Frankfurt: The Book Fair

Some of our visitors probably already know why the Frankfurt Book Fair is such an important event to attend if you’re in the publishing business. Today’s post is to give some background information on the fair itself, and hopefully give our followers a better understanding of this exciting venture. The Frankfurt Book Fair is the world’s largest trade fair based around books. It not only has the largest number of visitors of any book trade fair, it also has the largest number of publishing companies represented—yes, even more than BookExpo America.

The Frankfurt Book Fair is held every year in mid-October at the Frankfurt Trade Fair inFrankfurt am Main,Germany (let’s see how many times I can sayFrankfurt in one sentence!). More than 7,000 exhibitors from over 100 countries and more than 286,000 visitors take part over the five day book expo. The Frankfurt Book Fair is considered to be the most important book fair in the world for international deals and trading.

Want to book your own trip? There are a couple of things you should know beforehand. First, there are actually TWO Frankfurts inGermany (it’s kinda like how there’s aCleveland in almost every state). One is a large, bustling city that doubles as the Banking Capital of Europe and is home to the Book Fair. The other is a small town located in the state of Brandenburg with a population of just a little over 60,000. Make sure you’re going to the right place! The cities are differentiated by the rivers they lie on. There’s Frankfurt am Main (Frankfurt on [the] Main [river]) and Frankfurt am Oder (Frankfurt on [the]Oder [river]). The book fair takes place in Frankfurt am Main. Another major thing you will need to know is that, while this year’s fair runs from October 10th through 14, the general public can attend on the last two days. The first three days are restricted to trade visitors only.

For more information ont he Frankfurt Book Fair, you can visit the official English-language website, or hit the Wikipedia page for a quick overview.