Bologna fair — rights in focus
The 63rd Bologna Children’s Book Fair opened with more than 1,500 exhibitors and roughly 500 events, and industry panels immediately focused on rights, licensing and whether YA 'romantasy' or middle‑grade will drive deals. ( ). BolognaBookPlus also kicked off with seminars on options, shopping agreements and licensing for children’s titles. (publishingperspectives.com)
The 2026 Bologna Children’s Book Fair opened on Monday with rights trading, licensing talks, and format bets driving the first day’s agenda. (bolognachildrensbookfair.com; publishersweekly.com) The 63rd fair runs from April 13 to April 16 at the Bologna Exhibition Centre and brings together about 1,500 exhibitors from 90 countries for four days of meetings, programming, and awards. (publishersweekly.com; bolognachildrensbookfair.com) Italian coverage of the opening said the fair’s program includes roughly 500 events, alongside exhibitions, licensing activity, and international guests. Norway is this year’s guest of honor. (lanouvellevague.it; publishersweekly.com) In publishing, “rights” are the permissions that let one book become many products in many markets: a translation in Spain, an audiobook in Germany, or a television option in the United States. Bologna opened with that business front and center, not as a side event. (bolognachildrensbookfair.com; publishingperspectives.com) BolognaBookPlus, the fair’s general-trade arm launched in 2021 with the Italian Publishers Association, started its sixth edition this year and scheduled a half-day training course on April 12 called “How to Sell Rights and Understand Licensing in Children’s Books.” The official description said the session covered copyright basics and the steps of rights selling for publishers, agents, contracts staff, and self-published authors. (bolognachildrensbookfair.com; bolognachildrensbookfair.com) Publishers Weekly reported that agents, scouts, and rights directors arriving in Bologna were debating whether young adult “romantasy” still leads export demand or whether middle-grade fiction is regaining momentum. That puts category selection, not just individual titles, at the center of dealmaking. (publishersweekly.com) The fair’s structure helps explain that focus. Bologna Children’s Book Fair handles children’s and young adult publishing, BolognaBookPlus extends the event into general trade, and the Bologna Licensing Trade Fair adds television, film, gaming, and consumer-products conversations around children’s properties. (bolognachildrensbookfair.com; publishingperspectives.com) That rights-first approach has been building for years as Bologna expanded beyond illustrated books and school publishing into cross-media business. Publishing Perspectives wrote in a 2025 pre-fair roundup that the event now offers rights trading in both young readers’ books and adult fare through its BolognaBookPlus and licensing extensions. (publishingperspectives.com) The scale has also stayed high. Publishing Perspectives said the 2025 edition drew 33,318 publishing professionals and 1,577 exhibitors from 95 countries, giving this year’s buyers and sellers a large recent benchmark for international traffic. (publishingperspectives.com) So the opening-day signal from Bologna was less about one breakout book than about the machinery behind global children’s publishing: who controls rights, which formats travel, and which age category buyers think will move next. (publishersweekly.com; bolognachildrensbookfair.com)
