Observations From The World’s Largest Book Fair

 

 

There’s nothing like sitting down at a local outdoor café, sipping a cappuccino, and taking in the sights and sounds around you. This is true, for me, wherever I go, including my latest stop in life, Frankfurt, Germany. 

I came here to celebrate books, rekindle publishing connections, and seek out opportunities to secure more author-clients for my book marketing business. I had never been to the Frankfurt Book Fair, and thought it was time to visit the world’s largest book gathering, held every year in October.  

Germany is both the birthplace to the movable type printing press developed by Gutenberg in around 1450 and it is also the place where millions of books were destroyed, censored, and banned by the Nazis leading up to and during World War II. It is a literate nation and books today are embraced in the culture.  

It was 35 years ago that the Berlin Wall fell in Germany, marking the end of the Cold War and the reunification of today’s Germany. It was around that same time that I attended my first book industry event, Book Expo America, which back then was called the ABA. Held in Las Vegas, a funhouse city that seemed to be anything but intellectual, it was a wild introduction to the book convention world.  

Back then, Amazon was just born (1990), but basically it had no market share or relevance. There were more big publishers and fewer conglomerates, though the mergers were already beginning. The superstore sprint was underway – Barnes & Noble, Waldenbooks, Borders, and Books-A-Million were building up an arms race that would eventually knock the indie bookstore almost off the map. E-books did not exist and the Internet was in its infancy. Audiobooks were only available on cassette tapes and some CDs, but not yet downloadable. Now, fast-forward to today.  

Audiobooks have been on a sharp rise. E-books have changed pricing, reading habits, buying habits, and promotional approaches. Amazon owns the industry. Chain bookstores have shrunk greatly and indie bookstores have been slowly but steadily coming back the past 15 years. The indie author now represents more than 85% of all titles published, but the major traditional book publishers account for 80% of the major best-sellers on the NYT list. People still read books, but the number of book readers has been declining.  

Book publishing is operating well under its new eco-system of the past decade. It has absorbed technology like POD, desktop publishing, e-books, audiobooks, social media promotions, and online selling. Next up: AI.  

The book fair showed that the industry still has life, though my understanding is the show is not even half of its peak size from some years ago. But it is still alive, unlike Book Expo America, which died leading up to Covid and got resurrected as a weak thing called US Book Show afterwards, with a shorter, smaller, partially online version.  

I was pleasantly surprised to see that indie authors enjoyed a presence at the London Book Fair two years ago, but I did not see many of them here. Frankfurt is a big rights and foreign language/distribution sales bazaar. I did not see the authors being featured much. But, authors drive the book world.  

Book publishing needs a bit of a re-brand. More author discovery is needed for authors to thrive and to generate more book sales. Online, a lot is taking place, which is fine. But, in-person events with authors are supreme. I want to see authors everywhere. Why can’t authors speak at churches, movie theatres, playhouses, parks, and arenas? They do, to an extent, but mostly if it is a big-name author in select venues. I think all authors need to speak and get out there. If local theatres show movies, why not have a 10 am author event, before the films get rolling? If church services start at 11 am on Sunday and end at noon, why not follow it with an author speak-and-sign? Most playhouses are used for three hours a day, if that. Couldn’t they also house author events?  

The answer is, yes, of course, they can. 

And, should a world-renowned book fair in Germany do more to push the author and get the word out? Most definitely. 

There were some educational events and some opportunities to network with people, and many publishers successfully bought and sold rights, so I can’t say the fair was a failure, but I guess I expected or hoped there would even be more for the author to do. 

The book industry is solvent and doing well, but more can be done to grow an industry that battles many other content providers, some of which are free, such as The Internet. As long as the book world promotes its authors, there will be continued growth.  

Hopefully, next year’s Frankfurt Book Fair realizes that. 

 

Do You Need Book Marketing & PR Help?

Brian Feinblum, the founder of this award-winning blog, with over 3.9 million page views, can be reached at brianfeinblum@gmail.com  He is available to help authors like you to promote your story, sell your book, and grow your brand. He has over 30 years of experience in successfully helping thousands of authors in all genres. Let him be your advocate, teacher, and motivator!

 

About Brian Feinblum

Brian Feinblum should be followed on www.linkedin.com/in/brianfeinblum. This is copyrighted by BookMarketingBuzzBlog ©2024. Born and raised in Brooklyn, he now resides in Westchester with his wife, two kids, and Ferris, a black lab rescue dog, and El Chapo, a pug rescue dog. His writings are often featured in The Writer and IBPA’s The Independent (https://pubspot.ibpa-online.org/article/whats-needed-to-promote-a-book-successfully).  This award-winning blog has generated over 3.9 million pageviews. With 5,000+ posts over the past dozen years, it was named one of the best book marketing blogs by BookBaby  http://blog.bookbaby.com/2013/09/the-best-book-marketing-blogs  and recognized by Feedspot in 2021 and 2018 as one of the top book marketing blogs. It was also named by www.WinningWriters.com as a "best resource.” For the past three decades, including 21 years as the head of marketing for the nation’s largest book publicity firm, and director of publicity positions at two independent presses, Brian has worked with many first-time, self-published, authors of all genres, right along with best-selling authors and celebrities such as: Dr. Ruth, Mark Victor Hansen, Joseph Finder, Katherine Spurway, Neil Rackham, Harvey Mackay, Ken Blanchard, Stephen Covey, Warren Adler, Cindy Adams, Todd Duncan, Susan RoAne, John C. Maxwell, Jeff Foxworthy, Seth Godin, and Henry Winkler. He hosted a panel on book publicity for Book Expo America several years ago, and has spoken at ASJA, BookCAMP, Independent Book Publishers Association Sarah Lawrence College, Nonfiction Writers Association, Cape Cod Writers Association, Willamette (Portland) Writers Association, APEX, Morgan James Publishing, and Connecticut Authors and Publishers Association. His letters-to-the-editor have been published in The Wall Street Journal, USA Today, New York Post, NY Daily News, Newsday, The Journal News (Westchester) and The Washington Post. His first published book was The Florida Homeowner, Condo, & Co-Op Association Handbook.  It was featured in The Sun Sentinel and Miami Herald.