News and Events
The Frankfurt Book Fair is back
Often described as the Book Fair of the year, this was the first full Frankfurt event since the pandemic.
The Frankfurt Book Fair (Frankfurter Buchmesse) is the largest of its kind in the world. No other event attracts so many publishers or is seen as so important for international publishing rights and licensing. It is here that people meet face-to-face to negotiate the rights to produce, translate and manufacture books, and then distribute them across the globe.
This month (19-23 October) was the first full-scale Frankfurt Book Fair since the pandemic, making it both commercially and symbolically important. This year, as every year, Cambridge University Press & Assessment had a stand in the academic publishers’ hall and a dedicated team ready to do business.
Despite reports of caution about travelling due to Covid rates and long delays in getting travel visas, attendance this year saw 4,000 exhibitors across 12 halls of publishers and just under 200,000 visitors. Although these numbers were down by approximately 30 percent on 2019, they were still huge. Publishers of the same type shared a hall, each stand lined wall to wall with titles across the vast purpose-built Frankfurt exhibition and congress centre. From the first morning, the Cambridge stand buzzed with non-stop chatter as face-to-face meetings took place for the first time since 2019. This was a community reunited.
Frankfurt is also important for e-books sales. Giana Elyea, Sales Director for Trade and Higher Education in Academic Publishing, commented: “The growth of our digital titles is establishing a reputation that is on a par with their printed alter egos. Through Cambridge Core and the Higher Education websites - our online platforms for libraries, academics, instructors, students and researchers - users have access to over 1.9 million journal articles and over 48 000 books.”
Across the academic and education publishers at Frankfurt this year, a theme emerged: bringing understanding of the challenges we face as a global community to the learners of the world; developing the skills to understand and tackle climate, medical, political and economic crises.
Katie Scarff, rights expert, expanded on this: “Right now everyone is asking about books such as Michael D. Bess’s Planet in Peril. Word was also spreading about our new title out early next year, Marx in the Anthropocene: towards the idea of degrowth communism by Kohei Saito. This explores the relevance of Karl Marx in the context of the global climate crisis."
Knowledge is the answer
One of the most significant moments was an address by Volodymyr Zelensky, President of Ukraine, who spoke to a packed audience via a pre-recorded video link. His key message was “Knowledge is the answer” and he spoke to the audience at Frankfurt about the importance of sharing knowledge. “When people lack the knowledge they are easier to be manipulated by politics… Do everything you can to make people know.”
In response, Peter Kraus vom Cleff, President of the Federation of European Publishers, urged delegates to unite in support of colleagues in Ukraine’s publishing sector and maintain the production of books. He spoke of how “books can build bridges… and books help train our empathy”. Cambridge University Press & Assessment is playing its part too: back in June, the Cambridge Partnership for Education signed an agreement with the Ministry of Education & Science in the Ukraine to support the education of temporarily displaced children.
Looking ahead to the future
Next year will be the 75th Frankfurt Book Fair. Chris Bennett, the Press’s Global Commercial Director, was heartened to see the Fair resume its place at the heart of the industry’s year. He commented: "It was a delight to return to such a robust Frankfurt Book Fair after the pandemic.
“Despite current commercial and macro-economic challenges, customer confidence in our publishing and services has been demonstrated by the large volume of opportunities generated by meetings the team held at the Fair. It was particularly encouraging to receive positive feedback on our open research and higher education strategies from a global cross-section of partners and industry peers. We’re all looking forward to seeing what we can achieve at Frankfurt in 2023."
