Frankfurt Fair, the alarm of the publishers – Corriere.it

Publishing, data, the exchange of rights, but also the urgency of actuality. The 74th edition of the Buchmesse in Frankfurt moves along this double track, and it could hardly be otherwise, which is open to professional operators on Tuesday 19 October. Two souls of the exhibition also destined to intertwine, both for the value of the book as an instrument of dialogue and comparison in a time of conflict, and for the repercussions of the war and the energy crisis on the supply chain.

And so, while agents and literary scouts were at work in Hall 4, several meetings were held on Iran and Ukraine as well as symbolic acts. Artist Maria Kulikovska, born in 1988 in Kerch, Crimea, and never returned after the Russian occupation in 2014, lies down in the courtyard of the fair wearing a Ukrainian flag. Moreover, today President Volodymyr Zelensky will send a video message, the day after tomorrow the first lady Olena Zelenska will speak and on Sunday the writer Serhij Žadan, published in Italian by Voland, will receive the Peace Prize of the German publishers. Furthermore, yesterday, several women in the audience of the Frankfurt Pavilion, the heart of the event, displayed signs in support of Iranian girls. On stage, among others, was the regent mayor of Frankfurt Nargess Eskandari-Grnberg, originally from Tehran, persecuted and fled to Germany.

The international context worries operators. Both the Federation of European Publishers (Fep) and the Italian Publishers Association (AIE) presented their reports. The overall picture shows a 2021 of great growth, both in our country and in Europe, and a 2022 in which the book market has held up so far, but with a strong alarm from now on for the increase in energy costs. , paper and the inflation that weighs on those who buy. More specifically, as Enrico Turrin, deputy director of the Fep explained, in 2021 the net turnover of European publishers was 23.6 billion: up 6.5 percent compared to 2020, the largest increase in the last fifteen years. Of course, 2020 had been a year severely penalized by the pandemic, but nevertheless an important growth, with which turnover returns to the levels prior to the 2008 crisis. As for 2022, the picture appears stable so far and there is a positive recovery of bookstores. physical. However, the shadows loom. We must be aware – Turrin warns – that we are facing an unprecedented crisis: there are still fragility of supply and distribution worldwide, a legacy of the pandemic, to which is now added the increase in the cost of energy, which also aggravates the increase in the price of the card is already underway. an unprecedented negative economic situation, just as it was raising its head after Covid. There is a risk that publishers will close and that books will start to cost more.

A cry of pain also raises the president of the AIE Ricardo Franco Levi, who is also the extraordinary commissioner of the government for Italy, guest of honor at the Buchmesse 2024 and who, in early November, will become president of the Fep. In our country, in the first nine months of 2022, books (essays and novels, in physical stores, online and in large-scale distribution) were sold for 1.022 billion, down by 1.9 percent compared to the same period of 2021, which for it had been an extraordinary year (closing overall with a plus of 10.7 per cent on 2020 and a plus of 10.2 per cent on 2019). In 2021 – observes Levi – there was a recovery above all expectations. This is also thanks to a number of factors. The ability of publishers to react and innovate and then that of institutions: during the pandemic the book was considered an essential asset and the points of sale left open; Furthermore, support to demand is important with initiatives such as the 18 App. For the AIE president, the decline recorded so far in 2022 can be considered physiological, but the last three months of the year are fraught with uncertainties. So far, he continues, publishers have managed not to raise prices, but their margins have already narrowed due to the increase in production costs, especially paper. a perfect storm, so our very first and pressing request, as soon as Parliament and the government are in full swing, will be a tax credit for the purchase of the card. It is already there for newspapers, it must also be reactivated for books.

The alarm hangs over all of Europe, where Italy is currently the fourth largest publishing industry after Germany, the United Kingdom and France. Furthermore, as was mentioned on Wednesday 19 at the inauguration of our country’s pavilion, Italy invests over one million euros every year in contributions for translations. And in the last twenty years, the gap between rights bought and sold abroad has narrowed: in 2020 (latest data available) 8,586 titles were sold and 9,127 those bought. Certainly – comments Levi – we owe it to the quality production of the publishers, but also to experiences such as those of the Bologna Children’s Book Fair, the most important fair in the world in the children’s sector, also present in Frankfurt with stands, guests, exhibitions. an area, that of the youngest, which once again proves to be strong in sales: in Europe, according to Fep data, in 2021 it reached 15 percent of the total turnover of the book.

The inauguration of the pavilion (147 exhibitors, of which 76 in a collective stand) was also an opportunity to talk about Italy as guest of honor at Buchmesse 2024. It should be an Expo of creativity – notes Levi as commissioner – : it will not only concern publishing but the whole cultural industry, and we are already at work. I appeal to all operators to act in a coordinated way.

Meanwhile, exchanges and acquisitions continued yesterday. Teseo’s ship won The Porcelain Maker the British Sarah Freethy, the story of a woman on the trail of her father deported to Dachau; then the novels of Elfriede Jelinek and Pter Ndas and the autobiography of the director of Heimat, Edgar Reitz. Bollati Boringh has secured the dystopian My Murder by the American Katie Williams. And Feltrinelli The Futurenew novel – between Silicon Valley and environmental disasters – by Naomi Alderman, as well as The memory photographers by the Japanese Sanaka Hiiragi.

Also set in Japan The island of heartbeats (Piemme) by Laura Imai Messina, sold in nine countries, including Russia. Among the other Italians purchased abroad, in addition to Paolo Giordano with the new Tasmania (Einaudi, from 25 October) and Antonio Scurati with M. The last days of Europe (Bompiani), also Alba Donati with The library on the hill (Einaudi), Vincenzo Latronico with The perfections (Bompiani), Sandrone Daz with The evil that men do (HarperCollins).

And there are also some surprises. Maddalena Vaglio Tanet, already an author for children, will come out of Marsilio with her first novel for adults, Return from the woods, story of a teacher upset by the suicide of a student. Not even finished yet, the book will be published abroad in four languages, including English.