The 2006 Frankfurt Book Fair

Each Frankfurt fair is different from every other Frankfurt fair.

As usual, we were extremely busy with appointments during all the business days of the fair. This year, almost all appointments were productive. We thought publishers and editors with whom we spoke were even more committed than usual to finding new titles for their lists.

One unexpected change at this year's fair was the comparative lack of "walk-in" buyers from any past fair. "Walk-ins" are buyers who we have not met previously but see titles on our stand of interest and stop to discuss them.

This was not something we experienced alone. Early in the fair, other companies came to us to ask if we were having walk-ins in any number because they were not. Since this hasn't happened at any previous Frankfurt, I'm not sure that we can tell you what it means. One thing it does underscore is the enormous value of pre-scheduled appointments at an international book fair. And for us this year, those were good.

We came back with contracts in hand for books in the areas of self-help, mind-body-spirit, spirituality, cooking, marine biology, history, art, New Age, animals, business, travel, photography, and women's issues.

Indian publisher Pustak Mahal brought us a copy of their forthcoming edition of American Slang, Cultural Language Guide to Living in the USA by Joseph Melillo and Edward M. Melillo, J.D., and published by Kiku Education Institute.

We sold the book to Pustak at the London International Book fair in March and were pleased to send Kiku the advance payment for the Indian edition after Frankfurt.

We are continuing our policy of limiting our Frankfurt stand to 300 titles. Experience has proven that this is pretty much an ideal number. Our selection is large enough so that buyers are willing to invest time in coming to our stand for appointments or just to browse because they know that there's a good chance they'll find something of interest for their lists. Everyone is competing for everyone else's time at Frankfurt; winning that time is crucial for successful marketing.

At the same time, the selection is also small enough so that no title is lost, as the photo of Nakoa's Woman (Gayle Rogers) from Sojourner Publishers indicates.

Other photos from the fair:

There were walk-in buyers at the fair: an unidentified buyer looks through our fiction titles.

Our guest holding a copy of our title on missions in New Spain is Paul Norbury, an academic publisher from Folkestone in the U.K. Paul came in to look at our academic books.

Our "guest" from Antarctica waits next to the food service kiosk across the aisle from our corner stand. Each kiosk in Hall 8.0 for English language publishers was decorated in a different geographical theme. The kiosk opposite Hachette-Warner Books down the aisle from us sported a "grass roof" reminiscent of the South Seas. Unfortunately for the penguin, none of the kiosks serve fish.