Over 100,000 trade visitors attend Frankfurt

Wednesday, 25 October 2023 Books+Publishing

About 105,000 trade visitors from 130 countries attended this year’s Frankfurt Book Fair (FBF), which ran from 18–22 October, reports Publishers Weekly.

FBF director Juergen Boos said the fair had returned to about 80% of the exhibitors that it had in 2019, adding that part of the decline in attendance reflects the loss of the Russian national stand, following the country’s invasion of Ukraine, and Iran, which pulled out following the fair’s announcement of Salman Rushdie as winner of the German Book Trade Peace Prize. According to PW, geopolitics ‘loomed large’ over the event, with several Arab publishing organisations, as well as Indonesia and Malaysia, abruptly pulling out of the fair to protest the decision to postpone the 2023 LiBeraturpreis award ceremony honouring Palestinian author Adania Shibli.

PW reported that trending book genres around the world in 2023 include occult books and gifts, including card decks; shadow work journals and books, which are trending on TikTok; and self-help books for new adults.

Another trend noted was the increase in rights sales to European publishers for English language rights. ‘The issue is that publishers are losing sales to English-language publishers while they wait for a translation, since readers can order an English-language book on Amazon or even buy it from their local bookstore,’ said Boos.

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