Forever Young

The excitement in Barbara Koenig's cheery voice is palpable.  "The last two weeks have been crazy here!" says Koenig, editor-in-chief at Carlsen Verlag.  "It seems unreal."

It's easy to see why she's thrilled.  If you were looking for a successful publishing house to copycat, you could hardly do better than Carlsen Verlag.  The publisher, part of Bonnier Media Deutschland, is the German home to two of the book world's biggest phenomena, the Harry Potter series and the Twilight series.  Mimics should take heed, though -- it takes more than imitation to sniff out the next big publishing hit. 

"Everybody's copying the Twilight rage at the moment. Half of me is like, 'Whoa, what a compliment,' and half of me is like, 'People, that's so boring! How can you do that?'" laughs Koenig. 

Still, you can't blame them for trying.  In the beginning of February 2009, Carlsen managed the astonishing feat of taking the top spots on Der Spiegel's hardcover and paperback lists— hitting number 1 on the hardcover list with New Moon [Bis(s) zur Mittagsstunde], Book 2 of Stephenie Meyer's vampire series for young adults, and grabbing the number 1 slot on the paperback list with Twilight [Bis(s) zum Morgengrauen], Book 1.  With 1.5 million German-edition Twilight books sold to date, Carlsen has cemented its position as a publisher with a nose for what the people want to read.

Twilight’s success comes hot on the heels of their market domination with Harry Potter, J.K. Rowling's immensely popular young adult series about an orphaned teen wizard who discovers he’s destined to save the world from evil.  Since the initial publishing of Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone [Harry Potter und der Stein der Weisen] in 1998, Carlsen has sold approximately 30 million German-edition Harry Potter books.  That number includes all 7 books in the series and 600,000 copies of The Tales of Beedle the Bard [Die Märchen von Beedle dem Barden], whose author royalties go to support the Children's High Level Group, a charity co-founded by Rowling that cares for children in Eastern European residential institutions.

Harry Potter was not Carlsen's first foray into young-adult crossover fiction.  In 1998, they published Andreas Steinhöfel's The Center of the World [Die Mitte der Welt], packaging the all-ages novel in an adult way.  Koenig considers it Carlsen's first crossover title.  "That was a good success—not a great success, but a good success," she says.

That same year, Harry Potter became the game changer—the first children's book to have mass appeal with adults. Carlsen's Klaus Humann took a risk, snatching the series away from several other interested parties by buying the first three novels in the series, even though the second and third were not yet written. "There is an easy answer for the question of why an adult audience reads children's or young adult books—the books have universal themes like love, or family conflict.  That's interesting for adults as well as young people.  But I think nobody has the answer to the phenomenon of Harry Potter." The series has completely changed the booksellers' landscape, giving dignified adults permission to wander into every bookstore's young readers section in search of great reading.

The unparalleled (and unexpected) success became a turning point in Carlsen's history.  "Carlsen grew with Harry Potter," says Koenig.  "Before the great success of Harry Potter, we were around 40 people working here.  Now it's 100." 

Carlsen soon followed up their Harry Potter success with Twilight, another hit series that has managed to capture the hearts of millions around the world.  Though the romance between beautiful teenage Bella and her vampire love Edward remains suitably chaste, their relationship seethes with an all-consuming, age-appropriate passion.  Carlsen decided to package the young readers romance series in an adult way.  The covers feature a pale young woman obscured by watery shadows, her eyes closed and dreaming.  "People were like, this looks so different, in the children's department and the bookstores.  You couldn't overlook it," explained Koenig. 

Having captured two of the most popular crossover collections of our time, you'd think Carlsen had a formula for picking a winner.  Though clearly intuition and instinct play a role, Koenig won't take all the credit.  "I think as a publisher, as an editor, you have a feel if something will be successful or not.  Klaus Humann had that feeling for Potter, I had that feeling for Twilight.  But I think you can never know beforehand that something will go off like that.  I mean, I was sure that Twilight would sell well—I can only speak for myself, not Klaus—and I was sure that we would sell 10,000, but after that, it's luck."

Moreover, she doesn't want the blockbuster success of the two series to overshadow Carlsen's steady stream of accomplishments, including capturing 50 percent of the manga (Japanese comic book) market in Germany.  She explains, "We're successful in many areas.  It isn't like we only have Potter, or we only have Twilight, or only the fiction section is successful, and that's very helpful to know for your everyday work.  We don't have to rely on one thing only, and if it's over, we're desperate."

Being part of a group that values catalog diversity helps. Hartmut Jedicke, CEO of Bonnier Media Deutschland, says, "We do not only make single books; we make programs for whole publishing companies."  Bonnier Media Deutschland's publishing profiles include a nourishing mix of important books and titles that sell.

"That's what I like about the Bonnier Group.  We aren't hindered in being individuals and being different," says Koenig.  "My first priority is always, is it a good book or not?  And then my second question is, does it fit into the program; if not, can I make it fit?" 

Betting types might want to place their money on Carlsen for 2009, since Koenig believes this will be a Twilight year.  The first film topped the box office in January, the fourth and final installment of the book series hit shelves in February, and the second film is being released in December.

Koenig is also looking forward to the debut of Graceling, a new novel by fantasy author Kristine Cashore.  "It's already published in the U.S., and has had rave reviews.  People are catching on that it has a very high potential to sell, but as I said, you never know.  But I'm hoping for good numbers."

In addition to Carlsen Verlag, the Bonnier Media Deutschland group includes arsEdition, BuchVertrieb Blank, Piper Verlag, Thienemann Verlag, and Ullstein Buchverlage.