Common ground is increasingly difficult to find in today’s world, which is why this year’s Frankfurt Book Fair, running October 15–19, aims to create more opportunities than ever for connection and conversation. “In times of global tension, we need spaces for exchange, listening, and cooperation more than ever before,” says fair director Juergen Boos. “That’s what the book fair provides.”

In spite of the many challenges facing the publishing industry, which include the dizzying rise of artificial intelligence, political crackdowns on the freedom to publish, and plummeting literacy rates around the world, Boos remains sanguine. “For 20 years, people have said the publishing business is struggling,” he notes. “Everyone recalls some golden age of publishing. But if you look into local markets around the world, you see growth.”

Globalization continues to reshape the Frankfurt Book Fair. “Despite the rise of populism and nationalism around the world, the publishing industry is staying global,” Boos says. “You’re seeing more international imprints publishing in other languages. Major publishers are buying houses in Germany. The French are investing in Spain. But we’re also seeing audiences around Europe reading in English. In the Netherlands, they read almost as much in English as they do in Dutch.”

These changes, however fraught they appear to publishers, have only enhanced rights activity at the fair, where the 540 tables planned for this year’s Literary Agents & Scouts Center (known colloquially as the LitAg) have proven insufficient to meet demand. “It sold out very early and is actually overbooked, so we are looking into expanding it,” says Jenny Kühne, director of rights and licensing solutions for the fair. To help facilitate dealmaking beyond LitAg, the fair opened a new Publishers Rights Center for representatives from rights departments at publishing houses.

For Kühne, who also directs the annual Frankfurt Rights Meeting, the events slate gets started in September, with weekly online sessions covering rights-related topics. This year’s discussions touched on the Spanish-language markets, merchandising opportunities, digital licensing, and (of course) AI. Keith Bennie, VP of public programing for the Toronto International Film Festival, will give the keynote at the rights meeting’s prefair, in-person networking party on October 14, where he’ll talk about how to find stories with global resonance in unexpected places.

Frankfurt has also expanded its rights infrastructure beyond traditional book publishing, and now offers matchmaking sessions for book-to-screen and book-to-game adaptations. “For us, it’s about connecting industries,” Kühne says. “We’ve learned a lot from our collaborations with film festivals in Berlin and Cannes. Filmmakers and TV producers work differently, especially regarding production times and financing. We have master classes and curated matchmaking for international producers and rights holders.”

The fair is committed enough to these ancillary industries that this year, it will debut a Games Business Center. “We’re slowly exploring that part of the industry, too,” Kühne explains. “Overall, we want to emphasize that it’s not just book to screen or book to game. It works the other way around as well—film to book, or even game to book.”

From algorithms to executives to audio

If there has been one major force changing up the rights trade over the past several years, it is generative AI. “It’s now part of every discussion,” Kühne says. “We’re looking at AI and translation—what impact will that have on foreign rights trade? And AI licensing represents new revenue streams, which we need to discuss. And how does it impact creativity and the day-to-day production of books? That’s an ongoing conversation.”

Accordingly, AI is again the subject of dozens of events at Frankfurt, from product demonstrations to more speculative conversations, such as one between Nadim Sadek, CEO of Shimmr AI, and Nigel Newton, founder and CEO of Bloomsbury, titled “How Creativity Can Embrace AI.” The panel discussion “AI and the Battle for Reality” will bring together Melissa Fleming, UN undersecretary for global communications; Davar Ardalan, founder and
CEO of IVOW AI; and Harsh Jegadeesan, chief publishing officer of Springer Nature.

“Major AI companies such as ChatGPT and Facebook are monitoring the industry closely,” Boos notes. “These companies are sending scouts to the fair. Many people attend, but they’re not visible because they don’t want competition to know what they’re investigating. I don’t think they see big money in our sector yet. They’re looking into what’s going to happen, what’s being discussed, and the legal framework, which differs between Europe, America, and China.”

Still, Frankfurt’s spotlight shines brightest on the CEOs of multinational publishing conglomerates. It’s gratifying, Boos says, that so many of the CEOs taking the stage this year are women. “In Germany, we have statistics showing women are much stronger readers than men. If you’re a publisher, your customer is female. But if you look at top management positions in publishing, how many women do you find? We feel it is important to highlight those women in leadership roles.”

Among the women leaders taking the stage at Frankfurt this year are Núria Cabutí, CEO of Penguin Random House Grupo Editorial, and Chantal Restivo-Alessi, CEO of international foreign languages at HarperCollins, who will participate in the annual Global 50 CEO Talk. And the Frankfurt Studio—one of the fair’s primary forums for presentations—will host executive talks with Perminder Mann, CEO of Simon & Schuster UK and International, and Véronique Cardi, CEO of Hachette Livres’ Éditions JC Lattès, among others.

The continuing importance of audiobooks in today’s publishing landscape cannot be overstated, and the fair has dedicated a half-day program to audio, with back-to-back sessions featuring what Boos calls “the who’s who of the audio industry.” The lineup includes Duncan Bruce, director of partnerships and licensing at Spotify; Javier Celaya, founder of Dosdoce.com; Barbara Knabe, Audible’s head of content acquisition for the E.U. and Latin America; Anke Susanne Hoffmann, director of strategy and digital management audio at Penguin Random House; Lasse Korsemann Horne, CEO of Saga Egmont; and Niclas Sandin, CEO of BookBeat Audiobooks.

Frankfurt is also responding to social media–driven fandom. Romantasy readers will have a dedicated space at the fair, where meet-and-greets with authors including Cassandra Clare, Bianca Iosivoni, and Abby Jimenez will be held. And this year, the TikTok Book Awards will be presented on the fairgrounds on October 18.

Global perspectives

Frankfurt always looks to offer a literary adventure in the form of its guest of honor program, which this year highlights the Philippines. More than 100 Filipino writers, artists, illustrators, and musicians will take part in 77 events around the fair. The Philippines’ program, guided by the slogan “the imagination shapes the air,” will showcase how Filipino literature offers a unique perspective formed by colonial history and contemporary migration.

Participating authors include Gina Apostol, José Dalisay Jr., Patricia Evangelista, Candy Gourlay, and Miguel Syjuco. Nobel Peace Prize laureate Maria Ressa will also speak as part of Frankfurt Calling, the fair’s forum for discussion of the intersection of politics and culture.

Overall, Boos says, international participation remains solid despite global tensions. “We have a strong Ukrainian presence, supported by our government. We also have booksellers coming from Palestine. We have interesting panels dealing with political situations. Although we’re seeing political turmoil in many regions, I see delegations coming through year-round. This brings me back to my optimism. What we can do is connect people. You have to be open—that’s the message. This is our role.”

Boos concedes, “I’m probably more positive than many people. If current trends continue for three years, that’s concerning. But in three years, it will swing back. It’s a pendulum—just hopefully not like the one in Edgar Allan Poe’s ‘The Pit and the Pendulum.’ ”

Read more from our Frankfurt preview feature.

Light Fare at the Rights Fair
Fantastical and feel-good fiction and self-help dominated the rights landscape at this year’s London Book Fair—and it’s fair to expect the same at Frankfurt, agents say, albeit with a larger dose of horror.

Children’s Books in a Fragile World
This year's Frankfurt Kids Conference will address the importance of engaging young readers in times of global unrest.