Translating Success: The Role of Book Scouts in Children's Publishing

Join us for a deep dive into book scouting for children’s books! This in-depth webinar will explore the fascinating and dynamic field of literary scouting—a key part of the translation rights business. Whether you're a budding industry professional or a seasoned translation rights veteran, this session will provide you with valuable insights into the role of a book scout.

What You’ll Learn:

• What is Book Scouting?

Discover the role of book scouts in the international children’s book publishing ecosystem. Learn how scouts work with local editors, literary agents, rights teams, as well as co-agents in foreign markets, to curate lists that match the tastes and needs of their foreign publisher clients. Hear how scouts identify, follow, and report on emerging trends, recommend titles for translation, and connect books with editors and publishers. 

• Skills and Experience

What does it take to be a successful book scout? We’ll discuss the qualifications needed to enter this specialized field, including skills in market analysis, language proficiency, literary knowledge, and the ability to spot future bestsellers!

• A Year in the Life of a Book Scout

Get a behind-the-scenes view into what a typical year looks like for a book scout, season by season. From attending international book fairs to the year-round prep and follow up for those fairs, you’ll learn about the responsibilities, challenges, and rewards that come with this unique career.

• Current Trends and What’s Ahead

Learn about the trends that have shaped recent translation rights deals, along with emerging trends that are likely to influence children’s book publishing in the coming years.

Who Should Attend:

• Aspiring book scouts, literary agents, and foreign rights professionals in international children's book publishing markets.
• Publishers and editors interested in acquiring and publishing books that will succeed worldwide.
• Anyone with an interest in how international literary markets operate — for any type of title — Children’s and/or Adult.

Join us for an insightful overview of book scouting, as we uncover the influential match-making role that scouts play in the chain of events that connect books with readers in multiple languages around the world.

Don’t miss out on this opportunity to gain insider knowledge from industry experts!

• Our Webinar Panelists:

CAMILLA BORTHWICK worked as a Rights professional for over 20-years, establishing a wide and extensive network of colleagues and friends in the children’s book business, selling U.S. and translation rights to publishers all over the world. Four years with the Hachette UK Children’s Rights team were followed by five years in New York at HarperCollins Children’s Books in the rights department. After moving back to the UK, Camilla spent ten years in the Puffin/Penguin Random House Children’s Rights team, most recently as Head of Rights. In 2019, she joined Sylvie Zannier Literary Scouting as a maternity cover and is still scouting five years later. Camilla scouts Children’s/YA titles originating mostly from the UK and Australia, working on behalf of a set of YA and Children’s book publishers who translate into Finnish, French, German, and Italian. 

After attending Kenyon College, RACHEL HECHT lived in London and worked in a genre bookshop on Charing Cross Road before relocating to New York. There, she fell in love with the international side of book publishing while working in foreign rights at Anderson Literary Management and Foundry Media, where she was Foreign Rights Director for Children’s Books. Rachel served as children’s book scout at Mary Anne Thompson Associate's for seven years, fusing her passion for foreign rights and children’s literature as she sought to match the best English-language projects with a roster of international publisher and film clients. She founded Rachel Hecht Children’s Scouting in 2016, the first children’s and YA-focused scouting agency in the U.S., where she works with ten international publishers and two film/TV studios.

KRIS KLIEMANN, Kliemann & Company, LLC, advises global publishing companies on strategies for maximizing reach and revenue through rights, royalties, and new technologies. Previously, Kris was Vice President, Director, Global Rights, with Wiley, Inc., where she led an international team of sales, marketing, and operations professionals. From Penguin Random House and Hyperion/Disney, to Farrar, Straus & Giroux, Kris successfully negotiated and executed print and digital licensing agreements with a broad spectrum of global companies. Throughout her career, she achieved bottom line results managing editorial, branding, creative and marketing teams, as well as rights. Kris heads the Rights Committee for the Book Industry Study Group.