Hello from our home offices!
Bonnier Rights Sweden is currently in our 11th week working from home, and it doesn’t look as if we’ll be seeing our much-missed offices at Sveavägen for a while. We’re by now all old hands at the various digital meeting platforms and any inhibition we may have harboured about inviting industry professionals into our (messy) homes via Teams or Zoom has completely gone – I’ve had videoconferences interrupted by wifi-outages, barking dogs, children (sometimes clothed, sometimes not), and watched the odd cat do their mid-afternoon toilette in full view of the camera. I may have even been the cause of some of those disruptions…
The question remains: how do we best do our jobs in this time in the industry of no face-to-face meetings, and if we can’t travel? I’ve worked in the industry for nearly 15 years and it’s not a question we’ve ever considered, as so much of the selling and buying of rights has to do with us agents showing up in editors’ offices, wherever they may be. Some aspects of an agent’s job–considering new manuscripts, managing submissions or negotiating contracts– actually work better from home (see, there’s the silver lining) but the real life meetings between authors, editors and agents just can’t be replaced by a video conference. I miss my fellow book nerds, basically!
The way we sell rights has hardly changed in the last 50 years, perhaps apart from exchanging paper manuscripts for pdfs (I don’t miss the bundles of printed manuscripts we had to bring to book fairs when I started out – yes, I’m that old) and that we don’t ever get any offers by fax these days (gathering around the fax in-tray in the mornings, those were the days), but suddenly we need to reinvent the way we do business post haste. So many new business models and nifty solutions will come out of the lockdown, I’m sure – it’s all quite exciting!
So, what are we doing now? Personally, I’m planning for the worst (no work travel for a while yet) and hoping for the best (life will go back to something resembling normality post-summer), but truth be told I’m undulating between being super excited about the autumn season and our amazing list, and the next moment worrying what kind of book industry we will come back to once the lockdown is lifted. One thing is for sure, we’re using this time of slower working life to come up with brilliant ideas about how to get our exciting titles across to the right editors without going to see them, and I do think we’ll be the stronger for it once we are able to hit the road again.
While waiting to pack my passport and don my trusty travel shoes again, I’m going to enjoy my home office with its super relaxed dress code and my furry colleagues (our two Springer Spaniels are sleeping next to me as I write this). And another upside: our coffee at home is muuuch better than at work!
Hope to see you out there in the world soon, stay safe!
Elisabet
Literary agent
Some of our authors answered the question for the World Book Day 2020 and shared their most precious reading experiences with us.
Patrik Svensson, © Emil Malmborg
Patrik Svensson
‘As for many others, I believe, The Dwarf by Pär Lagerkvist was one of the first adult novels I really understood and was touched by. A book that made me realise what literature can be and do with you.’
Anders Hansen, © Stefan Tell
Anders Hansen
‘The book that has meant the most to me and to which I return every year is Tortilla Flat by John Steinbeck. I see it as a spot-on description of human nature, a sublime tribute to human existence that reminds us that life is not always dead serious.
Although the plot is straight forward, I discover new angles every time I read it. I plan to continue reading it regularly for the rest of my life. It has simply become like an old friend, and deep down, there’s nothing I’d rather do than to sit down at Danny’s table.’
Lina Wolff, © Gustav Bergman
Lina Wolff
‘Difficult question… Usually the books I liked the most were not the ones that changed my life the most, but others which sort of made me gain small but important insights. But for me, it was probably Patricia Highsmith’s short stories which had the most significant impact on my life, because they inspired me to try out writing for the first time. Not because I thought it was the best thing I’d ever read, but because she triggered my curiosity and pushed me to try for myself.’
Åsa Hellberg, © Anna-Lena Ahlström
Åsa Hellberg
‘There’s probably no book that changed my life as much as my own second book, Sonja’s Last Will. My whole life took another turn after that one.’
Stina Wirsén, © Maria Annas
Stina Wirsén
‘Barbro Lindgren’s books about Sparvel have left a strong impression on me, I love them as much now as I did when I was little. They are always with me and help me keep my inner child alive.’
