IN DEPTH
Frankfurt’s strategy The book fair evolution
the needs of what’s hot is needed to ensure FBF remains relevant—and keeps the revenue streams flowing. If there is one thing that seems to be FBF 2018’s hot-buton topic, it is subscription models. A significant portion of the pre-fair The Markets Conference and FBF Rights Director Meeting (both held yesterday, 9th October) picked apart how subscriptions are developing, ways in which businesses can increase revenue, and the dicey issues of royalt splits. Today’s inaugural Frankfurt Audiobook Conference, as one might imagine, will have a number of panels on the model, as will Saturday’s International Convention of Universit Presses.
Boos says: “There are a lot of [events] on subscrip- tion and streaming, as everybody is talking about it. I don’t think too many people are making much money on it now, though, but that will come. Particularly in places like the Middle East, where there may not be a huge bookshop infrastructure, but everyone is on smartphones. Or in subjects like manga; in Europe, comics and manga sales are still largely print but in South East Asia that’s shiſted to phones. In STM, there is so much in this space that I think it is a kind of renaissance of the book, about how publishers are thinking about reimagining content and format. “But the issues around
We want to bring more of the fair into the centre of town and gear it towards a younger audience... it’s important to create more readers
Jürgen Boos, FBF director
subscription and streaming services are also about
a bigger discussion about copyright and intellectual propert—are we moving away from copyright to thinking more of intellectual propert? If content that a publisher and author provides gets reworked and transformed, does that mean we need a wider definition of copyright?”
Reaching out
FBF itself is also, arguably, adapting to the wider meaning of a trade book fair, with a ramped-up consumer-facing side. Frankfurt does already have a large cultural footprint in Germany, and it has long had its weekend for non- professionals which, in recent years, has featured Comic Con-stle cosplay. The weekend for the public was initially launched, Boos says, “because of the wishes of German publishers, as they wanted direct engagement with read- ers. It’s not a big revenue stream for us, but it enables us to cater to both our exhibitors and a general audience.” But FBF is doubling down this year on the consumer side. Aſter something of a soſt launch in 2017, the fair is ramping up its BOOKFEST, a series of poetry slams, cookery demonstrations and author talks throughout the cit. Is growing the consumer side of the fair part of the long-term strategy? “We do a lot of different things, but at our heart we’re a rights-trading fair and will always be,” says Boos. “But yes, the plans are to increase it. We want to bring more of the fair into the centre of town and gear it towards a younger audience, because if anything we think it’s important to create more readers.”
34 10th October 2018
A READING IN THE CITY AT LAST YEAR’S BOOKFEST
BOOKFEST enters sophomore year intent on being city-wide hit
Tom Tivnan meets FBF’s director of business development Frank Pauli, and marketing director Markus Gogolin, to discuss BOOKFEST
TT Can you tell me about BOOKFEST and how it came
about? And has it developed year on year?
FP Te idea of creating a meeting place for fair visitors, exhibitors and
Frankfurt locals in the evening, beyond the exhibition grounds, was implemented very successfully on a small scale in 2017. Tis year, BOOKFEST will be a festival for the entire city. Rather than classic read- ings, we will hold interactive events like poetry slams, talks, cooking events and performances that touch on a wide range of topics at more than 20 bars and unusual locations in Frankfurt. It was our intention to create a
huge festival that is an extension to everything that is already going on at the fair. So BOOKFEST not only provides the perfect stage for authors and ideas during the day, but also promises visitors memo- rable experiences in a great atmosphere at night. Especially for publishers, this is, of course, an offer that suits them. It gives them another opportunity to put their authors in direct contact with readers.
TT Can you run down some of the highlights for this year?
FP Oh wow, there are way too many. During the day, visitors have the
chance to attend BOOKFEST events in the Frankfurt Pavilion, our new stage in the middle of the Agora. It’s our biggest stage, you can see Maja Lunde, Deniz Yücel, Aka Morchiladze, Juli Zeh, Dmitry Glukhovsky, Cixin Liu and many more national and
international star authors. From 10th–12th October, the
Freitagsküche will be the culinary BOOKFEST centre, as “Georgia is Cooking” is taking place there on three nights. Tere you’ll have the chance to get to know our Guest of Honour, Georgia, and learn all about its traditional cuisine and famous wine. I definitely recommend the event
with Meg Wolitzer and Paul Beatty. Tese two authors, who are considered among the smartest and most important contemporary American voices, will be in discussion on stage on Saturday (13th October) at Te English Teatre.
TT Do professional trade fairs need more of a public-facing part to
continue to thrive?
MG Te Frankfurter Buchmesse has long been an exciting event for
trade and private visitors alike. Tat’s how the fair is divided: three days for trade visitors and two days for the public. We notice that this boundary can no longer be drawn clearly and that the public mixes more and more every day. We welcome this development, and therefore started BOOKFEST. Nevertheless, the Frankfurter Buchmesse naturally remains the most important place to be for the international publishing business. But it is also the cultural event of the year, and we want to spread this special atmosphere throughout the city, turn it into an experience— that tactic is becoming more and more important for a successful fair. So our strategy is not just B2B or B2C, but B2B2C. And that not only benefits us, but also the exhibitors.
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