Near the City Entrance to the 75th edition of Frankfurt Book Fair. Image: FBM, Ingo Hattendorf
By Porter Anderson, Editor-in-Chief | @Porter_Anderson
Boos: Special Praise for the Ljubljana Reading Manifesto
As Frankfurter Buchmesse reached its close today (October 22), new figures on overall attendance were provided to the international press corps.
As you’ll recall from our midway figures report on the trade-specific attendance, the 75th anniversary edition of the show drew a reported 105,000 professional trade visitors (over 93,000 in 2022) during the three prime trade days (October 18, 19, and 20), with representatives engaged from at least 130 countries.
The newly released figures now factor in the presence on “Frankfurt Weekend” of members of the public who annually flock to the event, and the evening’s figures show 110,000 public visitors (over 87,000 in 2022), and during the public weekend the aggregate attendance is reported to have jumped 30 percent over 2022 figures, to 215,000.
In a broader group of metrics released overnight:
- Frankfurt Book Fair this year had more than 4,000 exhibitors from 95 countries in operation on its many show floors.
- As we’d reported, of course, the Literary Agents and Scouts Center, the LitAg, was a sell-out: All 584 tables were sold for the use of rights professionals at 324 agencies. The facility had a record 35,000 entries (meaning visits to the center for meetings with the agents and rights directors there).
- The Publishers Center reportedly was very popular, as well, as a place for companies’ leads to rent their tables adjacent to the LitAg—a convenient and logical pairing of meeting spaces.
- It’s reported that 7,000 accredited representatives of the international and German national press were operating on the Messe Frankfurt, where they found more than 2,600 events scheduled and taking place across the five days of the fair’s run.
Slovenia’s Success: Business-to-Business Programming
Juergen Boos at Frankfurter Buchmesse, October 21. Image: Publishing Perspectives, Porter Anderson
Not only is the Guest of Honor Slovenia program receiving high commendations from trade visitors for its emphasis on business topics in the world of publishing, but Juergen Boos, president and CEO of Frankfurter Buchmesse, tells Publishing Perspectives that he anticipates seeing the fair going forward in partnership to support the Slovenian initiative introduced as its Sadar Studio-designed pavilion was opened: The Ljubljana Reading Manifesto.
Also supported by the International Publishers Association (IPA), the Federation of European Publishers, PEN International, the International Board of Books for Young People (known as IBBY), the EU-Read consortium of European reading promotion organizations, the International Federation of Library Associations, and the German Academy for Language and Literature, the Ljubljana Manifesto is focused on “higher-level reading,” the immersive-reading skill set and complex-comprehension format that many specialists are warning is disappearing from the international reading space as visual narratives and short-form reading tasks challenge the faculty for long-form reading.
Boos is also impressed, he says, with how many younger publishers were in play this year–one of the things that could be spotted easily at the Publishers Center, for example, a welcome generational advance also represented in the inaugural Aficionado Award, which is a program shared by Italy’s Salone Internazionale del Libro di Torino and Buchmesse. As Publishing Perspectives readers know, the first Aficionado has gone to Lola Shoneyin‘s Lagos-based Aké Arts and Book Festival, a hugely popular selection among trade visitors this year.
A younger visitor to the 75th Frankfurter Buchmesse looks through books in the Guest of Honor Slovenia pavilion’s “forests,” as they were called, of book shelves for visitors to peruse. Overhead are the hanging lace-pastiche ‘clouds’ included in Studio Sadar’s designed, representatives of the ‘big sky’ component of Slovenian life. Image: FBM, Ingo Hattendorf
Boos: ‘A Presence in Frankfurt is Indispensable for Business’
Speaking about the 2023 fair overall, Boos says, “Our formula for success is interest follows relevance.
“Freedom of expression is coming under pressure from all sides worldwide. That’s why the book fair is needed more urgently than ever as an international platform for the free exchange of ideas.”Juergen Boos, Frankfurter Buchmesse
“People come here from all over the world,” he says, “because they know that a presence in Frankfurt is indispensable for their business. Added to this is the growing political significance of Frankfurter Buchmesse in times of war and crisis, when defending freedom of speech becomes all the more important.
“Salman Rushdie, our Peace Prize winner this year, said it forcefully today in Frankfurt’s St Paul’s Church: freedom of expression is coming under pressure from all sides worldwide. That’s why the book fair is needed more urgently than ever as an international platform for the free exchange of ideas.
“And not least, personal interactions between readers and authors are playing an increasingly important role. To facilitate these interactions, we created numerous offerings in our anniversary year that were enthusiastically received by our visitors. The great success of the TikTok Stage shows that—as promised by our anniversary motto ‘And the Story Goes On’—the book fair’s narrative does indeed continue along new as well as tried-and-tested pathways.”
Discerning fairgoers were talking about the energetic and sizable presence of India and China at Buchmesse, some commenting on how warm, welcoming, and collegial the presentations and outreaches were, particularly from these major markets.
In addition, Karin Schmidt-Friderichs, chair of the Börsenverein des Deutschen Buchhandels, Germany’s publishers and booksellers association, says, “The largest marketplace for books, an inspiring reading festival, and platform for democracy and freedom of expression: Frankfurter Buchmesse was all of this for the 75th time.
“At the book fair, the industry showed that it is vibrant, forward-looking, and relevant.
“Open social debates in challenging times were just as much a part of the fair as the exchange on current and coming industry topics.”
Indeed, at several points, geopolitical issues came to the fore, speakers and events at times adjusting their planned themes and discussions to accommodate developments in real time as crises and humanitarian alarm rose quickly on all sides.
In many if not most of these cases, the intent and reality of many respectful, difficult discussions ran along the lines of Salman Rushdie’s comment to Publishing Perspectives during his press conference: “I don’t like books that tell me what to think. I like books that make me think.”
On the Messe Frankfurt Agora, looking from Hall 3.1 to the Forum, where Guest of Honor Slovenia’s pavilion was installed. Image: FBM, Anett Weirauch
Publishing Perspectives has much more coverage in the coming days of events, people, and issues at this year’s Frankfurter Buchmesse.
Now available here for your free download, our 2023 Publishing Perspectives Frankfurt Book Fair magazine
Our 75th Frankfurt coverage from our Frankfurt Book Fair Magazine, which has been available throughout the trade show in print, is also available for your free download.
The magazine has more interviews with fellows and grant-program recipients from international publishing markets, as well as previews of programming from our Publishing Perspectives Forum at Frankfurt including our Executive Talks with Penguin Random House worldwide CEO Nihar Malaviya and Nanmeebooks’ Kim Chongsatitwana; highlights of key events at the 75th Frankfurter Buchmesse; and coverage of Frankfurt’s upcoming guest of honor programs (Italy, the Philippines, the Czech Republic) and this year’s Guest of Honor Slovenia.
There’s also news of literary agents and agencies; award-winning books from guest of honor markets; focus articles on artificial intelligence, sustainability; and a forthcoming effort to get more Korean literature into world markets; as well as 75th-anniversary “Frankfurt Moments.”
More from Publishing Perspectives on Frankfurter Buchmesse is here, more about international awards and other honors in publishing and books is here, more on trade shows and book fairs on the international scene is here, and more on Salman Rushdie is here.
Publishing Perspectives is the International Publishers Association’s world media partner.
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