Frankfurt’s Virus-Proof Special Edition

You can’t judge a book by the cover. – Bo Diddley

For the past twenty years or so, the Frankfurt Book Fair has been obliged to widen its focus from physical books to the content industry’s other segments, including movies and the internet. As a rights trading platform and a significant cultural event, the fair has always reflected the shifts in audiences that the book industry confronts in its intrinsically diverse markets and segments. And yet, once every year, by its sheer size and the concentration of diverse cultural influences, this gathering place of cosmopolitan dimensions casts a magic spell that keeps attracting book professionals as much as their audience. Not only for the business or the string of literary events but also the general atmosphere, the buzz, and the must-be-there experience.

The book industry is perhaps the only industry that is genuinely female-dominated. Frankfurt is female-dominated. I’m not talking about the pretty faces hired to adorn the usual sales events with all due respect. I’m talking about an industry in which women occupy a large part of the key positions in management, creation, editing, research, production, marketing, and sales. With all that women still have to fight for in society, and also in this business, that changes the face of an industry, the flair of such a gathering – the very nature and human aspect of business relationships.

Thanks to the ongoing pandemic, we had none of this – this year. Not even the ‘hybrid’ online solution that was to complement a thinned-out physical gig. Sure, the virtual ‘Special Edition’ kept participants connected. LitAg, Weltempfang, Arts+, Bookfest and most of the fair’s other features had their adapted online version, including interactive real-time sessions with speakers such as Edward Snowden, Margaret Atwood, Leila Slimani, and many others. Professional exchanges included presentations by Barnes & Noble CEO James Daunt and HarperCollins India CEO Ananth Padmanabhan.

In the usual collaboration with German TV station ARD, but without a live audience, sixty literary panels were held at the fairgrounds, in the renovated Festhalle building, and broadcast on TV and the internet. A total of 260 hours of masterclasses, conferences, and talks with more than 750 speakers could be followed during live streams or Zoom sessions or on YouTube and various web links that can still be accessed for the next six months. 

But it’s something else to sit and watch behind a computer screen instead of being part of a large international gathering in constant movement, with its informal meetings, networking, business dinners and private parties. If Frankfurt’s Special Edition has shown us one thing, it’s the fact that, eventually, we cannot function without physical interaction. And that we have to refuse the ‘new normal’ trap that some are already trying to make palatable to us. We have to do everything to protect ourselves and others in the age of viral pandemics, but we must find a way to do away with the economic conditions causing their ‘normality.’

The virtual rights platform

For ‘exhibitors,’ particularly new and small publishers or other international rights traders, the fair’s virtual edition offered an opportunity to be ‘present’ on the digital platform for free, even though their impact may be considered questionable. The online international rights and license trade platform registered more than 4,000 activated seller and buyer accounts with some 31,000 titles on offer, adding to the 400,000 titles already listed on the Frankfurt Rights catalog. (Good luck browsing through the mass!) From India, FICCI, and FBF’s GBO, Delhi had compiled a catalog of 25 new titles by 14 publishers, whereas HarperCollins India, Taylor&Francis India, and others presented their own lists.

The virtual insights

In a ‘Market Insights’ series of 50-minute videos, publishers discussed trends in ten book markets: China, Brazil, Russia, Indonesia, USA, UK, Germany, Spain, Slovenia, and Finland. Additional videos dealt with the African book market and focal country, Canada. In a video conference on South Asia, Angela Albert, project director at GBO Delhi, moderated the discussion with publishers from Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Nepal, Pakistan, and Sri Lanka. Their presentations, accessible on YouTube, mainly dealt with their respective experiences during the Covid-pandemic, showing that the various lockdown measures created enormous distribution challenges but also led to increased book sales through the internet. All the speakers have been compelled to intensify using the so-called social media to present and sell their publications.

When we look at the numbers, out of the 7,000 exhibitors signing up for the book fair every year, 800 from 40 countries had reserved a booth by the time the fair’s physical manifestation was canceled in August. For the virus-proof special edition, 4,422 publishers, literary agents, and service providers from 103 countries registered as online exhibitors. On the three trade visitor days, 148,000 users from 183 countries used the fair’s digital offerings. More than 2,000 trade visitors used the curated Matchmaking Tool, which remains available on the FBF website.

Even though the Covid-pandemic has not been fair to the fair, FBF director Jürgen Boos concluded, “In a year in which trade fairs all over the world have been taking place either in a hybrid format or only digitally, we managed to bring the international book industry together for a few days. We wanted to use our offerings to support the digital rights business, serve as a showcase for new titles from numerous countries, and offer networking possibilities for a range of industry experts and publishing professionals. With our live-streamed events taking place at the digital Weltempfang, on the ARD Book Fair stage, and the African Perspectives Symposium organized by Litprom and KfW Stiftung, we reached literature lovers from all over the world.”

The next Frankfurt Book Fair, hopefully back to normal, is to be held 20-24 October 2021. The Canadian book industry will be the Guest of Honor, hopefully in person as well.   

Frankfurt Book Fair Performance 2015-2019 (Source: FBF/IppStar)