The guides to the fair consist of a 1200-page directory of exhibitors (publishers, vendors, agents, information businesses, etc.), a 700-page calendar of events, and a 200-page pocket guide.
You can register for the fair as a Fachbesucher (industry professional) in August, and you can buy your ticket online. The ticket serves as your free transportation ticket for S-Bahn, U-Bahn and local trains during the five days that the fair is in session. You can order a fair catalog and have it sent to you ahead of time (you will have to pay for postage, about 32 Euro).
Wednesday to Friday of the fair are reserved for “Fachbesucher”, Saturday and Sunday the fair is open to the public. Books from the displays are sold on Sundays only.
You can arrive at the fairground via U-Bahn at the City entrance, or you can arrive via S-Bahn at the Messe (fair) entrance. Note that the exhibit halls are arranged around a quad/courtyard and are connected by long sky walks – one of our WESS (Western European Studies Section of ACRL) friends clocked 4 miles on her pedometer in one afternoon. When you stand in the center of the courtyard, you see large red numbers on the fronts of the surrounding buildings (you see all, except Hall 8). Once inside the halls you either look out onto the courtyard, or you will look out onto the Frankfurt neighborhood surrounding the fairgrounds. Check out the official Hall Plan.
When I arrive at the fair I always take two hours to get the lay of the land – the large categories of interest to me (Literatur und Sachbuch, Fach und Wissenschaftsverlage, Gastland, Internationale Verlage) tend to be in the same exhibit hall every year, but the stages for author readings tend to change. I walk around the halls, identify the stages, and pick up programs. This is a good investment of time: for the following three days I will be able to catch readings by and interviews with the most important writers, politicians and journalists between visiting publisher booths and going to meetings etc.
Around the time of the fair, all the major newspapers publish supplements with previews, highlights and evaluations of the fair and its participants and programs.
I picked up supplements [“Beilagen”] from the following newspapers, and read the following blogs:
Die Zeit: Highlights der Frankfurter Buchmesse 2008
Spiegel Sonderdruck
Neues Deutschland
Zuricher Zeitung
Berliner Zeitung
Sueddeutsche Zeitung
Frankfurter Rundschau: Im Tempel der Buecher
Frankfurter Allgemeine: Zeitung zur Buchmesse
Pressemitteilungen der Frankfurter Buchmesse --http://www.buchmesse.de/de/fbm/
Buchmesseblog --http://blogs.hr-online.de/buchmesse/
LIS Blog --http://weblog.ib.hu-berlin.de/?p=6071
There was a general sense that the main attraction of the fair was everything digital, including new digital initiatives by major European publishers. In talking to Harrassowitz and Casalini, vendors that we work with – who had representatives at the fair, as well as publishers such as DeGruyter, I learned that we will see a lot of change and new offerings in this area.
You can search the press releases for topics such as “Digitisation draws the industry to Frankfurt” at the fair website http://www.buchmesse.de/en/fbf/
A selection of events around the E-Book:
Readius, the First Pocket eReader
From Physical to Digital - Opportunities for Publishers on Amazon Kindle
Will the e-book change our reading habits? Digitaler Lesezauber - Wie E-Books unsere Lesegewohnheiten verändern
Focus on e-books, and introduction to a new kind of book. E-Books im Blick - Annäherung an das neue Buch
The Kindle surprise: introduction into the e-book world. Die Kindle-Überraschung: Einführung in die Welt der eBooks
E-books, blessing or curse – and for whom? eBooks: Fluch oder Segen... für wen?
Frankfurt & Guests: E-Books in der arabischen Welt
Digital Lunch: Digital Publishing and the EPUB Standard. Effects on Publishers, Channels and Devices - featuring the Sony Reader
Experiments with eBook Business Models
On the literary front Reich-Ranicki dominated the discussion for his refusal of a life time award for his contribution to television. Reich-Ranicki had a long running television show on literature. When he was presented with the TV award, he "...grumpily declared that German television was the pits. “I don't belong here among all this trash,” he said, pointing at the other award winners." The Times Onine.
Günter Grass talked about his new book "Die Box." and about Reich-Ranicki's criticism of German TV, about Gesinnungsästheten and the financial turmoil. Grass is famous for doing a handstand on every birthday...but he offered that he stopped doing handstands at 75 - at the request of his family:)
My favorite stages are:
