Frankfurt Book Fair: “Buch Messe 2004”
| Published date | 01 December 2004 |
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1108/07419050410577523 |
| Pages | 7-8 |
| Date | 01 December 2004 |
| Author | Julia Gelfand |
| Subject Matter | Library & information science |
Frankfurt Book Fair:
``Buch Messe 2004''
Julia Gelfand
LIBRARY HITECH NEWS Number 10 2004, pp. 7-8, #Emerald Group Publishing Limited, 0741-9058, DOI 10.1108/07419050410577523 7
Librarians, especially bibliographers
and selectors responsible for collection
development in western European
languages and literatures, have had a
tradition of attending the Frankfurt
Book Fair. Also, as electronic
publishing has evolved, many librarians
have come to participate in seeing the
range of products and publisher
participation. However, for this
conference attendee, these are first-time
impressions after being on the
``must-do'' list for many years.
The first ``book fairs'' in Germany
began in the fifteenth century in
Frankfurt and moved to Leipzig for a
few centuries returning to Frankfurt
after the Second World War. The
Frankfurt Book Fair known as the
``Buch Messe,'' is held at the Frankfort
Messe or Convention Center and
occupies 42 football fields (172,717
square meters) of exhibition space in a
complex of 10 buildings with its own
train station stop. The world's largest
trade show for the publishing industry
the Book Fair features both extensive
exhibits (in 2004 there were 336,253
exhibited titles of which 74,147 were
new titles; 6,638 exhibitors form 102
countries with 64 national stands ± 41
percent of the exhibitors were from
Germany and 59 percent from abroad),
and more than 2,000 scheduled events.
Organized by countries and regions and
by subject group, the Fair does have a
logic to it.
The breakdown of exhibitors by
country was:
.Germany = 1,748.
.UK = 871.
.US = 717.
.Italy = 289.
.The Netherlands = 205.
.Switzerland = 198.
.France = 197.
.Spain = 191.
.Austria = 115.
.Russia = 79.
The list of exhibitors by subject
group:
.International publishers = 3,149.
.Fiction = 2,459.
.STM and humanities = 402.
.Children's books = 146.
.Tourism = 143.
.Religion = 138.
.Comics = 88.
.Forum management/publishing
Solutions = 78.
.Art books/illustration = 52.
The 2004 Catalogue was more than 2
inches thick with over 1,100 pages,
8,000 entries and an index with another
350 pages. There was an accompanying
``Who's Who'' with more than 15,500
names and contacts. The web site at
www.book-fair.com also contained an
updated Rights Catalogue with more
than 18,500 titles from 61 countries.
List of exhibitors by product:
.Books = 56.9 percent.
.Art books/prints = 13.0 percent.
.Audio books = 7.9 percent.
.DVD = 4.1 percent.
.Online = 3.8 percent.
.Video = 2.4 percent.
.CD-ROM = 2.1 percent.
.Maps = 1.8 percent.
.Calendars, posters, postcards = 1.5
percent.
Deal-making describes the tenor and
atmosphere of the Fair. Rights
management or the negotiation of
rights, to publish, translate, distribute
and sell is the focus of activity among
publishers and agents. There are two
parts to the Rights Management
program, one being the ``Main Right,''
which describes the original edition and
language of the book and then
``Subsidiary Rights'' which covers
paperbacks, special editions,
translations, book clubs, performance,
and merchandising. There was an
International Rights Directors Meeting
and a Global Rights Forum at the
beginning of the Fair. People come to
Frankfurt to buy licenses and to sell
licenses. The subject categories in
which titles are most frequently offered
in the Frankfurt Rights Catalogue
include:
.Fiction.
.Science.
.Social Science.
.Art.
.Business.
.History.
.Education.
.Medicine.
.Children's books.
.Languages and linguistics.
The top ten translations from
German into other languages in 2003
are:
(1) Chinese.
(2) Korean.
(3) Polish.
(4) Spanish.
(5) Czech.
(6) English.
(7) Italian.
(8) Dutch.
(9) French.
(10) Russian.
Interestingly, they corresponded to
the following list of languages being
translated into German:
.From English.
.French.
.Russian.
.Italian.
.Swedish.
.Dutch.
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