The 76th edition of the Frankfurt Book Fair took place last week in the famous German halls. According to the organizers, the fair had more than 230,000 visitors, a slight increase from last year. The number of exhibitors also increased this year to 4,300.
From WeDoBooks we sent an experienced delegation consisting of Jeppe Mossin (CCO), Jenny Thor (VP of Distribution) and Tascha Lynggaard (Metadata Specialist) with three main objectives:
We will come back to the outcome of these efforts a bit later in this article.
The fair also offered a number of insights and observations that we would like to share:
In Scandinavia, the audiobook consumption has, since a long time, overtaken the popularity of e-books. Jeppe Mossin and Jenny Thor also visited the Gothenburg Book Fair a few weeks ago, where there was a big focus on audiobooks.
"It was like going back 8 years in time in Germany, but audiobooks are slowly but surely gaining ground. Germany is experiencing a significant decline in sales and reading of the physical books, and they are waiting for the audiobook revolution that we have experienced in Scandinavia, which has helped renew the book business, to some extent," says Jeppe Mossin.
A few years ago, the big publishers sent large delegations to the Frankfurt Book Fair, sometimes filling half a hotel. You don't see that anymore. The fair reports increasing numbers of visitors, so all other things being equal, there are more, but smaller publishers represented as participants at the fair. In general, it is clear that many in the industry are breaking with traditional business models, not because the book is under threat, but because the roles around the book are constantly changing and publishers' economic models are being challenged.
On the one hand, we are seeing well-known profiles from international publishers (both in the EU and the US) leaving the traditional publishing houses in favour of starting up their own new publishing house that challenges the usual business models, focusing on financial sustainability for both books and authors. On the other hand, several large international publishers are actively pursuing acquisitions and consolidating their businesses. Also in 2024, we have seen several acquisitions of well-renowned publishers with the aim of strengthening their position and finances through diversification and stronger regional roots, especially in European markets.
AI is probably here to stay - even in the publishing industry, that seems to be the general perception. This has also meant that the discussion about AI has become more grounded and research-based, focusing on balancing the value of the book between human and machine. There is less fear of AI 'taking over' or replacing the book and more focus on how AI can be integrated into the process.
Among other things, licensing is seen as a major new economic opportunity. There were many presentations and debates on how to create sustainable business models and fair terms for buying and selling book content that can be used to train AI models. Several companies were invited to create a platform focused on selling and controlling rights - respecting copyright protection and ensuring fair use in AI development.
How can you do that?By June 2025 at the latest, the EU Accessibility Directive must be implemented in member states. The book fair offered many informative initiatives, seminars and presentations focusing on accessibility legislation and how it is implemented in the different EU countries. However, it is clear that there is still a lot of uncertainty about the practical implications for publishers and retailers. This is often due to the fact that local authorities have yet to determined how to implement the legislation locally. This is a development that will be exciting to follow in the coming months. WeDoBooks will have a strong focus on this as we work to bring Nordic digital literature to new markets and our solutions and infrastructure must of course be able to comply with local regulations and adaptations.
And now back to our own purpose of going to Frankfurt.
WeDoBooks has entered a close strategic partnership with the largest German distributor of digital books, Libreka. This has given us the opportunity to open the doors to the German market. We received a lot of interest in the opportunities we could offer with the upcoming Publizon distribution platform. And the fact that we have a lot of knowledge about the audiobook market means that we can help drive the development of audiobooks in Germany.
WeDoBooks has just launched a new and improved version of Biblio, the digital library solution to more than 275 municipalities in the Swedish market. This version is based on the same technology that we have been delivering to Norwegian libraries for a number of years under the Bookbites brand.
In 2025, we will launch Biblio in Germany in collaboration with Libreka and we have met many German and international publishers who see great potential in the Biblio solution for the library market throughout the German-speaking area. With the launch, we will also offer Nordic publishers the opportunity to enter these markets.
Our metadata specialist, Tascha Lynggaard, participated in two meetings aimed at bringing the national metadata groups together in an international context: the ONIX International Steering Committee and the Thema International Steering Committee. It also allows us to stay close to the political scene in relation to the book industry and follow developments in this area. In a few months, the Danish Accessibility Act will come into force, but ahead of us is also the EU AI Act (on rules in the field of artificial intelligence) and the Deforestation Act (where some climate measures are also relevant to the book industry).
We will share this knowledge with the Danish stakeholders going forward.