The Bookseller.com

6th July 2009

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Frankfurt-bound defy global credit crunch

09.10.08 Catherine Neilan and Victoria Gallagher

Publishers are defying the credit crunch and heading to this year’s Frankfurt Book Fair with “all guns blazing”. Despite turmoil in the global financial markets and growing fears over consumer spending, the number of stands booked by publishers from both the UK and US has grown, from 797 to 798 and 637 to 673  respectively.

Turkey—this year’s guest of honour—has almost doubled the number of stands it took in 2007, from 28 to 53 and other regions, particularly Latin America and the Arab world, have also seen a boost to their numbers.

Although the final figure of attendees is yet to be announced, Frankfurt organisers were confident about the overall level. Thomas Minkus, vice-president of sales and marketing, said English-language publishers had increased their space by 2%—an encouraging sign for the industry’s resilience. He said: "The publishing industry works in different cycles, but of course everyone hopes it may not be affected at all by the financial crisis. Obviously we felt the effects of 11th September, but that was a different issue, one of security. It is difficult to say what the impact of this may be."

The view from UK publishers in the week before the fair was optimistic.

Jamie Camplin, m.d. of Thames & Hudson, said: "The world economy is disquieting but you have to put one’s confidence in the books . . . You have to avoid going into hiding and trust in the wonderful product that is books." Suzanne Baboneau, publishing director at Simon & Schuster UK, added: "We’re going with all guns blazing. There’s an avalanche of scripts and proposals at the moment, with agents trying to tie up deals so they can announce it next week."

Representatives of firms such as Dorling Kindersley, Bradt, AA Publishing and Geocentre, said it would be business as usual. Alistair Williams, m.d. of Summersdale Media, was bullish. "We’re bucking the trend and taking more people [to the fair] than ever," he said.

However Victoria Barnsley, c.e.o. of HarperCollins, struck a note of caution. "People always say books are the last thing to be affected by an economic slowdown, but the magnitude of this crisis is surely making everyone nervous. However, publishing is a gambling business and, as usual, I’m sure we’ll see a couple of fairly insane offers being made next week—if they haven’t already been made."

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