The Book is Dead. Long Live the Book!

Recent news of the book’s ailing health might lead one to think that the publishing industry was on its deathbed or close to it. Nothing seems to be further from the truth, if events like the Frankfurt book fair—more than 7,000 exhibitors strong—are any indication. There are dozens of book fairs each year around the world, from Albania to Zimbabwe. While some are sales events, many, like Frankfurt are trade fairs, where agents, authors, and publishers come to buy and sell rights and services.

If alive and well, the book is, however, suffering from a split personality. It still exists as the physical object we have long known, but increasingly it has a digital life. And the soaring popularity of e-readers and e-books is bringing fundamental changes to the publishing industry.

I work for a public organization that has been in the e-book business for more than 10 years – the International Development Research Centre. For decades we have published the results of research we fund – there’s not a large market share for this product, obviously. While we originally did our own publishing, since 2000 or so we have worked in collaboration with commercial and academic publishers around the world. The deal is simple: essentially our publishing partners have all rights to the printed book and sales; we share e-rights and the right to publish the ebook on our website, full-text, free of charge. We support the publication through buybacks of books to distribute to our key stakeholders. We also distribute the books through aggregators like Googlebooks, NetLibrary, and other vendors. Our motive is not profit, but to ensure that the results of valuable research are as widely disseminated as possible.

So far, this has worked well and we have many copublishing partners. But this past year or two, many of them have also entered the epublishing world and are selling ebooks themselves and through the same aggregators. You can see the problem. What is the solution?

On the positive side is that e-readers appear to be increasing, if not the market for books, at least readership generally. The Pew Research Centre reports that close to 30% of Americans own one of these devices. Those who do read an average of 7 more books a year than those who don’t have an e-reader.


. Long live the book!

Some fun facts about the Frankfurt Book Fair

Instructions for beginners:

1. Wear comfortable shoes.
2. Book your appointments ahead of time.
3. Drink lots of water.
4. Allow enough time between apointments to get to the other hall.
5. Wear comfortable shoes.
6. Do not leave your stand unattended.
7. Bring lots of business cards.
8. Wear comfortable shoes.

Security:
On the open days of the fair, Hall 8 is the only hall protected by guards at all doors who check all your packages every time you enter ("Oh, extra shoes-- just like a woman.") Perhaps being next to the World Bank and the IMF was not such a good idea after all...

But who are they kidding? The monstrous boxes and crates delivered over the two set-up days could have carried commando units, let alone little explosive devices.



There's always time for a touchup.

Saturday and Sunday, the fair is open to the public:
And if you're a teen-- or think like one-- you come dressed up as your favourite manga character or other beastie and get in free. Great fun. They mill around the square between halls 3 and 4. I'm sure I saw Howl, at least one of them.

Who is this? And why?

The book fair that was

Welcome to the fair.

Frankfurt 2012.

Day 1: October 8
At a fast clip it was a 20-minute hike from the entance of the Messe to Hall 8, home of English language countries and international organizations. Or as one blogger put it, so far that it deserved its own time zone. The moving walkways are not-- and when they later do, they move at a geriatric pace

Set up day was obvioulsy not for small players like IDRC, with a 2x2 m booth and two boxes of display stuff. The hall was crawling with high loaders shuffling huge black plastic wrapped packages. Booths the size of homes were being erected.Some have enough furniture for a banquet hall.

The scene at booth N910 was dismal. Pieces of lumber on the plastic-covered floor, the table and chairs shrink wrapped, the shelves as dusty as some at home. Clearly no one from the Commonwealth Secretariat, right in front of me, has come. The OECD stand next door is being erected and plastic flowers planted. The World Bank's domain is wrapped in yellow tape like a crime scene. At least we're in good company.

I unwrap the table, mount the shelves and decide that tomorrow will be soon enough to open the boxes. Maybe someone will have swept the floor.

Day 2: October 9
Nope, the floor has not been swept but there are fewer impassable aisles and the highloaders are retreating. More boxes and packages are being brought in through huge bays-- unbelievable what some publishers ship. I open my two boxes and set up our modest display. After all, I'm not here to sell books, but to meet with our copublishers and distributors. And my dance card for the next 3 days is very full.

IDRC's home: N910, Hall 8