The Frankfurt Book Fair 2008

Although the Fair doesn’t officially close for a little while, for all intents and purposes, my time here is over. I’ve met with all the people I needed to meet with, visited all the stands I needed to visit, and drank enough beer to last me till FBF ‘09 and beyond.

Despite the fact that I really need some restful sleep–without the aid of alcohol–and time to sort through all the information I’ve gathered over the past six days, I’m still a bit sad to see the fair end. I get an ache inside when I see the ice cream carts empty and shut down for the year.

To me, the fair officially ended with the “Fairwell” Reception that just took place. Sponsored by the German Book Office of New Dehli, it featured Fair Director Jurgen Boos, who compared the Fair to a palimpsest, a collection of written, erased, and rewritted experiences from which each person takes away some images and ideas important to them. He also honored the participants in the Invitation Programme for Exhibitors, a group of 25 publishers from Africa, Asia, Latin America, Central and Eastern Europe who are given a free stand at the Fair and who attend a two-day seminar to learn about the Fair and the German book market as a whole.

This year’s participants included Almadia Editorial, a young press from Oaxaca that I found out about yesterday and am excited to check out in more detail when I get home. (They have a great list and beautiful production.)

I can’t think of a good parting line . . . For anyone who has never been here, the Frankfurt Book Fair is almost impossible to summarize. It’s an intense week of meetings every half-hour on the half-hour. A week of very late nights (turn early mornings) of partying and mingling and exchanging information. It’s a chance to reconnect with international colleagues and a chance to learn more about the international publishing scene in one week than most people do in a lifetime. It’s also incredibly exhausting and extremely exhilarating to be in a place where books really, truly matter to all the tens of thousands of people in attendance. And it’s also officially over.

Turkey’s time in the limelight at Frankfurt came to end today, as director of the fair Juergen Boos handed over the Guest of Honour scroll to author Zhang Jei, who accepted it on behalf of next year’s Guest of Honour, China.

What has impressed me with the program this year has the been the enormous media interest in both countries. If you really want to stand out at Frankfurt, the GOH program is the way to do it. Given the fair’s immensity, you could say it’s the only way to stand out.

Yes, it may be the last thing publisher want to think about at a book fair known for rights deals: Remainders are one of the fastest growing segments of the book business. As publishers put more and more titles into smaller and smaller bookstores, the remainder market represents the last real chance for a book to reach a reader before it gets pulped or tossed into a landfill.

It is, perhaps, the saddest fate for a book I know…

James Crates is the sales manager of Texas Bookman, an American remainder book dealer based in Dallas and is a subsidiary of the bookstore chain Half-Price Books. Coates says his company returned to Frankfurt for the first time last year after a 15 year hiatus.

“We decided to come again because our European busienss is growing,” said Coates, “and lots of Asian buyers will only go to the Frankfurt Book Fair and not any of the remainder shows.”

The remainder business in Europe is growing, he says, in particular in countries like England, Germany and France. It may come as a surprise to learn Coates biggest European customer is not in a native English speaking country.

“It’s De Slegte, in Holland. They’ve bought the booth, so they get what I don’t sell here piecemeal today.”

Coates was still manning his booth late on Sunday afternoon even as the riiiiiip-riiiiiiip of packing tape could be heard echoing throughout Hall 8, as vendors boxed up their booths around him.

“I’ve been here in this booth all week and haven’t even left Hall 8″  said Coates, who still managed to look somewhat rested after five days on his feet. He won’t get a break either. Coates, whose suitcases were ready and waiting in a corner of the booth, is flying directly from Frankfurt to Chicago, where he’ll work the CIROBE (The Chicago International Remainder and Overstock Exhibition) which starts next Friday.

Coates personally he attends about a half dozen trade shows a year — including BookExpoAmerica and the London Book Fair — and and occassionally sends assistants to cover smaller shows. He’s already planning ahead for FBF 2009.

“Business has been been good, so maybe,” he says, “I can bring someone to help in the booth and that will give me a little time to explore.”

Not for any reason other than their fascination, my two favorite titles discovered at this year’s fair are:

• Clip Art for Celebrating Funerals and Care of the Sick by Susan Daily (John Garratt Publishing)
• The Foreskin’s Lament by Shalom Auslander (Riverhead)

In addition to talking about Marguerite Duras at the Frankfurter Hof (as Ed mentioned below), Anne-Solange, the rights director for Gallimard, also spoke at length about Nobel Prize winner Jean-Marie Gustave Le Clezio, his latest book, and her decision not to auction this to American publishers during the fair.

Although a number of French writers have won the prize over the years (fourteen, I believe), this was the first Gallimard author to win during Anne-Solange’s tenure. And Le Clezio is most definitely a Gallimard author–all of his forty plus titles are published there, beginning with Le Procès-Verbal (The Interrogation) in 1963. His most recent book is Ritournelle de la faim, which came out earlier this year.

His books have been translated all over the world, and a number of titles have even been translated into English and published in America. Most recently, Godine published The Prospector and Curbstone did Wandering Star. Nevertheless, American journalists shrugged their shoulders in confusion when he was announced as the Nobel winner last week, and at the fair, a very important American publisher referred to Le Clezio as “unknown” to Anne-Solange. (Coincidentally, Le Clezio’s Dutch publisher was there to speak up about the seven titles he has in print.)

That’s where this story gets interesting to me. Rather than jumping on the Nobel buzz and trying to auction the rights to the new Le Clezio book to a commercial U.S. publisher, Anne-Solange decided not to even try to sell the rights at the Fair. “When an American publisher asks me about the book I reply with ‘Why are you interested in this Le Clezio? What do you know about his other books?,’ ” she said, clearly getting some well-deserved pleasure out of the baffled responses. “I tell them that I’ll note their interest, but this is a new book, I don’t need to rush the sale, I’ll sell the rights later. Instead I want to focus on getting a lot of Le Clezio in print.”

That’s the crux of the situation: Simon & Schuster have the rights to four titles, but isn’t really jumping at the chance to make these available. This is in contrast with Le Clezio’s German publisher which put ten titles back in print (and in bookstores) three days after the Nobel announcement. As is common in the U.S. publishing scene, most publishers are only interested in the new book and hesitate to go back to do an author’s older work. (Which is ridiculous and emphasizes how the commercial market trumps quality in America.)

After speaking with her for a while, it’s clear that Anne-Solange wants to do right by Le Clezio’s work, rather than simply cashing in on his current fame. To me, this is a very valid approach, but one that most people will react badly to. (Anne-Solange has a bit of a reputation for criticizing American publishers and their resistance to French–well, any foreign country’s–fiction.) The desire to “create a context” for an author’s work is very admirable, and was echoed in my conversation with Carles Torner of the Ramon Llull Institut who wants a wide range of classic and modern Catalan authors translated into English rather than just a few contemporary books.

Whether or not Anne-Solange’s plan will work out and allow for a slew of Le Clezio books to become available to American readers remains to be seen. This is pure speculation, but I think it’s going to take some time and an independent press to bring Le Clezio to the U.S. market. Big presses have the ability to put books in print virtually overnight, but it doesn’t seem like they think of Le Clezio as a potentially profitable author. (Which seems strange, but there are those French Nobel winners–cough, Claude Simon, cough–who don’t sell very well in America despite the quality of their works.) They would also be adverse to translating some of the past books. An independent press might have a different viewpoint, although it would be more difficult for a smaller press to get a bunch of titles in print and in stores in a short period of time.

But all this could change come Monday when a Le Clezio story appears in the new issue of the New Yorker . . .

Since Wednesday, my friend Garth Stein and I had been trying to connect. He was in Frankfurt to launch his novel “The Art of Racing in the Rain” with his German publisher Droemer. Neither of us had turned on our phones for fear of running up enormous bills on our AT&T data services – mine ran to more than $800 last year (which was criminal) – so there was no way to connect, save for occasional emails sent at inconvenient hours. He suggested I crash a Droemer party at the Frankfurter Hof – and I did, on the wrong night (see below). He sent suggested I drop by the Droemer booth in Hall 3 – I went looking for more than an hour, and got lost like Hansel in the forest – only to discover the Droemer booth was in Hall 4. Finally, last night, we managed to meet…

And this is why we come to Frankfurt: Garth’s novel has been a huge success in the US, where it hit a number of bestseller lists and was picked up for sale by Starbucks. It had already been bought by publishers in 25 markets for translation into a total of 19 languages, with two more deals made here in Frankfurt still pending. So, when I ask Garth where’s left, he tells me, “Man…what I really want is to be published in India. I really think they’d get my book.” And, as if by pure chance, standing next to us at the party is Akshay Pathak of the German Book Office in New Delhi.

Garth’s novel might just resonate with Indian readers, a huge potential market. The story, as Stein tells it, concerns a race car driver and his dog Enzo, who though dying, studies human behavior in the belief that he will be reincarnated as a human himself.

Pathak, who isn’t the type to give people false hope, considered Stein’s pitch and handed over a card, with the words: “Let’s see if we can’t find you an Indian publisher…!”

A few moments later, Stein is chatting up Dr. Ali Bin Tamim, director of the Kalima translation project in Abu Dhabi, UAE. He too appeared interested.

Stein looked around and said aloud, “I’m beginning to feel like I should have to pay commission to someone.” (That, no doubt, will something his sub-agent will be interested in hearing.)

So there you have it: A bit of Frankfurt luck. All the planning in the world wouldn’t have predicted such fortuitious serendipity.

Novelist Zhang Jie was introduced to the media this week as one of China’s leading writers. She gave a speech that revealed some of her thoughts on the modernisation and opening up of the Chinese book market. Some of the ideas may have resonance for many of us in the West.

Zhang Jie believes the market for literature has changed significantly in China.

‘Thirty years ago, publishing houses would carefully and discretely consider the literary seriousness of a book before they decided to publish it,’ she said at a media event earlier this week. ‘Nowadays, the publishing of books is mainly controlled by booksellers. In the bookseller’s view, literary seriousness should be neglected, the market value is the most important factor, and a group of controllers directs writers and tells them what and how to write … What’s more, with the cooperation of the recreational media, any vulgar book can be publicised as a great one.’

Zhang Jie confessed such a trend has almost extinguished her interest in reading. Then, in 2006, she started to discover German writers such as Thomas Hettsche, Jakob Hein and Juli Zeh, and rediscovered her love of reading.

Notwithstanding this, Zhang Jie finds the new information age is a double-edged sword.

‘It brings an age of snack culture and pleasure seeking. In such an age, a civilised culture cannot survive … People do not love thinking as deeply as before. Instead, they pursue a comfortable life, yearn for more wealth and fame, and even sell their freedom to enjoyment.’

That all this was said while Zhang Jie was sitting alongside Li Dongdong, Vice Minister of China’s General Administration of Press and Publication makes me look forward to hearing more forthright views from China’s writers next year, when the country will be Guest of Honour.

No trip to the Frankfurt Book Fair is complete without a trip across the Main river to the district of Sachsenhausen, to drink some traditional apfelwein (apple cider) and eat one of the many variations on that great German culinary theme - meat and potatoes.

Also in Sachsenhausen is the Spritzehaus bar, which these past few nights has been featuring an energetic 1980s cover band called Madhouse Flowers. If you work in the comics business some of the faces in the band may be familiar to you.

Apparently, Lance Kreiter and team from the Milwaukee, US, comic publisher Dark Horse Comics rock out every year at Frankfurt, and have a lot fun doing it too. Certainly, rocking to their Doors medley made a refreshing change from the more refined atmosphere of the Frankfurter Hof.

After the Halls close for the night is when the serious work starts. This week in Frankfurt featured more than its share of blowout parties, impromptu gatherings, and late night soirees.

At the traditional buttoned-up affair thrown by Bertelsmann, Random House Chairman and CEO Markus Dohle made an made an impression by greeting guests with his enthusiastic handshaking. (When did receiving lines at corporate book parties become a trend?)

Cologne’s Dumont Verlag hosted agents and publishers on Friday night at the Mantis nightclub at what was promised to be a “roof-top party with dancing,” yet turned out to be a “second floor balcony party with standing around.” Everyone huddled in their coats around the gas fired heaters. One rather tall Swedish agent got so close to one I swear she nearly singed her hair. Someone speculated that the party was probably an effort by Dumont to spend some of the windfall they earned from Charlotte Roche’s half-million copy bestselling novel Feuchtgebiete (which translates as ‘wetlands’ and depicts a girl’s hospitalization after a botched job shaving her pubic hair). Roche, sadly, wasn’t present,

but at least the pretzels were good.

Last year’s Young Publishers party was notable for the single dancing girl who cleared the dance floor with her martial-arts moves (all done in high heeled boots). This year’s party, at multi-level warehouse on the edge of downtown, was most notable for the five euro cover charge, fifty cent deposit for beer bottles, and the feeling that a fire could have wiped out half the global publishing community under the age of 40. This was, above all, a smoker’s party – with people gleefully lighting up and thwarting Frankfurt’s recent policies banning indoor puffing. Chad and I made some new friends from Bloomsbury Germany, who upon leaving at 2 a.m. expressed genuinely surprise they had such a good time talking to a couple of Americans all night.

As Andrew mentioned below, there was the Exhibitor’s Night bash at the Congress Center celebrating the Book Fair’s 60th anniversary, described below. In addition to what Andrew has said, I can only add that if anyone is curious — the Turkish-German singer who performed is named Muhabbet; he was followed by the duo Friend ‘n Fellow and the ubiquitous DJ…somebody or other. Me, I hit the chill out room once the DJ started. The chill out room hosted a “Poetry Slam” at the time, which nearly sent me careening for the exit. It was much to my surprise, quite relaxing, especially compared to the torturous techno being played on the dance floor.

Indeed, one of strangest attractions at a party I’ve ever seen – the Human Teletubbies. No, I don’t mean the cartoon characters, but women wearing vests with a small computer screen embedded in them. I stopped on to ask what was playing on the screen and she told me it was a montage of images from the 60 years of the Fair (it resembled a powerpoint presentation). I asked the nearest Teletubbie if she found it awkward. She merely looked at me and shrugged.

“How German, I thought…” Of course, I’m not she understood a word I said.

Somehow, the final stop of the night always seems to be the Frankfurter Hoff. Aside from some confusion one night when I accidentally crashed a Droemer Knaur cocktail party where I was most definitely not welcome, there were usually some friendly faces in the crowd — including Richard “Dickie” Nash, Charlie Winton, and David Poindexter. (Next year, I’m told, I really must crash the Russian publishers party instead.)

On Saturday night, the always poised Anne-Solange Noble discussed a new edition of Marguerite Duras that is being published by Chad’s “Open Letter” press later this year. Around 2:30 a.m. Grove/Atlantic publisher Morgan Entriken displayed uncharacteristic restraint by turning down an invitation to his own Grove/Cannongate party early this Sunday morning.

“I’m old,” said Entriken, “and I’m going home.”

Last night was the perfect night to celebrate 60 years of the Frankfurt Book Fair, for it was the day the fair broke its all-time single day attendance record.

A total of 78,218 people walked through the fair’s portals (an 8.1% increase on the same day last year). Once the fair had closed, 3000 of them stayed behind last night for a special party to celebrate 60 years of the fair.

This was no ordinary party. After only a few minutes, a woman approached me and offered to show me her chest. I thought it was quite early in the party for such an offer, but actually she was a part of the official entertainment. The fair’s organisers has created a special commemorative video for the party and several people were wandering through the assembled throng showing the video on small video screens posited on their chests.

The party occupied several rooms in the fair’s capacious Congress Centre. In the main room, there was a sound stage and disco, with food arranged on huge tables organised by decade, from the 1950s to the Noughties. I’m not sure what this arrangement taught me about the evolution of German cuisine, as sausages seemed to play a major part in most of the dishes. By the time I got to dessert, all the tables had been cleared onto one table, and so I was able enjoy six decades of German pudding in one generous helping.

In another room, quieter and dimly lit, performance poets were entertaining a chilled-out crowd of literary types. I’m not a German speaker, so I can only guess at the topics covered by the poets, but I am surprised to have developed a new appreciation for the music of the German tongue.

It was a good time to reflect on how far the fair has come since the 1949, when it was a project created to aid Germany’s post-war reconstruction. It has continued to grow, adapt and innovate to the point where it is a major force for the development of a genuinely global industry. As the fair’s director Juergen Boos said to me the other day, ‘global’ need not be a negative thing - rather than creating a global uniformity, ‘it means everyone is talking with a different voice, but they’re talking to each other.’

Even though the party was Frankfurt’s way of thanking its exhibitors, it’s arguable that the exhibitors also owe the fair some thanks. With its prescient support for digital issues, professional development and the development of publishing in Arab countries and Africa, it is continuing to make it a lot easier for all of us to be genuinely global businesses.