Frankfurt Book Fair - world's biggest of its kind

The Frankfurt Book Fair looks fairly interesting. I see Nick Hornby is reading this year (2005) from his new suicide comic novel. Anybody going to that?

The bookfair is good, but go on the last day as most of the stands sell off a lot of their stock at bargain prices. I bought a rucksack full of English books there last year for the price of a couple of paperbacks at Heathrow airport.

A couple of tips:

Take lots of cash, and in small denomination notes, as they often don't have enough change.

Don't be afraid to haggle.

They don't always advertaise that the books are for sale, so you have to go and ask at each stand if they are selling their stocks. Unfortunately, several of the large UK publishing houses won't sell any of their stock, but it's always worth asking.

Thanks for the advice. I'm not going to be around this weekend unfortunately. What time does it close on weekday?

mmm I might be wrong but I thought it was only open to the public on Saturday and Sunday? Am sure that is what I read in Journal Frankfurt yesterday.

I am trying to see if I can get my mitts on some tickets here at work

You're right PM, it'll only be open to the public on Saturday and Sunday, and I seem to remember that the tickets were only EUR 10 or so and you just get them on the door when you show up.

Of course if you can get VIP trade tickets with a free lunch included then so much the better.

The Frankfurt Book Fair 2005 opened on Wednesday 19th October.

The Frankfurter Buchmesse is the world's largest trade fair for books. It is held annually in mid-October in Frankfurt am Main, Germany.



Representatives from book publishing and multimedia companies worldwide come to negotiate international publishing rights and licensing fees.

Seeing as there are over 250 publishing companies in Munich, I guess lots of Munich people will be travelling there today or tomorrow, if they're not there already.

Wednesday to Friday is access for trade guests only. Saturday and Sunday are open to the public.

There were 270,413 visitors to the fair in 2004. They came to see 6,691 exhibitors showing 350,619 titles.

• www.frankfurt-book-fair.com
  
• Wikipedia - Frankfurt Book Fair
  

Any TT readers attending?

I'm not going personally, but my company certainly is! This is THE biggest event for publishers in the world. My mum used to attend every year, as did my old boss in Munich.

http://www.buchmesse.de/en

This fair is great for anybody who likes books, designs, prints and much more... This year will be my 4th time around to visit.
If anybody is going I am happy to meet up for coffee and chat about all that happening out there.

Thanks for reminding me. I've spent most of my life around Frankfurt but never manged to get to the Buchmesse.
I really love fairs in general.

Do you prepare in advance like looking up which publishers/authors to see?

Annoyingly, it's too late to buy "public" tickets in advance - either on-line or in-person at the Messe ticket office.

Therefore, I am sad to report that you'll need to queue for (according to the Messe help desk) "up to an hour" to buy a ticket on the day. The public days are Sat 18th and Sun 19th October

K

Lenny222:

You can get trade pass online just register as a writer, translator, editor or what ever your job is (if its concerning publishing in general).

How to do things there: Well it depends on your objective of course. For example, if you do not have an appointment you will not be able to enter the Literary Agencies areas at all... So no point trying to approach literary agencies then... but before make contact with them get names mails prints etc

Me generally like seeing what is there? its like going to the biggest ever book shop really.. I also talk to people about my book projects directly on the stands collect names and card or drop my own etc

Sometimes there are famous writers, cooks, guitarist etc as their books published etc so you can meet them in person there Lots of talks there too.

This year Orhan Pamuk from Turkey is here and many more people of course as Turkey is the honery guest this year. Orhan Pamuk has won the Nobel for literary price not long ago..

RMV say, they are selling tickets at the Hauptwache, for example: rmv.de - Buch Messe

Besides that, unfortunately i am not a writer. I just love fairs.

Ok, folks. I successfully bought a ticket at the "RMV Verkehrsinsel" at Hauptwache.
That's the small round building near the church.

Nice one!

K

Thanks Lenny222 - just picked up my tickets there too. Looks like an interesting programme of speakers, although the author Oran Pamuk (mentioned above) finishes his official involvement with fair today, and is not scheduled to deliver anything on the weekend from what I can see unfortunately.
FT