Despite the first anti-Covid vaccination kick-offs, the year 2021 still looks very similar to its predecessor. Trade fairs continue to be canceled, rescheduled, and canceled again. The Frankfurt Book Fair is sticking to its traditional 5-day planning in October. Still, its organizers are cautious and well-prepared for either staging a combined physical and digital event or skipping the physical show for its online-only version.
Leipzig Buchmesse cancels 2021
Other book fairs are working on different approaches to the uncertainties of this year’s health crisis, each in their own way. Due to a number of earlier postponements, the months of May and June are still on the agenda for a series of major book fairs, but the question is whether the tight scheduling hasn’t been too optimistic. Germany’s second-largest book fair, Leipzig Buchmesse, recently canceled its 2021 edition scheduled for May to end the planning uncertainty for exhibitors and program participants. Nevertheless, its organizers hope that they can organize some selected literary events in May “to tide us over until March 2022”.
Brussels skips, Abu Dhabi, Paris, Bologna & Madrid still on
The Brussels Book Fair, Foire du Livre, decided to skip the event this year and instead organize small literary gatherings in the streets during May. The Abu Dhabi International Book Fair is still planned as a physical event from 23 to 29 May. The Paris Book Fair, Livre Paris, is also still on from 28 to 31 May. So are the Bologna Children’s Book Fair scheduled for 14 to 17 June, and the London Book Fair, to be held 29 June to 1 July. Madrid’s Feria del Libro chose to anticipate by proposing two sets of dates for its 80th edition: 11 to 27 June, or, if not possible, 10 to 26 September.
Publishers Weekly’s first online Book Show
Hardly two months after Reed’s decision to send BookExpo into ‘retirement,’ US trade magazine Publishers Weekly announced it would launch a new publishing trade fair in New York, the US Book Show. Its first edition will be held online-only between 26 and 28 May 2021. Its programming will be limited to five hours per day to facilitate networking and pausing for booksellers, librarians, publishers, and literary agents from various time zones across the US and the world.
Even though Publishers Weekly has no prior experience in setting up trade fairs, it has a long history as the leading platform for the US book industry. Established in 1872 and subsequently owned by the RR Bowker Company, it was bought by Xerox in 1967 and by Reed in 1985, before its present owner, George Slowik’s PWxyz, took over in 2010 and partnered with Nielsen’s BookScan to optimize the magazine’s extensive book sales lists. Its international profile has since been expanded with its participation in the Global 50 publishers ranking and the creation of Pubmatch, a set of digital tools for international rights selling. Publishers Weekly has also been instrumental in the 2015 launch of the annual Global Kids Connect conference, taking place in December in New York in collaboration with the Bologna Children’s Book Fair.
