I am very excited to be back with season 3 of the Make Books Travel podcast. I took a two-month break from recording, one of which I spent on the road, in Europe. I actually had in-person meetings again, and drinks, and dinners, meeting publishers in Amsterdam, at the Frankfurt Book Fair, and in Paris. It was amazing!
Today’s guest, Stella Soffia Jóhannesdóttir, had the pleasure of hosting one of the few in-person fellowships of this year, back in September, in her capacity as director of the Reykjavík International Literary Festival. Besides this role, she is also acquisitions editor for Storytel in Iceland.
I did some homework in preparation for my interview with Stella, and found that Storytel currently has 1.7 million subscribers in 25 markets with around 700,000 titles globally. Those numbers are quite mind-boggling!
- Cemetery of the Sea by Aslak Nore (Aschehoug, Norway; forthcoming in English with MacLehose Press)
- The Mark by Fríða Ísberg (Forlagið, Iceland; not yet sold to an English language publisher to date as far as we can tell)
- The Snow Sister by Maja Lunde (Kagge, Norway; not yet sold to an English language publisher to date as far as we can tell)
Stella Soffía Jóhannesdóttir is the director of the Reykjavík International Literary Festival and acquisitions editor for Storytel in Iceland. Prior to working for Storytel, Stella worked in acquisitions for Forlagið. Stella was a part of the team that organized Iceland, Guest of Honour at the Frankfurt Book Fair in 2011 and she has been working for the Reykjavík International Literary Festival since 2009. She lives in Reykjavík, Iceland.
- Translation subsidies and travel grants from Iceland: https://www.islit.is/en/grants/
- General information about the fellowship program of the Reykjavík International Literary Festival: https://bokmenntahatid.is/en/reykjavik-fellowship-program-2021/
- Christmas Book Catalogue: bokatidindi.is
S3 E9: A Close Look at the Romanian Publishing Market with Ana Lotts-Nicolau
S3 E8: Agent Yasmina Jraissati on Selling Arabic Literature Internationally
S3 E7: The Place of Literary Agents in France: An Interview with Sophie Langlais
S3 E6: Les Argonautes Founder Katharina Loix Van Hooff on Making European Literature Travel to France
S3 E5: The Australian Publishing and Bookselling Landscape: An Interview with Penny Hueston
S3 E4: A Close Look at the Finnish Publishing Market with Outi Karemaa
S3 E3: Amélie Louat on Leaving International Publishing to Open an Indie Bookstore
S3 E2: Looking at the Japanese Publishing Market with Manami Tamaoki
S2 E22: A Discussion with Edward Nawotka, international and bookselling editor at Publishers Weekly
S2 E21: Author, Translator, Publisher Lawrence Schimel on Book Hunting and Much More
S2 E20: An Interview with Astra Magazine's Editor-in-Chief Nadja Spiegelman
S2 E19: Marie Vinter on Danish Publishing & Starting Vinter Forlag
S2 E18: A Deep Dive into the Audiobook Market with Lance Fitzgerald
S2 E17: Prashant Pathak on Weathering the Pandemic in India and Publishers Without Borders
S2 E16: Natalia Poleva on the Current State of the Russian Publishing Market
S2 E15: Sherif Bakr Discusses the Latest Developments in the Egyptian Publishing Industry
S2 E14: Challenging the Amazon Empire: Bookshop.org Founder & CEO Andy Hunter
S2 E13: Being an Acquisitions Editor in the Educational Publishing Market: A Conversation with Allison Scott
S2 E12: An Interview with Deborah Kaufmann, VP of Literary Affairs at Legendary Entertainment
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