An Audible Romantasy in Frankfurt?

Throughout my long career in the book business there has been one constant; being at the Frankfurt Book Fair. For starry-eyed newbies to the publishing industry, which was me back in the 1980s, going to the Frankfurt Book Fair marked your arrival into the ranks of the privileged few. You had made it. That, and having your first business card.  

A fair to promote books has been in the Mainz/ Frankfurt region since Gutenberg invented the printing press there in mid 1400s, with the first formal fair being held in 1452. The fair as we recognise it today was re-established in 1949 to rebuild the German economy after the punishing devastation of WW2. So, even though the fair is now housed in the modern setting of the Frankfurt Messe, it has an impeccable heritage.

What happens there?

It is a Rights Fair for content, printed and digital. Publishers from around the world gather to buy and sell intellectual property from and to each other. Think of it as the very opposite of a writers’ festival which centres around individuals, a rights fair is the wholesale side of the business. No authors themselves, but lots of deals being done on the author’s behalf.

It is very hard to convey the scale of the fair. The fair is divided by language and region into several multi-level halls each the size of a football pitch. Photographs do not ever capture the size of the halls, nor record the impact of the hum of thousands of people all talking at once. Australians are housed in Hall 6 with our English language cousins the British and Americans, with the big Americans also spilling over into Hall 5. Hall 3 is the German Hall which is always buzzing and keeps our focus on the English language world in perspective.

Literary Agents have a designated space -the LitAg Centre- where from rows of individual tables they sell, sell, sell all day (and into the night at various dinners and bars). It is bloody hard work and the gun Australian agents who were there; Nerrilee Weir, Benython Oldfield and Melanie Osted were repping their lists brilliantly.

Audible dominates

I have had a few years away from Frankfurt and upon my return I did see the clear post-covid structural shifts in our industry. Before you even enter the fair, the stage is set by Amazon’s dominance. Banners flew at the entrance advertising Audible, Audible ads ran alongside the moving walkways and huge Audible banners wrapped around buildings. OK, Jeff, we get it. You rule the world. Futurists predict that over time, we will not read printed books only listen on audio. Like handwriting, reading will be something our grandparents did. Spotify, Audible, Apple Books are fully prepped for that shift.

Author as Brand

The market power of author as brand was so evident: think James Clear, Richard Osman, Coleen Hoover, JK Rowling, Sarah J Maas. These authors do not need a trade publisher to make them famous, they made themselves famous and publishers are almost reduced to being the conduits to bookshops. The US writer Sarah J Maas is the epitome of author as brand. Her romantasy books, including the series A Court of Thorns and Roses have sold 40 million copies worldwide. Her books dominated not only the stand of her publisher Bloomsbury, but also the background buzz of the fair. Copycat books were everywhere, publishers relishing in the knowledge books really can sell millions, with enough sexy elves we can do this!

Private Equity Debut

This Frankfurt also saw the debut of private equity giant KKR onto the publishing stage courtesy of their US$1.6B acquisition of Simon and Schuster (who distribute Ventura’s books in Australia). I see the acquisition as a very positive sign for our industry, that KKR see books as vital, important and with potential for growth.

Authors Equity

Another very interesting debut was Authors Equity – a new publishing company formed by three US book industry titans: Madeline McIntosh, former Penguin Random House CEO, Nina von Moltke, formerly president and director of strategic development at PRH and former Macmillan CEO Don Weisberg. Authors Equity aims to capitalise on the author as brand phenomenon and eschew conventional publishing models, choosing more innovative contracts and profit shares. It was music to my ears as that is a model which I have been using at Ventura for many years. Good to know there are like minded publishing people put there too.

I returned home to King Charles III in Sydney and the harbour sparkling, invigorated about my industry what lies ahead for Ventura.