FRANKFURT — The Frankfurt book fair, the world's largest, opens
its doors this week to a publishing industry in robust health after the
pandemic boosted reading — but supply chain concerns threaten to dampen the
mood.
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After going almost fully digital last year to curb the coronavirus spread,
this year's fair is returning as an in-person event but will still be a more
muted version of past editions.
Fewer international exhibitors and authors are descending on the western
German city than before COVID, and much of the action will be online.
Fair director Juergen Boos, who will host the opening press ceremony on
Tuesday, said "it's still not a normal book fair" but offered a
chance for the industry to "reconnect".
It comes as the book business has been "doing pretty well over the past
18 months", he said, with people in many countries using the slower pace
of life during lockdown to read more — adolescents especially.
"Young people didn't just want to play computer games all day,"
Boos recently told reporters.
In the United States, printed book sales rose by more than eight percent in
2020 to record their best year in a decade, according to the NPD research
group.
Growth was driven by teen categories but also adult non-fiction, as people
turned to cookbooks and DIY books to pass the time at home.
In Germany, the European Union's largest book market, bookstores used the
shutdowns to expand their online sales, leading to a 20-percent jump in
internet revenues to 2.2 billion euros ($2.5 billion). Audio and e-books also
saw double-digit growth.
Christmas concerns
Books "proved to be a particularly resilient and popular medium during
the pandemic," Boos said.
But the news isn't all good. The book trade, with global revenues of around
$100 billion annually, isn't immune to the worldwide shortages of raw materials
and supply chain disruptions roiling national economies as they rebound from
the coronavirus downturn.
With the crucial Christmas holiday season fast approaching, publishers are
sounding the alarm about paper and cardboard shortages, bottlenecks at shipping
ports and a lack of lorry drivers.
"I fear that this Christmas people cannot be sure of getting any book
they want at short notice," Jonathan Beck, head of renowned German
publishing house C.H. Beck, told the Handelsblatt financial daily. He also
warned that books could become more expensive.
Atwood phoning in
This week's Frankfurt gathering is the latest example of trade fairs
stirring back to life and comes after the German city of Munich welcomed
400,000 visitors to the IAA auto show in September.
Nevertheless, the pandemic will loom large over the Frankfurt fair.
Daily visitor numbers are capped at 25,000 and fairgoers must show proof of
vaccination, a negative test or prove that they have recovered from Covid.
Masks must also be worn inside the conference center and the aisles will be
wider to avoid the usual shoulder-to-shoulder crowds at publishers' booths.
More than 1,500 exhibitors from more than 70 countries will be present, well
below the 7,500 exhibitors from over 100 countries that came in 2019. Just 200
authors are travelling to Frankfurt.
Uncertainty about travel restrictions and virus concerns are keeping many
large publishing houses and big-name writers away, particularly from the US, Asia,
and South America.
As a result, much of the networking and haggling over licensing and
translation rights will be done on digital platforms.
Canada meanwhile is getting a second chance as guest of honor, after last
year's Covid curbs upended the country's plans for the fair.
A delegation of Canadian authors including Michel Jean, Dany Laferriere and
Michael Crummey will be taking part in events open to the general public.
But Canada's star author Margaret Atwood of "The Handmaid's Tale"
fame, a Frankfurt regular in recent years, will only be appearing via video
link.
The Frankfurt book fair, which runs until Sunday, is the world's oldest
publishing trade event and dates back to the Middle Ages.
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