The Frankfurt Book Fair opens at Messe Frankfurt on October 7 and runs to October 11. It’s the biggest trade fair in publishing anywhere, and most of the real business happens in the first two days, October 7 and 8, when the halls are trade-only. The public gets in from October 9.
Frankfurt is a rights fair at heart. Publishers, literary agents and scouts come to buy and sell translation and film rights, and a book that’s hot in Frankfurt can be signed for a dozen languages before the week is out. The Frankfurt Rights Meeting turns 40 this year.
Czechia is Guest of Honour, under the motto A Country on the Coast, bringing 75 Czech authors to the fair. The halls have also been rearranged this year, with B2B exhibitors moved to the upper levels and public-facing stands on the ground floor. Jill Lepore, Yang Shuang-zi and Cornelia Funke are among the authors on the programme.
If you work anywhere in books, from publishing to printing to audio, Frankfurt is the week the industry’s year is decided.