New Books in German

Interview with Arena Verlag’s Bianca Kuchenbrod

September is #WorldKidLitMonth, celebrating literature from around the world for young people, particularly in translation. To join in these celebrations, Claire Storey spoke to Bianca Kuchenbrod from German children’s publisher Arena Verlag.

©Frankfurter Buchmesse, Pernille Starck

Based in Würzburg, Bianca Kuchenbrod is Senior Rights Manager for Arena Verlag, having started her publishing journey with a BA in Applied Foreign Languages; she speaks German, French and English as well as a bit of Spanish. On completion of her BA, Bianca headed to Paris where she studied Book Promotion and Marketing. She gained valuable experience through a summer job with the Frankfurt Buchmesse and a short internship with New Books in German. Bianca tells me she has now been with Arena for seven years and is involved in selling rights to English-speaking territories alongside the Baltics, Ukraine, Vietnam, Thailand and Indonesia, as well as co-editions and permissions – plenty to keep her busy!

In 2024, Arena has been celebrating 75 years of publishing. They have books for all kids and teenager age groups from 0 to 16, so I asked Bianca to introduce me some of their books and characters. Their popular picture books for the youngest readers include bold characters like The Strawberry Fairy, The Little Unicorn Finya Brightstar and Sam the Ram and they work on an exclusive basis with creators such as Stefanie Dahle and Andreas Schmachtl. Arena has seen success in the 2023 German Children’s Literature Prize with Karlchen – Charlie – a story book series by creators Lisa-Marie Dickreiter, Andreas Götz and Barbara Scholz. Success can also be measured through sales longevity and the middle grade character Lotta, created by Alice Pantermüller and Daniela Kohl, has now been going strong for over twelve years, with over twenty books in the series and rights sold to 35 languages.

Enjoying a particular comeback in Germany are books for teens and young adults, which less than a decade ago were suffering a sad decline. Along with this increased growth has also come the New Adult category of books, aimed towards the older end of the target group, often incorporating a rather steamier, romantic element that would be too much for a Young Adult audience. Bianca tells me that notable successes here include Today I’ll Talk to Him by Bianca Wege where the first volume made it to the Spiegel Best-Seller List and for young adults, The Ruby Circle Trilogy by Jana Hoch, two volumes of which made it onto the Spiegel Best-Seller List. Another of their YA titles, Die Tasche by Houssein Kahin and Kornelia Wald was recognised in the award for diversity The Vielfalter Literature Prize.

For this upper age group in particular, social media – Tiktok (Booktok), Instagram (Bookstagram), online influencers – has a massive impact on readership and sales and it’s vital for a company like Arena to engage with readers across these platforms. Interesting also is that the influence of such platforms is not limited only to new books, but also applies to their backlist, with older books like Ruby Red by Kerstin Gier now being “rediscovered” and shared online.

From World Kid Lit’s annual publications list, I could see that in 2024, around 10% of the books published in translation come from Germany and the German-speaking world – some 14 of around 140 books this year. I was interested to hear how this fits in with Arena’s experiences of selling rights into the English-speaking market.

©Arena Verlag

After a Masters in Book Promotion and Marketing in Paris and a maternity leave cover at the foreign rights department of Oetinger Verlag, Bianca Kuchenbrod started out as rights assistant at the foreign rights department of Arena Verlag in 2017 and now works as Senior Rights Manager in charge of English-speaking territories, the Baltics, Ukraine, Vietnam, Thailand, and Indonesia and co-editions for all countries. She participated in the Frankfurt Fellowship 2021/2022.

In a sentiment that echoes discussions I have had with other publishers in other parts of the world, Bianca tells me that selling rights into English-speaking territories can be tough. She cites one US publisher who told her it is challenging to publish international authors, “even if they have sold over one million copies in their home country”. And in Bianca’s opinion, it seems access to English-speaking editors has become more difficult after the pandemic. With so much competition, how do you make sure your book lands on the right person’s submissions pile and get them to look at it?

That saying, Arena Verlag has had some notable successes. Ruby Red by Kerstin Gier (published 10 years ago by Henry Holt: is their longest-running seller in translation, translated into English by the late great Anthea Bell. I was also keen to hear more about The Woodwalkers series by Katja Brandis with volumes 1-3 available in English translation from Arctis Books, translated by Rachel Ward. In Germany, this series has six books in the main series, six books in the second season, a spin-off series called The Seawalkers with a further six books. There’s also The Woodwalkers and Friends, The Seawalkers and Friends, the Walkers series have been sold into over 20 territories and the first film is currently in production – phew! I asked Bianca how the English translation of The Woodwalkers came about: “For Arctis, I knew the German-language sister company and saw they were doing English-language books. I started connecting with them, we started talking about our best-sellers and it went from there.”

For younger readers too, Edinburgh-based Floris Books opened its arms to Evie the Strawberry Fairy by Stefanie Dahle, and Katja Alves and Andrea Stegmaier’s interactive 10 Little Owls Don’t Want to Go to Bed! (Time for Bed, Little Owls! translated by Polly Lawson). For Bianca, she thinks that sometimes it is easier to place picture books in other territories as “the pictures tell the story, so they are easier to share.”

arena-zehn-kleine-eulen-wollen-nicht-schlafen

Katja Alves

10 kleine Eulen wollen nicht schlafen / 10 Little Owls Don't Want to Go to Bed

Arena

Katja Brandis

Holly's Secret - Book 3 of The Woodwalkers

Arctis Books

Jana Hoch

The Ruby Circle

Arena

Our conversation turned to funding and support, discussing the merits and importance of organisations and events like the Frankfurt Book Fair and the Goethe Institut. According to Bianca, Frankfurt is very much still “The place to go!” to meet people. Frankfurt Connect, the book fair’s digital platform, has made it easier to see who is going to be there, find contacts and understand their interests. The Goethe Institut, of course, still plays an important role in funding translations from German into English with my own translation of Rüdiger Betram’s The Path (Dedalus Books, November 2024) recently securing partial funding from the Goethe Institut. The Path was one of the last children’s books listed on NBG and Bianca and I both recognised the loss of the inclusion of children’s books in the NBG recommendations. Anecdotally at least, this sort of funding currently appears to be more difficult to acquire, which causes its own difficulties when searching for a home for translated books in English.

As our conversation came to a close, I asked Bianca about the future. With a raft of exciting new releases – such as the Fantasy middle grade series The Key Keepers by Tanja Voosen, the new football series Team Campus by Su Turhan published in cooperation with FC Bayern Munich, as well as the sequel Today I’ll Steal his Heart by Bianca Wege and the final instalment of The Ruby Circle by Jana Hoch – the overall message from Arena Verlag is that the outlook for German children’s publishing is a pretty optimistic one.

Claire Storey translates from German, Spanish and Catalan into English, specialising in middle grade and young adult literature. In 2021/22, she was awarded funding from Arts Council England for a successful translation and pitching project. Claire acts as an international book scout in this field, seeking out and presenting suitable German, Spanish and Catalan-language books to English-speaking publishers. She volunteers in schools talking about careers with languages and was named Outreach Champion 2021 by the Institute of Translation and Interpreting. https://clairestoreylanguages.co.uk/

This interview initially appeared on the New Books in German website at New Books in German – New Books in German promotes German-language literature for translation into English (new-books-in-german.com)