Notes from Frankfurt

Now that you know how we got there, here are some notes from the actual book fair!

The Frankfurter Buchmesse, as the Frankfurt Book Fair is known, is the largest trade fair for books in the world, attracting around 300,000 visitors each year. The book fair is over 500 years old, the earliest fair being held by local German booksellers soon after the invention of the Gutenberg press. It’s a centuries’ old tradition and we were delighted to be a part of the book fair once again. 

I think our annual trips to these book fairs are propelled by a search for beauty – beautiful books, beautiful places and beautiful people. Of course, it’s business as usual, and our days are jam-packed with meetings to discuss translation rights and distribution deals and foreign licenses. We met publishers from all over the world for a week that was as populated with serious discussion as it was with fun and revelry.

Our books met with much interest, and that’s always gratifying to note. We had pinned up gorgeous posters across our stand, and passers-by would often stop by, simply curious or fascinated by the posters.

There was also a palpable difference when compared to last year in terms of the amount of space taken up by digital applications and services. Large designated “hotspots” could be found all around the messe, where discussions on print and digital publishing took place. Several exciting gadgets could be seen everywhere, each more complicated and outlandish than the previous.

These are pictures of our beautiful stand lined with picture books and posters:

And you can see more pictures here!