BookBrunch - A writer at the 2014 Bologna Book Fair

I ended the Fair as I really like to do with picking the brains of literary scout John McLay. He has already been quoted in Publishers WeeklyInternational news website of book publishing and bookselling including business news, reviews, bestseller lists, commentaries http://www.publishersweekly.com/ saying that this was "The year of the partial", the incomplete manuscript submitted by agents that gets a book deal. If this is true it will be a welcome development. One of these was The Imagination Box by Martyn Ford, to be published by Faber. Like many people John is seeing a resurgence in home-grown, "Middle Grade" fiction. As the description implies, is has largely been imported from the US in the past. Whereas our YA authors are still struggling to find a market overseas. There were "mini-trends" in books about suicide, witches and imaginary friends. And the sort of realistic YA that deals with illness, car crashes or love stories with obstacles. John doesn't agree that dystopias are over, though they are now "disguised dystopias". The market lags a bit behind publisher apathy, he says, and I've noticed that over several Fairs. Publishers have yawned about vampires or angels or dystopias while hungry teenage readers were still asking for more. We all came back exhausted and with our brains racing. So if you see titles from us next year mashing up witches, imaginary friends, suicide, car crashes, don't be surprised. Maybe we'll even sell them "on a partial".