On October 19th, the 74th Frankfurt Book Fair opened. The slogan of this year’s book fair is “translate, transfer. transform “. At the press conference opening the fair the previous day, Juergen Boos, chairman and chief executive of Frankfurt Book Fair, said that the number of exhibitors returning to the offline pavilion this year is expected to be close to the number in 2019. More than 4,000 exhibitors from 94 countries are exhibiting at the Frankfurt Exhibition Center, and the more than 600 tables in the Copyright Exchange Center were sold out a few months ago.
Spain, as the guest country of honor, made its appearance at this book fair with the theme of “Creatividad Desbordante”. “Multilingualism” is the core of this year’s book fair. The interactive guest-of-honor pavilion is divided into two stages, which will showcase the colorful and vibrant literature and culture of Spain during the 5-day period. The book fair will last from the 19th to the 23rd, and will be open to the public for three consecutive days starting from October 21st. The 2023 Frankfurt Book Fair has been confirmed to be held from October 18th to 22nd, with Slovenia as the guest of honor.
This year’s Frankfurt Book Fair kicked off with copyright deals for the works of three female authors. The agents of authors Marcela Fuentes, Nicole Dennis-Benn and Vivian Tu all reportedly secured publishing deals in excess of one million dollars for their upcoming works.
The launch of the “Global 50” Rankings for Publishers report has become a traditional event at the Frankfurt Book Fair, and this year’s report does not deter RELX Group from remaining the world’s largest book publisher in 2021, according to the shake-up caused by the global pandemic of the New Coronavirus. Despite a 3 percent decline in sales compared with 2020, the publisher, which covers the fields of science, medicine, academia and law, remains well ahead of No. 2 Thomson Reuters in the annual global rankings of publishers for fiscal 2021. The top six publishers in 2020 all retained their positions in 2021, and while there were some shifts in the top 10 publisher positions, no company dropped out of this echelon. These 10 largest publishers will have sales of approximately $35 billion in 2021, slightly higher than in 2020, and represent 53 percent of the total sales of the 50 companies on the list in 2021. Phoenix Publishing & Media Co. achieved a 9% increase in sales in 2021, ahead of South China Publishing & Media Co. (#17), China Publishing & Media Co. (#27) and China Technology Publishing & Media Co. (#38), which made the top 50 list.
Editor Haipei
