The truth about book fairs including Bologna, London and Frankfurt

What are they? What happens at them? And why do they matter so much?

You’ve probably heard people in the publishing industry mention these book fairs - London, Bologna and Frankfurt.

Perhaps you’ve wondered what they are exactly, what happens at them and why they seem to matter so much?

Or maybe you haven’t given them a second thought, after all, if you want to write/illustrate a book, what has a book fair got to do with that?

The truth is book fairs matter more than you might think.

The deals that are done at book fairs can help earn out an advance, lead to films being made and elevate the reputation of a book to ‘the next big thing’ ensuring deals, a bigger marketing budget and subsequent sales.

Naomi joined the Puffin rights team at Penguin Random House as an assistant way back in January 2007. Part of her role was helping the team prepare for book fairs, but it wasn’t until she actually went to one herself that she fully understood what happens at them and what a huge impact they have on the industry.

During the eight years Naomi spent working in rights for Penguin Random House and Hachette Children’s Group, she attended many book fairs.

In this post we’re going to share everything she learned during that time to give you a behind the scenes insight into what actually happens at a book fair, why picture book schedules always take book fairs into account, what a rights guide is, how to take a look at one and whether it’s worth going if you’re an author or illustrator.

So, what exactly is a book fair?

Essentially a book fair is a trade fair where publishers from all over the world meet.

Not everyone from a publishing house will attend. Other than the CEO and the rights team, generally only a handful of editors go. Sometimes an art director might attend too. Literary agents often go too.

At a book fair, editors will meet with rights teams who pitch them their books. The editors are looking for new books to acquire and the rights teams are aiming to sublicense their books to international publishers.

The three main book fairs on the publishing calendar are in London, Bologna and Frankfurt.

London Book Fair this year takes place on 11th-13th March and although it is for both adult and children’s books, it tends to have more of an adult focus.

That’s because it’s always very close to Naomi’s favourite book fair in Bologna in Italy. This year the Bologna Book Fair is taking place on 31st March-3rd April. Bologna is only focused on children’s books (and the food there is excellent).

Frankfurt Book Fair in Germany takes place in October, focuses both on adult and children’s books and is absolutely massive. It’s so big there are shuttle busses to run people between halls to save them walking the thirty minutes it can take otherwise.

However, there are lots of other book fairs that happen all over the world from Book Expo in America, to ones in Guadalajara, Abu Dhabi and Beijing.

What happens at a book fair exactly?