In Frankfurt, world's main book fair seeks film crossover

By Thomas Maier Oct 15, 2005, 12:20 GMT

Frankfurt - Celebrities of the book world gather next week in the German city of Frankfurt for its annual book fair, which will be taking more steps this year to boost crossover business with the film industry.

More than 7,000 publishers from over 100 nations will be in town, both to trade rights to books and to set up export or wholesale sales for physical books. Many publishers will bring their big-name authors to add a little lustre to their exhibition space.

The likes of J.K. Rowling, the Harry Potter creator, may not be attending - her books now seem to sell by magic with promotion no longer strictly necessary - but hardy old professionals like thriller author Ken Follett will be in Frankfurt for the umpteenth time.

British author Follett will show up for a live television interview on a German literary programme, will give autographs to fans in the pavilion and will shake many publishers' hands to cultivate what is effectively his literary brand-name.

Other British 'names' at the October 19-23 fair, the world's biggest book show, will include Nick Hornby, promoting foreign- language sales of his fourth comic novel, 'A Long Way Down', which offers an original look at suicide.

Impression from the Frankfurt bookfair

Frankfurt's special touch is its mixture of working trade fair and hoopla for the 'end-user', in this case the German reading public, who will boost the number of visitors going through the turnstiles to around 270,000 by the time the books go back into the cartons

On the trade side, the fair is held back by the lack of growth in the book publishing business in mature markets such as Europe.

The world's biggest publishing groups are generally divisions of multimedia firms, and the Frankfurt Book Fair is continuing to seek similar multimedia credentials by developing crossover business opportunities with the cinema industry or the world of football.

One project in its drive to become a multimedia fair is a cooperation scheme with the secretariat of the February Berlin Film Festival. This year's fair is to offer cinema and TV executives the opportunity to buy scripts and story ideas based on books.

Wim Wenders, one of Germany's most respected movie directors, will be among this year's guest speakers and Franka Potente, the German actress who appeared in 'The Bourne Supremacy' and has a role in the upcoming 'Che', will be launching a book of her own.

For the first time, the fair will welcome toy manufacturers, who are to offer games and dolls linked to popular children's books.

Football will also put in an appearance at the Fair for the first time. In just half a year, Germany will be hosting the World Cup and several panel discussions are to earnestly discuss what football and literature have in common.

Impression from the Frankfurt bookfair

Most of the new exhibitors will be from outside Germany, and indeed from outside the English-speaking world, which will be represented this year in Frankfurt by 1,500 publishers offering translation rights for everything from textbooks to calendars.

U.S. and British publishers do a major part of their export business in Frankfurt every October, selling foreign translation rights, paperback rights, film rights and even merchandising rights.

The Book Fair, which is a major source of earnings for the Frankfurt metropolitan area, has identified East Asian publishers as those with the greatest potential to expand their presence as exhibitors.

Juergen Boos, who took over as Book Fair director in April, aims to make Frankfurt an essential publishing meeting place for Asian publishers, just as it already is for their western counterparts.

In that perspective, the fair is extremely happy to have South Korea and its authors win pride of place this year as 'special guests'. Seoul sought the status as a form of cultural outreach to Germany's intellectual class and is paying generously.

The Germans, who fret at the lack of attention they receive in the world literary stakes, are to institute a new literary prize this month modelled on the Booker Prize for British and Commonwealth literature.

It will be awarded by the German booksellers and publishers association, the Boersenverein, just before the Fair opens and will honour the most readable book of the past year from Germany, Austria and Switzerland.

Internet: www.buchmesse.de/en/ www.enterkorea.net/eng/