Frankfurt Book Fair 2015 busiest and most successful in years

Juergen Boos, director of the Book Fair, said, “The new neighbourhoods created by the restructuring have strengthened the feeling of togetherness. At the same time, they have opened people’s eyes to new areas of business. It’s now clear that there is still plenty of scope for all the communities to expand their international licensing business.”

Boos also detected euphoria in the industry as a whole: "2015 has been the busiest and most successful Book Fair for years! Exhibitors from all the different regions told me the same thing time and again in our personal talks.”

This year, the Book Fair is expected to have welcomed 275,791 visitors. That means a 2.3% increase in visitor numbers compared to last year. Also, the number of attending journalists rose from 9,300 in 2014 to around 9,900 in 2015.

“The political tensions around the globe have had a direct and very apparent impact on the literature business,” said Boos during the closing of the Frankfurt Book Fair 2015. “This was demonstrated, for example, by Zeruya Shalev’s surprisingly personal description of everyday life in Israel, during her ‘Brigitte Live’ talk, and in the meeting in the Weltempfang between Iranian publishers and Navid Kermani, winner of the Peace Prize of the German Book Trade.”

Heinrich Riethmüller, president of the German Publishers and Booksellers Association, added: “The book industry has taken a clear stance in support of freedom of opinion and the freedom to publish.”

The venues and exhibition areas for new communities added to the overall dynamic. Bloggers on books, food and do-it-yourself trends held their own events, thereby enhancing the world of publishing both as creators and consumers. Some 300 participants turned up in the new Orbanism Space in Hall 4.1, just to attend the LovelyBooks meeting for readers and bloggers. Riethmüller welcomed this clear trend from the point of view of the book industry: “The book industry has intensified its contacts with start-ups and new market players, so that we can work together to develop innovative business models for the market.

This year at the Book Fair, new, thematically arranged neighbourhoods inspired additional business. “The new Gourmet Gallery shows particularly clearly how effectively communities define themselves at the fair, and what new business opportunities that generates,” said Boos. “For example, there were extremely lively exchanges between the Gourmet Gallery – to which we welcomed a large number of new exhibitors – and the calendar gallery.”

The new Book Fair concept was also welcomed by the agents and scouts of the LitAg, in Hall 6. For them, it meant a new proximity to the English-speaking publishers. According to the organisers, the keenest interest among the agents was for Scandinavian literature. In all, some 620 agents were present.

Once again, the Frankfurt Book Fair’s Business Club proved to be the central meeting place for the creative pioneers and key players in the international content and media business. In all, some 3,200 guests from 48 countries made use of the professional products and services offered by the business platform. The round up of the Business Club suggests that some 1,200 appointments were arranged between participants.

(Courtesy: German Book Office, New Delhi.)