Mihir's Impressions - Frankfurt Book Fair

Mihir Joshi, besides being a PrintWeek India scribe, is a central defender and supporter of AC Milan. In his weekly column he immortalises the power of print with the same passion with which he gets excited about the world's greatest game.

22 Sep 2012 | By Mihir Joshi


The Frankfurt Book Fair is a little over a fortnight away and its beginning to create a lot murmurs amongst book publishers and printers. If you are heading to Frankfurt Book Fair then you might be interested in the following India centric events that will take place during the course of the fair:

Networking Reception

Date:           Wednesday, 10th October 2012
Time:           1800 hrs – 1900 hrs
Venue:        Hall 8 Stand No: S 989
 
Indian Noon at Frankfurt Book Fair 2012
Date:           Thursday, 11th October 2012
Time:           1500 hrs – 1600 hrs
Venue:        Hall C, CONCORDE
 
Matching- Indian Printers
Date:           Friday, 12th October 2012
Time:           1600 hrs – 1700 hrs
Venue:        Hall 8 Stand No: S 989
 
Frankfurt Book Fair is the world's largest trade fair for books, based on the number of publishing companies represented, as well as the number of visitors. The Frankfurt Book Fair is a critical marketing event for the launching of books, but it is also an important event to facilitate the negotiation of the international sale of rights and licenses. Publishers, agents, booksellers, academics, illustrators, service providers, film producers, translators, printers, professional and trade associations, institutions, artists, authors, software and multimedia suppliers all take part in the events.
 
The highlight of this year’s event will undoubtedly be the Collective stand of Indian printers which was conceived in November 2011, during a round-table conversation on the second day of the National Book Printer’s Conference (NBPC). P Sajith of Welbound Worldwide and founding member of the NBPC group says, “India’s share in the world pie of book exports is miniscule, just 0.5%, and it needs to be considerable. With that in mind we have undertaken this initiative in order to showcase what India has to offer as a book printing destination. ”
 
Gopsons Papers, International Print-O-Pac, Jayant Printery, Manipal Technologies, Multivista Global, Nutech Photolitho Graphers, Parksons Graphics, Replika Press, Repro India and Thomson Press India will be part of the collective India stall.  P Sajith further added “India is poised on the cusp of a great educational revolution. Today, if one averages seven textbooks per literate student, the government prints 1.5 billion books per year for 1-10 standards. Then there are private publishers who add 300-million to this tally.”
 
Books to Apps.com, Braahmam Net Solutions, Current Books India, Designmate India, DiTech Process Solutions, Goodword Books, Hello Friend Books, Integra Software Services, Niyogi Books will be some of the other Indian exhibitors at the fair.
 
The following are the Ten Commandments that the Indian printers propose to follow in order to lure more business to Indian shores.  
 
·       World-class quality and service
 
·       Environmentally accredited paper/materials
 
·       Print-on-demand
 
·       Direct deliveries (with total adherence to compliance criteria)
 
·       Distribute-to-print model (alliances with overseas manufacturers to improve speed to market)
 
·       Full product life-cycle offering under one roof (POD, short-run digital, long-run litho