04 Nov 2024 Frankfurt Book Fair: (Almost) All Eyes on Japan and South Korea—and AI

This year’s Frankfurt Book Fair saw continued optimism and excitement for (Japanese and Korean) fiction, while AI was on everyone’s minds

The Frankfurter Hof, where Marleen’s Monday, pre-Fair meetings took place

BY MARLEEN SEEGERS AND CHRYSOTHEMIS ARMEFTI — ARTICLE PUBLISHED ON NOVEMBER 4, 2024

The 2024 Frankfurt Book Fair, which took place from October 16 to 20, marked a return to a level of activity reminiscent of the pre-pandemic era—although the number of exhibitor booths was still down compared to 2019. This year’s event welcomed a substantial number of attendees from around the world, reportedly reaching 230,000 visitors (115,000 trade, and 115,000 general public).

Despite ongoing challenges faced by the publishing industry (and the world at large), a sense of optimism filled the halls of the Buchmesse. Editors were happy to report that their sales numbers are growing thanks to the diversification in genres and, in some territories, an increase in audiobook sales. It is important to note that while international publishing markets have grown and sales figures have surpassed those of the period before the 2008 financial crisis, the income derived from these sales remains lower as profit margins have fallen sharply.

In an effort to limit their expenses, many publishers chose to shorten the duration of their attendance, with some opting to arrive on Monday already or staying only for a few days. Nonetheless, plenty of publishing professionals still participated in back-to-back meetings for the full week (Marleen started her meetings on Monday morning and Chrys joined her on Tuesday morning). However, as the number of trade visitors on Saturday has starkly declined since the Pandemic, we decided to no longer turn off the lights in the LitAg on Saturday night but rather bid our farewells to our tables on Friday evening.

The fair had several “hot titles,” and many exciting things seemed to be happening in particular for fiction. At 2 Seas, we experienced this hunger for good novels firsthand when, during the fair, international publishers started preempting a French title we represent, whereas we only had a partial, unedited manuscript. That was a first! It kept us even busier than usual, as you can imagine.

Italy was this year’s Guest of Honor

The trend we spotted at this year’s London Book Fair, a solid demand for titles from Southeast Asia, in particular from South Korea and Japan, is not yet losing momentum. Every fiction editor we met either had at least one Japanese/South Korean title included in their recent acquisitions list or was sad over losing a hotly contested auction for the same. One book that seemed to be on everyone’s mind was the Japanese title The Friday Bookstore. While most of these titles are labeled “healing fiction” (feel-good stories that often feature cats and/or bookstores), Han Kang’s Nobel Prize win also led to increased interest in literary works from these countries.

Another trend that we spotted during these last couple of book fairs that continues to go strong is romance and romantasy. We did notice, however, that editors are starting to feel saturated with the genre and are looking for titles with that extra “je-ne-sais-quoi:” a specific setting or another unique element that makes the story jump out of the vast pool of available romance stories.

Other genres fiction editors were actively looking for include romantic comedies, fantasy, crime, and horror, though these genres are very country-specific. Multiple book series, again in the genre-sphere, continue to be in high demand.

As noted with the rise in popularity of genre fiction, there is an ongoing trend among publishers to expand into more commercial publications, which may include new imprints or collections.

Conversely, nonfiction sales seem to be declining in many countries, especially in translation, prompting publishers to concentrate even more on local authors who have established platforms and followers in their markets. Of course, the usual exceptions exist for well-known voices including Yuval Noah Harari, and one of Frankfurt’s “hot titles” on the nonfiction side, a memoir by Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich, who was recently released from prison in Russia. Nevertheless, a consistent demand remains for well-researched books by authors with recognized expertise in various subjects, including true crime, “big ideas,” self-help and wellness, history, popular science, psychology, and personal finance.

Southeast Asia continues to be a healthy market for titles in the business, marketing and leadership genres.

As we’ve pointed out in various past articles and interviews, international publishers seem to be realizing that English-language export editions are increasingly “cannibalizing” local sales in various countries, particularly in the Netherlands (where a recent report found that 11% of the bestselling fiction titles are original English-language titles), Germany, and the Nordic countries where English literacy is high. As a result, some publishers in these countries are limiting acquisitions from English-language rights sellers due to competition from the (often) lower-priced English export editions. This situation seems to extend to Portugal, where many readers aged 16 and older are bilingual and, like elsewhere, engaged with trends popularized on social media platforms.

Chrys hard at work with a captive audience!

However, social media has also contributed to a positive increase in teenage readership. Publishers continue to look for big-name YA fantasy titles and more down-to-earth titles that could emotionally support young readers in this unstable world. Comics and graphic novels continue to be an accessible way for teenagers and people of all ages to read; France remains the country where the genre is by far the most popular. Those teenage readers quickly become readers of books in the New Adult category. This year, the fair had a special zone dedicated to this genre, which aims at readers aged 18-25.

In 2023, picture book sales were slightly lower than in 2022, but the genre is still a solid contender for publishers. Interest stays strong in fiction for young readers, picture books – especially series – and young adult books. In these challenging times, children find refuge in writing and it’s important to protect children’s books from banning and discrimination. Children’s books continue to be very much in demand and constitute a stable market for publishers. But, in terms of rights deals, a multitude of factors such as the high number and variety of available titles, the illustration and subject preferences of each market make it difficult to break through, and thus, very few and selective titles have enough visibility to get to travel.

AI was understandably on everyone’s mind; the landscape often feels like the Wild West, as regulation struggles to be put in place while also keeping up with new developments. The Dutch publishing group VBK (acquired by Simon & Schuster earlier this year) sent out a communication to its authors 10 days prior to the start of the fair, when Marleen was meeting publishers in Amsterdam, which gathered a lot of criticism and concern. The letter incited authors to participate in a pilot program to have their books translated into English by AI and published as e-books on the English-language market. Before publication however, the translation would be edited by native speakers and an external editing agency. An article was published earlier today in The Bookseller, which confirms:

A spokesperson for VBK told The Bookseller: “We are working on a limited experiment with some Dutch authors, for their books to be translated into English language using AI. There will be one editing phase, and authors have been asked to give permission for this.”

To be continued…

We believe the optimism we sensed throughout the fair reflects the publishing market’s robustness, agility, and eagerness to find new ways of dealing with the multiple changes and challenges it currently faces. We are happy to see that publishers continue to be eager to discover new voices and adapt to the needs of their readers.

Here is our 2024 Frankfurt Book Fair in a few more images: