How Frankfurt can transform a business of any size

While the big deals made by the major publishing companies may get all the headlines, Frankfurt offers signficant oportunities to smaller companies. A good example is Australia’s The Book Company. Twelve years ago, says sole director and publisher Glenn Johnstone (pictured left with his team), the children’s publisher wasn’t exporting at all, even though it had been in operation for a decade.

More than a decade of Frankfurt Book Fairs later, 85% of The Book Company’s income is derived from overseas sales, and it has sold books to 38 countries in 23 different languages.

This year has been ‘by far and away the best Frankfurt for us,’ Johnstone told me. ‘So much so that we’re looking to double the size of our stand from Bologna onwards.’ He says the books most in demand are educational books for six-to-nine-year-olds. ‘People are looking for a point of difference,’ he observed.

The US and UK are still strong markets for The Book Company, but China, Japan, Germany, Serbia and Hungary are now producing some of its biggest deals. Not that it’s all been plain sailing: ‘It takes a lot of fairs to build a client list.’

Posted in Book Fair