The world’s largest trade show, Frankfurt Book Fair, was held last week. It got off to a rocky start when the fair’s director made a statement that the event “stands with complete solidarity on the side of Israel.” This led to some exhibitors, including Arab publishing associations and exhibitor stands for Indonesia and Malaysia, pulling out at the last minute. The majority of Israeli publishers canceled as well, not because of the statement but because of the Israel-Hamas war. Learn more.
Nevertheless, the show was seen as having come back fairly strong following three tough pandemic years, reaching 70 percent of 2019’s attendance. Here are the trends we spotted.
- A longtime literary scout, Bettina Schrewe, observed the following: “The trend to focus and publish books that will get a boost from TikTok continues to be popular, and we are reading more in this genre than ever. Many of our clients are now looking for romance, romantasy, fantasy, literary and upmarket horror, and genre-bending fiction. Funnily enough, we’ve seen several sports romances in the past months as well. But at the end of the day, we all would like to find the next Bonnie Garmus. Subjects that we have seen plenty [too much] of recently are post-pandemic novels, climate literature, and dystopia.”
- An international sales director, Gemma Davis, noted: “There is one thing that everyone agrees on—BookTok has made reading fashionable, and young people are flocking to bookstores in a way that they haven’t since Harry Potter entered the global consciousness. … Whatever criticisms may be aimed at BookTok, the beauty of it is that it is created by and for people who love books.” She added, “No one knows if the significant impact of BookTok will end abruptly or if it will slowly fade out and something will come along and take its place, but what we do know is it has had a profound impact on the reading habits of young people and their relationship to bookstores, and that can only be a good thing.”
- Nielsen BookScan, which tracks book sales in the UK, also highlighted TikTok’s effect on buying across the world: “Growth in fiction sales seen in six of the countries now monitored by NielsenIQ is primarily driven by romance and sagas titles appearing with BookTok hashtags,” Nielsen’s Hazel Kenyon said.
- The new CEO of Penguin Random House, Nihar Malaviya, told Publishers Weekly: “We’ve held on to many of the readers we gained during COVID, leading to an increase in overall revenues, but we have also been faced with significant cost increases across our business. We have already taken several steps to offset these pressures in some of our markets around the world.” In an interview with Publishing Perspectives, Malaviya said he expects US book banning to get worse during the 2024 election cycle; in response, PRH is participating in lawsuits as well as PR initiatives like the Banned Wagon.
Looking for more? Browse Frankfurt coverage from Publishers Weekly.
Jane Friedman has spent her entire career working in the publishing industry, with a focus on business reporting and author education. Established in 2015, her newsletter The Bottom Line provides nuanced market intelligence to thousands of authors and industry professionals; in 2023, she was named Publishing Commentator of the Year by Digital Book World.
Jane’s expertise regularly features in major media outlets such as The New York Times, The Atlantic, NPR, The Today Show, Wired, The Guardian, Fox News, and BBC. Her book, The Business of Being a Writer, Second Edition (The University of Chicago Press), is used as a classroom text by many writing and publishing degree programs. She reaches thousands through speaking engagements and workshops at diverse venues worldwide, including NYU’s Advanced Publishing Institute, Frankfurt Book Fair, and numerous MFA programs.
