Amnesia by Douglas Anthony Cooper has a fascinating, and unusual publication history in Italy. Find out how a Canadian debut novel with some success, 25 years later end up with a new and successful Italian translation and a commitment from the Italian publisher to undertake more titles.

Amnesia by Douglas Anthony Cooper has a fascinating, and unusual publication history in Italy. 

This is Cooper’s debut novel, published in the early 90s by Random House (Hyperion). It’s set in Toronto and is about 2 people who meet in a mental hospital. I’m obviously underselling the book. It was shortlisted for the WH Smith Award and longlisted for the Commonwealth Prize.

The first Italian edition of Amnesia (the middle cover above) was published by a mid-sized company, Fanucci Editore (2000), The book had good success with a small, devoted audience, but Fanucci decided not to bet on this author. 

In the meantime Cooper published another novel in English (Delirium), never translated in Italian, and two other books still unpublished (one of them, Aphasia, is forthcoming with D Editore).

So what's the story? 

How does a Canadian debut novel with some success, 25 years later end up with a new and successful Italian translation and a commitment from the Italian publisher to undertake more titles?

Italian publisher D Editore re-issued Amnesia with a new translation (pictured above on right) and found success working with social media influencers around Italy. The below case study and interview emphasizes the importance of working with influencers with local expertise.

 

About D Editore

D Editore is an independent, innovative publishing house based in Ladispoli (outside of Rome). They publish 8-10 titles a year: half fiction, half non-fiction. http://deditore.com/

D Editore—founded in 2012 by Emmanuele Jonathan Pilia, Emidio Battipaglia, and Massimo Ercolani—has an unusual story in that none of the 3 founding members had a background in publishing. They were 3 designers coming from different areas of study, all design-related fields—from architecture and photography to graphic design. This has been advantageous to how they run the company, and how they develop their marketing plans and their approach to social media.

Indeed the company began as a crowdfunding campaign with the mandate to engage with contemporary issues that struggle to penetrate the public debate in Italy. 

Their non-fiction titles explore everything from big data and climate change to UFOs, all from a design and architectural perspective that creates bridges between disciplines. But that perspective is also brought to their fiction list. D Editore publishes contemporary writers who are innovative or controversial or have something to say.

Recent and upcoming titles: 

• Liquami by Dale Peck, Italian translation by Feltrinelli, is a novel about a boy living in an artist community in the southern US who explores his homosexuality. 
• Anarcocultism is an iconic text by Elisa Lagalisse, a Canadian historian, who looks at fascinating ways we can trace anarchistic and liberal roots through the history of the occult. 
• Disagiotopia, curated by Florencia Andreola addresses the crisis of urbanization and gentrification; the impact on contemporary city living.

About Amnesia

Amnesia is Cooper’s debut novel. It was published in the early 90s by Random House (Hyperion) to extravagant praise in North America (with comparisons to Nabokov, Genet, Calvino, and Margaret Atwood). 

Publishers Weekly (Mar 1994) said, “this fragmentary novel impresses with propulsive sentences that smolder and ignite, hallucinatory images and a lyrical exploration of the destructive effects of buried memories and family secrets.” 

This is a thematically wide-ranging novel that explores Freud, architecture, and corruption.

When it was first published in Italian by Fanucci Editore in 2000, the novel developed a small but faithful audience who were keen to read more of Cooper's work.

D Editore wanted to re-introduce Cooper to the Italian market but felt a new translation of Amnesia was the way to go. 

To release the new translation, D Editore created allies amongst that early fan base. Cooper's fans gave input into the planning of the book tour across Italy, in fact many of the book events were organized by these fans. 

About the Influencer Campaign for Amnesia

D Editore's history as a company started with a crowdfunding campaign, so the team understands the value of building long-term relationships with various influencers. In the case of Amnesia, many of the young men and women they worked with have different approaches to social media: some take photos, some contribute artwork, some write reviews, while others create sophisticated videos, and so on.

D Editore works with influencers who succeed in developing greater engagement with their local community. 

The number of fans an influencer has is less important than the number of interactions online and offline that they can generate.

Some of the selection criteria and considerations include:

• Engagement above audience size
• Values alignment, or audience fit
• Time on the platform, or sophistication of use
• Self-organizers with on-the-ground expertise/logistics
• Author access

On the right is an example of the list of influencers participating in author events for Douglas Anthony Cooper. 

D Editore was fortunate that Cooper was in Italy and committed to an extended stay, which was exceptionally fortunate, but D Editore really made the most of it by working with influencers who actively organized events.

For example: Francesca Zanette [influencer, photographer] played a crucial role in the book tour that brought Douglas Anthony Cooper to Northeastern Italy; in addition to solving some considerable logistical problems, Francesca managed to involve the local photography community in such a way that the launch she organized remains one of the most successful events organized outside D Editore’s region (Rome). 

All of that influencer activity attracted curiosity and led to requests for the author’s participation in various physical and virtual events. For example, Cooper was asked to serve as a judge for a small photographic contest, and [in this circumstance] was presented as “D Editore photographer and author.”

The lesson is to look for these serendipitous opportunities to reach different audiences: For D Editore with Amnesia, it was first with the fans who love the architectural references and then with those into writing and photography.

Lessons learned from marketing Amnesia

1. Start early. Scheduling reviews months in advance allowed D Editore to establish a certain brand authority and reputation in the market, which allowed time for the marketing efforts to build momentum and benefit from the snowball effect. 

2. Invest in non-traditional tactics. To get the book in front of as many readers as possible, D Editore pitched the title to bookshops but other potential venues for events as well. In this way they were able to extend the life cycle of the book, scheduling events beyond the traditional 3-4 month window. 

3. Be creative. It’s a crowded market. D Editore said there are more books than readers in Italy. So they have to be creative. They were able to capitalize on the exceptional circumstance of having a Canadian author in Italy for an indefinite amount of time. This is unusual and they were able to leverage that.

4. Look for success signals. D Editore removed the “foreignness” of this author by having the events organized by local influencers. D Editore, based in Rome, is an outsider in different parts of Italy as well. To enhance the appeal of the title, they focussed on carefully planning a variety of book launches and events; which in turn generated original content (videos, photos, illustrations, and personal narratives). All of which they used to keep the fan community engaged over a long period of time. Which is important because they have a forthcoming Cooper title. 

In summary

The main lesson from this influencer campaign is that a big breakout success does not come from a single influencer or author event. Publishers need a steady drumroll over several months to create that cumulative effect; and gain traction in the market.

Just like in Canada, the partnerships are important, especially with influencers who can engage directly with their fans and bring their reputation and credibility to the conversation. 

For Canadian publishers delving deeper into their own backlists looking for right opportunities for audiobooks, consider that there may be good translation opportunities as well.

If you're interested in more about D Editore and how they came to publish Douglas Anthony Cooper, check out our guest editor Alessandra Bordini's interview with D Editore publisher and managing editor, Emmanuele Jonathan Pilia.