Johan Anderblad, © Ulrica Zwenger
Johan Anderblad
‘Lars Ahlin, The Fruit of Your Life. Spending a summer with this tome in the late 1980’s – a little bit every night in a slow pace – changed my view on things and gave me multifaceted characters to mirror myself in. And a calm that I very much needed in those toddler years.’
Maria Frensborg, © Eva Lindblad
Maria Frensborg
‘I have to say, albeit a little reluctantly, Knausgård’s Season series, especially Spring. They gave me a new perspective after reading them, at least for a little while.’
We are so so pleased to announce that the limited tv-series based on SPOTIFY UNTOLD has been picked up by Netflix as a Netflix Original series! Yellow Bird UK/Banijay will produce, and Netflix will distribute and market the series, which will be made in Swedish and English and hopefully out in 2021. We’ll keep you updated!
Read Netflix’s press release here: https://media.netflix.com/en/press-releases/the-story-of-swedish-music-sensation-spotify-becomes-netflix-original-series
11 December 2019
THE STORY OF SWEDISH MUSIC SENSATION SPOTIFY BECOMES NETFLIX ORIGINAL SERIES
December 11 — Netflix today announced the untitled scripted series about the Swedish start-up that shook the entire music industry and evolved into becoming one of the world’s leading music services – Spotify. The limited series is inspired by the book ‘Spotify Untold’ by authors Sven Carlsson and Jonas Leijonhufvud – both business reporters at Swedish Dagens Industri – and will be produced by Yellow Bird UK, a Banijay Group company and the production company behind the upcoming Netflix series Young Wallander. Acclaimed Per-Olav Sørensen (Quicksand, Home for Christmas and Nobel) will be directing and Berna Levin (Young Wallander, Hidden and The Girl in the Spider’s Web) will serve as executive producer.
Tesha Crawford, Director of International Originals Northern Europe at Netflix: “The founding tale of Spotify is a great example of how a local story can have a global impact. We are really excited about bringing this success story to life and we look forward to continuing our great collaboration with director Per-Olav Sørensen and the team at Yellow Bird UK.”
At the height of piracy, established heavy-hitters were fighting against where the turbulent music industry was heading. The series centers around young Swedish tech entrepreneur, Daniel Ek, and his partner Martin Lorentzon, who revolutionized a whole industry by offering free and legal streamed music around the world. It is a story about how hard convictions, unrelenting will, access and big dreams can help small players challenge the status quo by evolving the way we can all listen to music.
“I’m thrilled to be making this timely and entertaining series for Netflix. The story of how a small band of Swedish tech industry insiders transformed music – how we listen to it and how it’s made – is truly a tale for our time. Not only is this a story about the way all our lives have changed in the last decade, it’s about the battle for cultural and financial influence in a globalised, digitised world,” says Berna Levin, Executive Producer, Yellow Bird.
“I am excited to bring the story of Sweden based Spotify to life on the screen. It is an ongoing fairytale in modern history about how Swedish wiz kids changed the music industry forever. The story is truly exciting and challenging. Challenging because the Spotify story has not ended yet – it is still running with high speed and will probably change while we work on the project. I am also happy to continue my cooperation with Netflix. The completely different projects we have done together so far really challenges me as a director, and I am looking forward to walk on yet an exciting path with Netflix,” says Per-Olav Sørensen.
The Swedish and English language series will be developed and produced by Yellow Bird UK, with Berna Levin serving as executive producer and Luke Franklin as producer. Per-Olav Sørensen, known for Quicksand, Home for Christmas and Nobel will be directing.
About Yellow Bird
Yellow Bird was established in 2003 with the production of Wallander, a crime series based on Swedish author Henning Mankell’s renowned novels about detective Kurt Wallander.
Today, Yellow Bird is one of the leading production companies in Europe, with entities in Sweden, Denmark, Norway and in the UK. Yellow Bird produces high-end drama for the Scandinavian and international markets, with a strong Nordic anchoring. This is evident in its track record with credits including the Millennium trilogy, Annika Bengtzon, Headhunters, Rebecka Martinsson and Occupied.
