Frankfurt Book Fair bookings strong, Turkey special guest

Frankfurt - Exhibition space bookings have been strong for next month's Frankfurt Book Fair, where Turkey is to feature as special guest, organizers said Wednesday. The fair is to be officially opened by German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier and Turkish President Abdullah Gul on the evening of October 14. The world's biggest annual gathering of book publishers then opens for business October 15-19. Most international negotiations involve rights to manuscripts, rather than books as the end product. During the fair, Turkey is to promote its literary achievements, billed as 'fascinatingly colourful,' among the German reading public. Nobel Prize laureate Orhan Pamuk is set to give a lecture at the gala opening and autograph his own books. Book Fair director Juergen Boos said he had booked 7,052 exhibitors so far from 101 nations into the event, with English-language bookings, about a quarter of the total, up 2 per cent in space terms. Overall, space bookings have reached 172,000 square metres, up 1.4 per cent from last year. Bookings by publishers from Lithuania, Bulgaria, Russia and Ukraine had also unexpectedly surged, while literary agents and scouts, who have their own booths to meet publishers, had expanded their space by 5 per cent. Referring to electronic books, which are sold as internet downloads, Boos said, 'A book is no longer a book.' He said book publishers had grasped how to exploit digital opportunities. Among authors booked to sign books and meet client publishers at the fair are Paulo Coelho, US thriller writer Karin Slaughter, Senegal's Fatou Diome and Russian crime writer Polina Dashkova. Two of the main creators of The Simpsons, Bill Morrison and David Silverman, are to appear at the fair's comic centre.