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Frankfurt embraces digital era

08.10.07 Caroline Horn

With mounting speculation that Amazon could launch its e-reader device, the Kindle, and Google gearing up to unveil a new books project, this year's Frankfurt Book Fair is taking on a definite digital focus.

Some 300,000 people are ex-pected to attend the fair, which opens its doors on 10th October. All 13 exhibition halls are sold out, with around 0.5% more space booked than in 2006. Owing to popular demand, it will be the first Frankfurt that is entirely smoke-free, with a ban on lighting up in the halls now in place.

The fair will see a strong focus on the digital environment, with 70 discussions and seminars planned around this theme. A high-powered round-table discussion will highlight the "Quest for Global Digital Sales" on Wednesday, with Penguin c.e.o. John Makinson, HarperCollins president Brian Murray and Random House president and c.e.o. Peter Olson lined up to debate the issue. Rights directors will also tackle the subject on the Tuesday before the fair, with the 21st rights directors meeting looking at managing digital rights.

"Frankfurt is traditionally a barometer for the international publishing world, and this year we are taking an in-depth look at one of the major issues facing our industry," said Juergen Boos, fair director.

Coedition publishers, for which the fair remains a key date, are looking forward to strong sales in eastern and central Europe. "Latin America is also a strong emerging market for us," said Octopus deputy c.e.o. Andrew Welham, "and we're forecasting future growth in Japan and Korea." He acknowledged that the coedition market was "pretty tough at the moment" but said Octopus was anticipating a "great Frankfurt".

The Americans continue to turn out in force despite the weak dollar. "In the past three years there has been an upturn in US companies wanting to attend Frankfurt," said vice-president of the American Collective Stand Jon Malinowski. "It may reflect the greater interest in digital developments—Frankfurt is the place to be if you want to find out more." However, others said that the big US publishers were sending reduced teams.

More than 2,500 events are scheduled, including award ceremonies (the German Book Prize launches the fair on Monday 8th October), exhibitions and author appearances. Writers attending include Richard Dawkins, Fay Weldon and Elif Shafak, while this year's Guest of Honour, Catalan Culture, offers planned readings and panel discussions with authors including Maria Barbal, Quim Monzó, Jordi Punti, Baltasar Porcel and Jaume Cabré.

Caroline Horn digital amazon Kindle frankfurt

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