My first and only visit so far of the Frankfurt Book Fair was last year only a couple of
weeks after my internship with Campus Verlag. I went there
with two of my fellow interns and we spent an amazing day in
Frankfurt. We were simply overwhelmed by the amount of visitors who
made it sometimes impossible to get through to the stands. The whole complex of exhibition halls is
unimaginable big and it definitely takes more than a day to visit all
stands and activities. All this was a little bit intimidating
and even though we were warmly welcomed at the Campus
stand I could not overcome the feeling of being an outsider. I didn't
have the courage to talk to anyone.
In hindsight, I think it would have been more of a benefit if we had visited the fair on one of the weekdays instead when it is less busy. Still, it was a great experience and I got a first impression of the hustle and bustle of a book fair.
In hindsight, I think it would have been more of a benefit if we had visited the fair on one of the weekdays instead when it is less busy. Still, it was a great experience and I got a first impression of the hustle and bustle of a book fair.
This
year, unfortunately, I was only able to follow the ongoings of the
fair from afar. Reading the official book
fair blog and lots of tweets, one notably important topic was
recent developments in copyright and the Open Access movement. It
seems that even in times of Open Access there is a great awareness of
the importance of copyright. Even though the Open Access concept
as well as subscription models provide publishers with valuable consumer
data publishers, like Mandy Hill (CUP), see a great importance in
maintaining editorial quality. Still, Hill sees it as extremely
relevant to get more in contact with the consumers and respond to
their needs. Also, Richard Charkin (Bloomsbury) criticises the lack
of respect of governments and NET retailers towards publisher's
exclusivity. He claims:"Information
should be charged for – this is a battle we have to fight because
we are fighting for our business lives."(blog.book-fair.com)
In
this time of significant change, it is comforting to hear that there
are many people who still believe in a future of publishing. As a publishing student, I hope that these fascinating current movements will develop in such a way that publishers won't become redundant. With this
in mind, I'd like to conclude with Book Fair Director Jürgen Boos' words: "Storytelling will
never go away. The backbone [of our industry] is storytelling."(blog.book-fair.com)
Sources:
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