. Recently she launched her own agency, and now represents Australian children’s and young adult books into all markets.
Emma has been working as Rights, Contracts and International Sales Manager at Hachette Australia & New Zealand since 2019, however her career in rights began as an assistant at HarperCollins UK in 2014. Since her return to Australia she has worked at both multinational and independent Australian publishing houses, and counts herself lucky to have represented a wide range of incredible adult and children’s books from Australian and New Zealand creators.
She has attended Frankfurt, London, Bologna and Shanghai Children’s International Book Fairs, and most recently has visited publishers across New York as part of a Creative Australia delegation. Her focus includes film and audiobook licensing, as well as rights-sales and distribution across English language markets, and due to a long-distant degree in Modern Languages she has always held a particular fascination for translation publishing. Emma feels very fortunate to have the chance to share Hachette ANZ’s stunning, thought-provoking, beautiful and memorable books with the world.
Marika Webb-Pullman is the Australian publisher at Scribe Publications, one of Australia’s key independent publishing houses, where she oversees a list that includes literary fiction, narrative nonfiction, and projects in translation. Marika has been working in publishing and online media for more than fifteen years, across roles in marketing, editorial, and digital strategy. Before joining Scribe, she was the marketing and subscriptions manager at Crikey.
Since its inception in 1998, the VIPs program has welcomed 297 international guests to Australia, from 30 countries, with more than 300 Australian titles sold into overseas markets through the program. These titles include Fight Like a Girl by Clementine Ford, The Patchwork Bike by Maxine Beneba Clarke, Boy Swallows Universe by Trent Dalton, The Dark Lake by Sarah Bailey, Scrublands by Chris Hammer, I Love Me by Sally Morgan and Ambelin Kwaymullina, Do Not Lick This Book by Idan Ben-Barak, Jasper Jones by Craig Silvey, The Secret River by Kate Grenville, The Weather Makers by Tim Flannery, The Book Thief by Markus Zusak, The Broken Shore by Peter Temple, and Picnic at Hanging Rock by Joan Lindsay.
Click here to view the VIPs alumni.
In 2017, we completed a five-year longitudinal evaluation of the VIPs program from 2011-2016, which included a survey of Australian publishers and agents. The report is available here.
The evaluation revealed that:
- For every $1 we invest in the VIPs program, $5.45 is generated for the Australian literature sector – a 445% return on investment.
- More than $4.1 million in rights sales was reported over the five years ($3.8 million in direct sales to VIPs who attended, and a further $300,000 in indirect sales through referrals from VIPs to other international publishers).
- Participation in the VIPs program in 2016 accounted for 15% of all rights sales for Australian publishers.
In 2020, in partnership with Macquarie University and the Copyright Agency, Creative Australia released a research report, Success Story: International rights sales of Australian-authored books 2008– 2018. The research highlights the growth of Australian books in international markets, and the huge potential of international sales to the Australian publishing industry.
Findings included:
- In the decade from 2008-2018, rights to Australian literature were sold into 92 different territories, with Australian-authored books translated into 70 languages. The number of absolute deals also increased.
- Children’s titles, including picture books and those aimed at younger readers, made up more than half of all rights deals.
- Chinese translations accounted for the highest number of translations (14%), highlighting the importance of the Chinese language market.
- International rights sales provide vital revenue to Australian writers and the wider book publishing industry.
Success Story represents the first time that international rights sales for Australian literature have been mapped and quantified in this way, revealing an important market that can be leveraged for further success. You can read more here.
Contact
For more information on the VIPs program, please contact Karen Le Roy on 02 9215 9054 or
karen.leroy@creative.gov.au.