Since 2016, Yellow Bird has been a part of Banijay Group, one of the world’s largest independent producers and distributors of content.
About Netflix
Netflix is the world’s leading streaming entertainment service with over 158 million paid memberships in over 190 countries enjoying TV series, documentaries and feature films across a wide variety of genres and languages. Members can watch as much as they want, anytime, anywhere, on any internet-connected screen. Members can play, pause and resume watching, all without adverts or commitments.
Mari Jungstedt’s 15th book in the Gotland series, I SEE YOU, was published by Albert Bonniers Förlag on the 4th of June, 2019, and went straight up to the top of the list of bestselling books in Sweden. Earlier this year, Mari Jungstedt broke the mark of selling over 5 million copies of her books.
In June’s bestseller list, Mari Jungstedt’s books topped the four out of six bestseller lists, with I SEE YOU (Book #15) as the no1 in Hardback, E-book and Audio, while DARKNESS IN OUR MIDST (Book #14) is featured as no1 on the paperback list.
Click to find the full bestseller list here.
Linnea Axelsson’s powerful verse novel Aednan wins Norrlands Litteraturpris (Norrland’s Literature Award) for Fiction.
The book has previously won the August Prize for Fiction in 2018, Studieförbundet Vuxenskolan’s Fiction Award, Ordfront Award for Democracy, and Svenska Dagbladet Prize for Literature. It was also shortlisted for Swedish Radio’s Poetry Prize.
In Aednan, Linnea Axelsson narrates the story of three generations of two indigenous Sámi families in northern Sweden, whose fate mirrors Sámi history from the beginning of the twentieth century to the present day.
We join the struggling family as they herd their reindeer towards summer pasture on an island in northern Norway. None of them can imagine that soon enough the Norwegian border will be closed to them, that they will be forced from their home, and future generations will encounter altogether different challenges. Piece by piece, an emotional landscape emerges as the families lives are impacted by Sweden’s colonial policy.
The Sámi people are the indigenous pastoral people of the north, their lands spanning the far northern tips of Norway, Sweden, Finland and parts of Russia, and who traditionally make their living from herding reindeer.
Ædnan is the traditional northern Sámi word for ’land’, ’ground’, or ’earth’.
Patrik Svensson’s The Gospel of Eels, called the ‘book of the fair’ at the London Book Fair this spring, has now been sold to 32 territories.
The Gospel of the Eels is a remarkable exploration of the relationship between a father and son and their shared passion for eel fishing, woven together with an account of the cultural, mythological and scientific life of the world’s most mysterious and enigmatic fish. In a perfectly balanced and evocative narrative, written in alternating chapters, the reader learns both of the Svenssons’ complex father and son relationship through scenes of their eel catching adventures and of the development of humanity’s fascination with and knowledge of the fish itself, from Aristotle to Freud to the present.
See the full list of sales by going to Patrik Svensson’s author page, or search for The Gospel of Eels on our website.
The riveting non-fiction title SPOTIFY UNTOLD by tech journalists Sven Carlsson & Jonas Leijonhufvud has recently been sold to Diamond Inc in Japan, for a record-breaking advance in the agency’s history, to Business Books in Korea, as well as to Jan Melvil Publishing in the Czech Republic.
Called ”A riveting piece of modern history, written at the pace of a thriller by Lee Child.” by Susanne Ljung, host of the award-winning show Stil on Swedish Public radio, SPOTIFY UNTOLD is the previously untold story of the world’s largest music streaming platform.
In the vein of Mike Isaac’s Super Pumped: The Battle for Uber and Adam Lashinsky’s Inside Apple, investigative tech journalists Sven Carlsson and Jonas Leijonhufvud deliver a behind-the-scenes exposé of how the self-made prodigy Daniel Ek and his financial partner Martin Lorentzon would bet everything on the power of an idea, creating Sweden’s hottest start-up. Based on over 70 interviews, along with previously untapped sources, SPOTIFY UNTOLD is a David vs Goliath story about how strong convictions, unrelenting willpower and big dreams can help small players take on tech titans.
