Looking ahead to Frankfurt Book Fair 2025

Frankfurt Book Fair is an unrivalled opportunity for us to meet our clients face-to-face, connect with international members of the book trade, and showcase our services to a global market. 25 years on from his first FBF, Managing Director David Pickering shares his reflections on a successful past and excitement for a fruitful future at the fair:

I’ve been lucky enough to work in academic publishing for well over 30 years now, and if I take into account a few early years where I was undoubtedly surplus to requirements, and of course the dreadful pandemic years, I have probably attended the Frankfurt Book Fair around 25 times. I say ‘probably’ because I haven’t kept a record. Neither, it seems, had the Frankfurt Book Fair which very kindly presented Mare Nostrum Group with a ‘25 years at the Frankfurt Book Fair’ plaque in October last year. This was obviously received with the gratitude and thanks it deserved but, since Mare Nostrum Group was only set up in 2003, that milestone is yet to be reached. At the time I was tempted to ask our Frankfurt Account Manager if they could adjust the wording to ‘25 years of David Pickering at the Frankfurt Book Fair’, but I didn’t want to seem ungrateful. Regardless, we now proudly display the plaque in our office as a memento of our established relationship with this exciting global event, confident that we will hit the quarter century in a few years’ time.

You might be thinking that 25 personal visits isn’t bad going for someone of my age, especially if we keep in mind the gruelling nature of the fair, but compared to many publishing friends and colleagues of similar experience this would appear to be a pretty mediocre attendance record. Many I know have done at least 40 ‘Frankfurts’ and one of our agents, the venerable David Towle, who we hold in particularly high esteem, retains what I feel must be a Frankfurt record of 52 individual visits. Moreover, I have been reliably informed that for 40 of those 52 visits, Mr. Towle stayed at the Intercontinental, and for most of those visits he stayed in the same hotel room! I was thinking that when I get around to asking the Frankfurt Book Fair for my own personal plaque, I might also ask them if they will install a David Towle plaque in Room 1062, but I was recently informed that the hotel sadly closed during the pandemic.

So, why do we all keep going back year after year? Afterall, the organisation and preparation required to attend Frankfurt is a huge investment for the business in both time and money and during the fair a large contingent of team members are pulled away from their day-to-day for a week of meetings. It’s also quite an exhausting business for the team, having to prepare and be on sparkling form for days of meetings and then go out each evening for drinks and dinner. In fact, I am constantly impressed with the resilience and energy that everyone brings to the fair, but it is of no surprise to me that many people return home feeling like they need a short holiday, or end up taking a couple of days off with a nasty case of the infamous ‘Frankfurt flu’!

University Press colleagues, Mary Beth Jarrad, Fred Nachbaur, Gill Richardson, Eric Schwartz, and Laraine Coates, cheers to a successful fair.

First and foremost, we keep going to Frankfurt because it hosts what is undoubtedly the world’s most important publishing trade fair. For publishers and publishing service companies like Mare Nostrum Group, it provides a wonderful and convenient opportunity to meet with the representatives of any company they might want to collaborate with. In fact, pretty much every company that is involved in the business of publishing is present at the book fair in some shape or form.

There are numerous reasons for attending Frankfurt. For a start, the fair serves as the primary international marketplace for the sale and acquisition of rights and licenses for books, digital content, and multimedia. This is the principal reason why many of our client publishers attend. But it’s also an opportunity for publishers, technology companies, content providers, and service providers to showcase their offerings to a global market, and seek new business opportunities. Finally, the fair offers publishing professionals the opportunity to learn about the latest trends and developments in publishing, including the challenges and prospects of digital media.

The bustling MNG stand.

For Mare Nostrum Group, the Frankfurt Book Fair is about hosting and looking after our client publishers, providing us with a valuable opportunity to meet with them face to face to discuss their publishing programmes, market trends, and new opportunities. It also enables us to meet with international agents and customers to discuss sales performance, and potential new clients to hear about their programmes and discuss the services we can provide.

Importantly for me, the Frankfurt Book Fair is also a fantastic social and networking opportunity. When you have worked in publishing for many years, colleagues and clients become good friends. Frankfurt provides an excellent opportunity to catch up with old colleagues and meet new ones, especially over dinner with a substantial plate of pork knuckle or schnitzel accompanied by a glass of Rielsing or Spatburgunder. Usually both! These meetings are both great fun and incredibly valuable, and there is always something new to learn – some of it useful for professional development and some of it just entertaining gossip!

An example of the famous Frankfurt pork knuckle.

In many respects, our attendance at Frankfurt has emblemised the growth of Mare Nostrum Group. Our early stands were identikit white boxes, with a couple of tables and a few chairs, set on aisles which no attendees could find unless they were looking for the loo! Back then only 3 of the team would attend and we would arrive a day early to set up the stand and sort out the inevitable logistical problems associated with book deliveries. It was hard work, but it was also an exciting, romantic moment for the business as we sought to grow our number of clients and improve the service provided to the clients we already had.

Now, our Frankfurt attendance is planned like a military operation with our Business Operations team dedicating months to planning our attendance at the fair, organising the design and position of the stand, co-ordinating client requirements, juggling the finances, and booking hotels, travel, client dinners and events. Our stand is much more comfortable, the design more pleasing and, to accommodate the number of client publishers who come from the US, we take a larger stand and around 15 team members.

Each year the overall management of this significant project is handled by our Head of Business Operations, Sally Evans (MCIPS) who does a sterling job, whilst miraculously retaining her sanity as the deadlines stack up! Sally commissioned the Black Pear to design and build the stand this year, but the elegant Mare Nostrum Group design and logo is done by our Executive Project Manager, Sam Thornton. Of course, bringing all this together is a stressful and costly undertaking, but we know that it is worth it and the thanks we receive from both clients and customers, plus the mountain of follow-up and leads created each year, pay testament to that fact.

Katie Lee, Alicia Ward, Tristan Jones, and Georgia Lea smile after a successful FBF24.

With the fair now less than two weeks away, we are all making last minute preparations, taking our vitamins and looking forward to another Frankfurt. Please feel free to come over to Hall 4 Stand D33 to meet our client publishers, hear about our services or just tell us how many fairs you’ve attended.