Frankfurt Book Fair opens its doors to trade visitors

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Frankfurt (dpa) - The Frankfurt Book Fair, the world's largest trade fair for books, opened its doors to trade visitors Wednesday.

The 58th edition of the event, which runs till Sunday October 8, features 7,272 exhibitors from 113 countries displaying almost 400,000 titles. Audiobooks, DVDs, CD-Roms, films, magazines, comics and new media products are also on display.

Around 180,000 trade visitors are expected to attend the fair along with an estimated 100,000 members of the general public when the doors are opened to them on Saturday and Sunday.

Up to 1,000 authors are expected to appear at the fair, including many from Guest of Honour country India such as Amitav Ghosh and Mahasweta Devi, in addition to well-known British authors British Zadie Smith and Ken Follett.

India will be using the event as an opportunity to showcase its culture and literature, and to promote the translation of books written in the country's 24 official languages.

"We are focusing on conveying a holistic image of modern India around books, in keeping with the theme "Today's India,'" said Nuzhat Hassan, director of India's National Book Trust (NBT), the main organizer from the subcontinent.

Besides the cultural aspect, the fair is mainly about selling book rights with an estimated 600 million euros worth of business carried out during last year's edition.

The Frankfurt Rights Catalogue lists more than 19,000 titles from 70 countries in 55 languages with rights for sale.

The fair will offer India's publishing industry a key opportunity to do business, the event's director told a press conference Wednesday.

Juergen Boos said that India is receiving "huge publicity" from the event and the 175 Indian publishers at the fair will have a chance to meet industry figures and do business with them.

As well as India being a vast potential market for international publishers, Indian publishing houses can benefit by selling their output into foreign markets, Boos said.

The Indian publishing industry can export anywhere, he said, citing the example of an Indian company that produces and prints medical texts for the English-speaking market that are cheaper than editions produced in the West.

The export of books produced in India is estimated to be worth 100 million dollars annually.

Boos said the Frankfurt Book Fair is all about "making personal contact" so that publishers can network and "learn from each other."

Thomas Minkus, the fair's press officer, said the event is a key to initiating business as it offers publishers of all sizes access to rights directors.

Major discussions topics at this year's fair include digitization and "eBooks", and campaigns to encourage literacy and education.

Frankfurt director Boos said that around 30 per cent of the exhibits this year are in digital form with printed works - books, magazines, periodicals and calendars - making up the remainder.

He said that audio books have proven to complement rather than replace books and in some cases are bought by people who rarely read. The voice used on an audio book can be almost as important as the content, he added, with works - even poetry - narrated by Hollywood stars selling strongly.

In Germany the number of audio books sold continues to rise, Peter Bosnic of the federation of German booksellers said Wednesday. The buyers tend to be well educated young people and the main topics are travel and education followed by children and young people's literature.

Meanwhile the Frankfurt Book Fair announced Wednesday a commitment to support the International Book Fair in Abu Dhabi.

The consulting and service contract was signed in Frankfurt Wednesday by Boos and Mohamed Khalef al-Mazrouie, general director of the Abu Dhabi Authority for Culture and Heritage.

The agreement will see the Frankfurt Book Fair share its know-how and expertise to help professionalize and internationalize the Abu Dhabi fair.

"We want to make Abu Dhabi the centre of the publishing industry in the Arab world," said al-Mazrouie, adding he wants to see the fair established as a "significant date on the international book fair calendar."

The Frankfurt Book Fair already organizes the Cape Town Book Fair in a joint venture with the South African's Publishers' Association. Boos said that "we want to continue to strengthen our role as an international service provider."

The 17th Abu Dhabi International Book Fair takes place April 4-13, 2007. Last year it attracted 350,000 visitors and 315 exhibitors from 20 countries.