Late August in Barcelona always carries a strange dual energy. The city is still holding onto the last heavy heat of summer, but if you work in publishing, your internal clock has already flipped to autumn. The industry is waking up, inboxes are springing back to life, and the Wild Goose Agency is officially back in full swing.
Right now, my days are entirely consumed by the logistics and the magic of preparing for the Frankfurt Book Fair. Preparing a rights list for FBF is an intense process of curation. You are taking months (sometimes years) of an author's life, blood, and sweat, and distilling it into a single, razor-sharp pitch that can cut through the noise of the busiest publishing event in the world.
But the best part of the frantic pre-fair season is the material itself.
Rather than being stacked high with endless paperwork, my desk currently holds a small, fiercely curated selection of new projects that are absolutely brilliant. There is a profound privilege in being the first person to read a manuscript and instantly knowing it is something special. These select few new titles—ranging from high-concept literary fiction that explores the deeply hidden parts of the human psyche, to memoirs written with shattering honesty—are some of the most inspiring works I have ever represented. They are stories with absolute heart and unshakeable authenticity.
The rights list is locked, the pitches are polished, and the bags will be packed before I know it. If you are an acquiring editor heading to Frankfurt this October, keep an eye out for the Wild Goose catalogue—you are going to want to read these.