Highlights from Frankfurt Book Fair

The annual worldwide gathering of traditional publishers and rights agents demonstrates both competition and collaboration in producing the best stories across media

This year’s Frankfurt Book Fair—seen as the most significant book publishing industry event of the year—was basically on par with past years’, with increased attendance (especially on the weekend) and a slight dip in exhibitors. You can find general highlights from the entire show at Publishing Perspectives from Porter Anderson.

Markus Dohle, the CEO of Penguin Random House, known for his optimism about the future of books, reiterated his positive message at Frankfurt, saying, “Who would have thought that in 2019, 80 percent of our global distribution is in physical formats? And that has stabilized the entire book ecosystem. On top of that, our audience is growing every year. Literacy rates are growing, so we have more people on the planet who can read. Children’s books are going through the roof.”

Of course, there’s reason Dohle might feel confident from his perch: PRH is the world’s largest trade publisher, with more than 275 imprints and brands on six continents. PRH publishes 15,000 new titles and sells around 600 million units per year combined, according to the Global 50 report. And PRH keeps growing, both organically and through acquisition. While their ebook sales are on the decline, audiobooks continue to grow strongly in the US and UK, as is the case with most traditional publishers.

You could find a very different message from other sectors of the industry—such as Sweden, the home of Storytel, Europe’s biggest digital subscription service. Speaking to Carlo Carrenho at Publishers Weekly, Swedish economist and researcher Erik Wikberg, author of a just-published study on the digital audio market, suggests that Swedish publishers should be concerned with how digital content now competes for a consumer’s attention. “If I had a choice, I would primarily focus on the threats related to how media consumption might move from books to other products. The share of Swedish 18-year-olds who read every day has dropped from 27 percent to 11 percent in just six years, and they are instead consuming other kinds of digital media. This is my biggest worry right now.” However, Wikberg also pointed to data showing that digital audiobooks are expanding the audience for publishers. “In volume, people are consuming more books than ever,” Wikberg said.

Given that, one might see Frankfurt as inviting a fox into the henhouse when it featured a Netflix VP for the Global 50 CEO talk, a spot normally filled by one of the top 50 book publishers. However, Kelly Luegenbiehl, head of international originals at Netflix, told those at Frankfurt that Netflix is not competing against book publishers. As reported in Publishers Weekly by Ed Nawotka, she said, “We look at the publishers and editors as partners; that is the best word. For us, the more collaboration, the better.” Juxtapose that statement with the fact that growing numbers of writers—such as Harlan Coben, Tom Perrotta, and George Pelecanos—now work directly with Netflix, Audible, or other streaming services, or that Wattpad’s successful writers work through Wattpad Studios to write for TV and movies (more on that here).

At Frankfurt’s Rights Meeting, China was center stage, discussing market size and opportunity. According to Ed Nawotka at Publishers Weekly, despite China’s recent decline in rights purchases from foreign publishers, it still seeks books for translation. Of China’s $13 billion book market, about $3 billion is foreign books. Children’s book sales remain the strongest sector. A rights director from one of China’s largest publishers said a strong sales record is an important factor in deciding to pick up a book for translation; if a book can’t sell more than 5,000 copies in China, it doesn’t interest them.

Other stories coming out of Frankfurt:

• A look at the EU’s antitrust investigations into Amazon. One investigation focuses on whether Amazon uses data gathered from third-party sales on its platform to boost sales of its own products. An EU lawyer believes only new laws, not existing ones, could bring change that would benefit booksellers or publishers. Read Alex Mutter in Shelf Awareness.
• What did we learn from the Apple ebooks case? Andrew Albanese interviews law professor Chris Sagers about the DOJ case against Big Five publishers and Apple for fixing ebook prices. Read in Publishers Weekly.
• Storytel doesn’t plan to compete against Audible any time soon. The digital subscription service Storytel—a market leader in Europe, with a presence in 18 territories—wants to be in the top position wherever it goes, which may rule out any presence in the US. Read the interview with Carlo Carrenho in Publishers Weekly.
• Japanese bookstore Kinokuniya is expanding. Hiroshi Sogo of Kinokuniya told Shelf Awareness that their “business is growing very nicely, including the New York store.” Kinokuniya now has 14 stores in the United States and plans to open more.

Bottom line: Every year, Michael Cader of Publishers Marketplace tallies up deals made in the selling season leading up to Frankfurt, a broad indicator of industry trends (subscription required). Total deal volume was flat this year but helped by the increase in children’s book deals. (There were 25 percent more children’s book deals than adult fiction deals.) Big fiction sales continued their steady decline, as did debut fiction deals.