Though many attendees felt like the Frankfurt Book Fair was quieter than last year, FBF reports that trade attendance for Wednesday and Thursday, the industry days of the fair, was up 3 percent. Visitors also increased on Friday and the fair was sold out on Saturday, both days that were open to the public. FBF counted 118,000 trade badge scans and 120,000 private visitor badge scans over the course of four days, up from 115,000 for each visitor type in 2024. (A reminder; FBF counts daily badges scanned, rather than tracking unique individuals attending.)
Book Fairs
Women CEOs Take the Stage in Frankfurt
Many of this year’s Frankfurt Book Fair conversations are focused on speculating about recent news stories—former ceo Charlie Redmayne’s abrupt departure from Harper Collins UK, and who will take over from Jon Karp as Simon & Schuster ceo—where no one has any concrete information. Among the biggest recent deal announcements is Bessel van der Kolk’s COME TO YOUR SENSES, the follow-up to The Body Keeps the Score, which sold for eight figures to Macmillan, along with a workbook and two kids’ books to be published by Macmillan Children’s. Reportedly, several international publishers are vying for rights at the fair. And […]
FBF On Changes in the Office: New S&S UK CEO and New Tech
Two panels at the Frankfurt Book Fair on Wednesday morning discussed working in the industry and how jobs are changing. Simon & Schuster UK and International ceo Perminder Mann, who came to her position in February, indicated what the company will look like under her leadership, in a conversation with Publishing Perspectives editor-in-chief Porter Anderson, Mann explained that she is a “collaborative but decisive” leader and has been told she “leads with empathy.” She explained that her goal is to “reset the culture” at the company, as she did as ceo of Bonnier UK. “Young people want to know what […]
FBF Launches With Discussions of Tech, Hope for Literature
The opening press conference set the stage for this year’s Frankfurt Book Fair, as German Publishers & Booksellers Association chair Karin Schmidt-Friderichs framed tech companies as antithetical to the book fair, “where imagination gives rise to ideas that can change our reality and our future.” “In the virtual world, however, only a few billionaires increasingly decide which algorithms present which kind of information, and they do not follow any rules of a press law, nor on the basis of acquired or remunerated content, and they do not take responsibility for the content they publish or withhold, she said. “Under the […]
AI At London Book Fair
Industry panels discussing AI are a staple of book fair programming these days, and the London Book Fair has followed suit. One session reviewed policy developments in the US and UK and there have been multiple discussions of the ethics of AI in audiobooks. On Tuesday, Porter Anderson with Publishing Perspectives spoke with Maria Pallante, president and ceo of the Association of American Publishers, and Dan Conway, ceo of the Publishers Association, about the state of AI policy-making. The takeaway was that both the US and the UK are in holding patterns as they wait for court decisions and legislation. […]
Ceiling Debris Falls At LBF International Rights Center
To some people in the book business, the sky is always falling. On Wednesday at the London Book Fair’s International Right Centre they were proven right, as part of the ceiling literally fell from above. Agents reported seeing debris falling from the ceiling, but no one was hit. Tables were relocated and business resumed as usual afterward. The IRC remains open on Thursday. A spokesperson for the fair told PL, “We were made aware yesterday morning of the presence of debris in part of the IRC due to the ongoing construction works at Olympia. We take this issue very seriously […]