For the editor of a magazine sometimes known as the Pravda of the book trade, it is perhaps a little peevish to complain of other people’s reticence. But here we are. Frankfurt 2025 will be remembered by what was not said, rather than by what was. As an industry that trades in words (and pictures), we might want to reflect on this.

But first the good news. This trade fair was generally buoyant, if a little quieter in numbers – I felt – than in previous years. Busy diaries and big rights announcements helped the mood, according to The Bookseller Daily, as did some gossip, most of it unprintable.

Frankfurt is timely. As Christmas tills begin to cha-ching to the sounds of Richard Osman, Charlie Mackesy and Freida McFadden, it offers up a view of what is to come, with agents and publishers espying high-concept fiction, fantasy and romcoms, popular psychology and escapist non-fiction as the things those future readers will want.

Among the deals announced at the fair were Kate Mosse’s big move to HarperCollins division HQ, and the Bosh! boys’ – Henry Firth and Ian Theasby – departure from HQ to DK. Someone mentioned deckchairs to me, but brands are often invigorated by having fresh publishing teams around them and these deals, along with Bloomsbury’s smart move for Adolescence actor Stephen Graham,  new deals for RF Kuang and Transworld’s Alison Barrow, and a new book from Matt Haig all indicate the underlying health of the futures market.

The agents’ bit of the fair  really does still work, with traders in back-to-back meetings that begin at the Frankfurter Hof at the start of the week and spill over till after the fair. But other than that, Frankfurt is smaller than it once was, and perhaps we should now acknowledge that what once felt unmissable is now missed by many. This year I saw and encountered too few CEOs and aside from Simon & Schuster UK CEO Perminder Mann and Macmillan US CEO John Yaged, the bigger houses did not cough up their leaders for the kind of set-piece interviews that place the sector at the centre of things. Those panels I did attend felt tame and a little over-rehearsed. 

As the rapid, and still unexplained departure of HarperCollins UK CEO Charlie Redmayne tells us, we only get a brief time at the wheel

Why this is so, I do not get. With tech companies ripping us off, politicians stoking tensions globally and locally, free speech under threat and reading for pleasure in decline, now should be a moment to grasp that mic and tell it how it is. But the podiums are weirdly muted (though in some areas the acoustics are so bad you might as well be silent).

Further, when our reporters ask for commentary from those en haut about the world’s biggest book fair, there is a general throwing up of hands. One publishing group told us that there were no communications professionals available at the fair to fashion a quote. Really? No one able to talk publicly at a book fair? For shame. I know plenty of leaders in the book business and the one thing they all share is an ability to talk about it.

Publishers, of course, argue that it is the books that do the talking, and given the headlines generated by books such as Andrew Lownie’s Entitled, and Virginia Giuffre’s Nobody’s Girl, perhaps we should let them. But as the rapid, and still unexplained departure of HarperCollins UK CEO Charlie Redmayne tells us, we only get a brief time at the wheel, so we may as well drive with the lights on and the horns blaring.

The trade fairs I remember best were not because of the books, but for the conversations, the confrontations and the bombast. A new report from consultants Bain & Company has said publishing is in crisis (again). Do not go gentle into that good night, as Dylan Thomas once wrote. The game is afoot, let’s rage like it is our last rodeo.