The world’s largest trade fair for the publishing industry, the Frankfurt Book Fair, launched yesterday with 7,000 exhibitors from 110 countries.
Publishers and booksellers at the fair are working hard “to bring the book back to the people”, Heinrich Riethmueller, the head of the German Publishers’ and Booksellers’ Association, said yesterday.
Organisers say the event continues to grow, with 3% more exhibitors in 2018 than last year.
In 2017, more than a quarter of a million people visited the book fair.
However, sales of books in Germany fell by 1.1% year on year in the first nine months of 2018; in 2017, revenues fell by 1.6% compared to the previous year to €9.13bn ($10.44bn).
Despite the drop, Riethmueller said the industry could feel a change of mood: “Even book defectors value books and have a craving for them. However they read less in the hassle of everyday life, stressed as they are from social media and distracted by other formats of entertainment.”
He said he is optimistic that book sales would pick up in the autumn and in the all-important Christmas season.
Book fair director Juergen Boos stressed its societal importance: “The book fair is a place of freedom, where people from all over the world come together to raise their voices, a place of mutual respect.”
The fair will “contribute to understanding, dialogue and peaceful cohabitation in a pluralistic society”, Riethmueller said.
Boos said that there had been an increase in exhibitors from overseas, including 34 from 19 different African countries.
Nigerian author Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie was the main guest at the opening press conference yesterday.
The author of the novel Americanah talked about her role as an author as opposed to her role as a feminist activist.
“I see myself as a writer, a storyteller, an artist,” Adichie said. “Writing is what gives my life meaning. It’s what makes me happy when it’s going well, it’s what makes me sad when it’s not. I am also a citizen. My responsibility as an artist is to my art. My responsibility as a citizen is to the truth and to justice.”
Sometimes art can pave the way for political goals, but other times art is not enough, she said.
This year’s guest country is Georgia, which is featured in its own pavilion.
The 70th annual Frankfurt Book Fair is scheduled to run from today until Sunday, with the first few days open to professionals and the weekend open to the general public.
The programme lists some 3,700 events over the course of the fair, with 9,800 reporters accredited to cover the fair.
Ahead of the opening of the fair, Berlin author Inger-Maria Mahlke was awarded the German Book Prize for her novel Archipel (Archipelago) by the German Publishers’ and Booksellers’ Association.
The jury that awarded Mahlke the prize, which is worth €25,000 ($28,500), described her novel as an “impressive event” in German literature.
“This is where colonial history and the history of European dictatorships in the 20th century coalesce,” the jury said of the book, which tells the story of three families from different social classes in Franco-era Spain.
Staffers arrange books on shelves at the book fair.
