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.
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