So you can’t have a publishing industry blog without making more mention of the Frankfurt Book Fair. But as Michael Cader pointed out in Publishers Lunch Deluxe yesterday, the story of the fair mostly centers around various Google Print lawsuits, as many of the big-buzz deals took place just before the Fair began.
Still, there’s obviously enough happening that the website crashed yesterday, thanks to an average of a million hits per hour….and with that, here’s the roundup:
Publishing News is probably the best bet for coverage, as it’s provided several news stories each day of the fair. Some of them include John Haynes’ account of attending the fair for 45 (!) years now, Fats Domino’s upcoming memoir, John Grogan’s much buzzed-about memoir going to Hodder in the UK, Penguin acting as distributor for Perseus Books in the Far East, and three different takes on Frankfurt offered up by Karin Slaughter, Jodi Picoult & Conn Iggulden.
Canongate’s new initiative to have notable authors rewrite ancient myths officially launched this week at Frankfurt, too. Some of the writers involved? Margaret Atwood, Karen Armstrong and A.S. Byatt, whose work will appear simultaneously in 33 countries and 28 languages. Herculean, indeed.
Who will be the guest of honor next year? Why, India, of course, which promises to “stress modernity” in its second stint as GOH — the only country to have that honor (time #1 was all the way back in 1986.)
And looking ahead a few years, Turkey’s made a commitment to be the guest of honor at Frankfurt soon — 2009, probably, but don’t rule out 2008 either.