MY MOTOVUN GROUP SCHOLARSHIP – Nina Zitko

FIRST SCHOLARSHIP
I came by one of the most valuable experiences in my professional life – the Motovun Group scholarship – by a stroke of luck. Mr Slavko Pregelj, a highly esteemed figure in Slovene publishing world, wrote to the MKZ management with information that Motovun Group were offering their first scholarship and if the MKZ had a staff member who would meet the application conditions. Fortunate for me, I was the one selected by our management. Moreover, the Motovun Group liked my CV. My journey to Sweden had begun.  

THE MEETING BEGINS AT HOME
My journey started in Ljubljana as I had to prepare appropriately for it. In all honesty, I was extremely nervous as I knew I was meeting highly experienced publishing experts. The most difficult task was to prepare the list of the titles to present there – should I choose the ones I work on and love very much or the ones which were a safe bet on becoming successful abroad? The list was endless. After being helped by the extremely patient Silke Bruenink, I successfully came up with a shortlist. The selected books were accompanied by their summaries in English (after all, you couldn’t help yourself very much with Slovene, right?), numerous catalogues and other commercial materials, adorned with cute dinosaurs, created by our most successful author abroad, Lila Prap, whom you’ll be meeting this year. Prior to my arrival, I was in touch with several publishers to plan our meetings. Even though we had all been presented with the programme in advance I never imagined our meetings would be so pleasant.

SIGTUNA
Workwise, the days spent with the Motovun Group were very intense, yet relaxed. The programme was so well prepared not a minute went to waste (John Wallace managed the work tempo extremely well). The major part of our work day were meetings between publishers, broken up by lectures (e.g. on publishing in Sweden and the Arab world), workshops (the topic on tackling the recession related problems was a very welcome one) and short trips. The work rhythm was very intense from dawn till dusk, yet the meetings were carried out in a calm, almost familial atmosphere, also due to our location – the lovely town of Sigtuna and the idyllic, parador-like hotel, where we were well looked after. 
The days spent there were priceless; I learnt a lot about publishing in different parts of the world and had a look at bestsellers from all over the globe on the spot. Some publishers have already cooperated with Mladinska knjiga, and others definitely will in the future, as most of our programme is covered with purchased publishing rights. At the same time, I hope the Motovun Group will become even more interested in our authors of picture books and other original literature.

COOPERATION
I have stayed in valuable contact with Barbara Schwepke, Silke Bruenink, Cristina Galimberti, John Beaufoy and John Wallace. Our young adult literature could benefit from future cooperation with publishing house Oetinger, among others. As Peter Tomšič, the Chairman of the Board of the Mladinska knjiga Group, is to become your member, our cooperation will, no doubt, become even more fruitful.  

NINA ŽITKO
Vodja programa

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