Tag: book

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Books for children

On the international level the book market of books for children is doing alright (Info Frankfurt book fair 2026). Whereas the turnover for school books is shrinking, children’s books have achieved increasing turnover in 2025 again. The market has diversified and merchandising related to books for children has substantially increased. Figures about this trend, however, are hard to come by. Based on TV-characters, books may also sell as a kind of merchandising product for the time offline. Talking about books is an educational opportunity which is still underexploited. Popular among children with their parents or as part of reading aloud, the real multiplier of reading interest is the talking about books among children themselves. Imagination is sparked and there is a great chance that reading will continue. 

Presentation at Frankfurt book fair Imagination stage 2026
Presentation at Frankfurt book fair Imagination stage 2026
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Book fair hope

The Frankfurt book fair attracted 236.000 visitors in 2026, similar to the previous year. There have been about 50% professionals and 50% general interest audiences. The busy times on the fair are marked by about 4000 exhibitors and 3800 events. Great efforts have been made to facilitate circulation on the fair to quickly move between country pavilions and events on stages across the whole area. In times of pervasive online content provision, the face-to-face meeting of authors and audiences as well professional book traders and related professionals remains an important event. With broad media coverage, the event remains a hallmark for any democratic society. Keep thinking big.

Frankfurt book fair 2026
Frankfurt book fair 2026
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Booktok OMG OMG

The Frankfurt Book Fair #fbm26 has made considerable efforts to make it easy for the production of booktok content. The phenomenon of short recommendations of books by mostly young enthusiastic persons, some of them actually readers, has a proven record to influence decisions to buy books. In seemingly frank talks, booktokers admit that the first best solution is to go and get your copy or copies of different editions. Second best is actually reading them. Nothing wrong with that. After all, we all have many books on our shelves which we haven’t read or we haven’t finished reading yet – considering some books you want to refer back to several times or at a later stage in your life.
In 2026 the prestigious “Julius-Campe-Preis” for literary criticism and the promotion of reading (own translation) has been awarded to a critic commentator and booktoker, Thomas Sachsenmaier with an exceptionally broad reach in Germany. There are still too few literature critics who reach audiences across generations because of their presence in all media channels with high professional standards. Interesting “Booktok” is a skill, just like “youtuber” is a performance-based video production. “Oh-my-God (OMG), the times are a changing”.

Julius-Campe-Preis-an-Thomas-Sachsenmaier-2026
Julius-Campe-Preis-an-Thomas-Sachsenmaier-2026
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Out of Czechia

On the occasion of the Czech Pavilion at the Frankfurt Book Fair, Hermann, Sander and Suva (2026) accomplished an astonishing project and an anthology. In viewing Czechia, beyond the well-known city of Prague, 12 authors contribute short stories from a temporary resident’s perspective in a provincial town. “Minout Prahu” in Czech, “Jenseits von Prag” in German built and continues to build bridges between cultures of neighbors who often claim to know a lot about the other culture, and yet, a more thorough understanding remains a “Böhmisches Dorf”, a Bohemian village, but better translated as “is all Greek to them”. In a continuation of “Czechia: A country on the Coast” at the 2026 book fair in Frankfurt, we are no longer surprised to read (p.82) that in town Ostrava with a industrial and mining history, the European Championship of “Beach Volleyball (U20)” took place with many spectators. There is a lot to discover in and about Czechia beyond the famous authors like Kafka and Kundera and the journey to seek for the beaches in Czechia.

Jenseits-von-Prag-published-on-occasion-of-Frankfurt-book-fair-2026-Czechia-Pavilion

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Promise of good time

Some literature is packed with the promise to have a good time when reading it. Travel literature or travel guides also work as enablers or facilitators to have a great experience or moments somewhere else. Escapes from daily routine through reading is itself in most cases a good time as well. Many professional conferences which include traveling should keep an eye on the promise to have a good or inspirational, encouraging time. The good time is most frequently associated with meeting interesting people or impressions that last longer than usual. The Frankfurt Book Fair manages to live up to the expectations of visitors to have a good time while working and meeting people who believe that having a good time is still often related to books in all sorts of formats. Reading as a joint endeavor starts in childhood and maybe revived in old age. Sharing of narratives is key. Passing on a book or recommendations through tiktok or youtube have become a popular way to promote how to have a good time. 

Books about photography 2026-10

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Traveling with-in books

Of course we like to travel or move it. Why not Madagascar? Most people would start to prepare such a journey online for a starting point. On the Frankfurt book fair, the publisher MairDumont reported that very quickly after we zoomed in on a destination, we ask ourselves: what info to trust. For publishers and authors the issue a crucial one as to build a reputation as a trustworthy brand is longer term investment. Holding up trust and to communicate about it, are the next on the agenda. Books or ebooks have this image as most of them are edited in a careful way with cross-checks by several persons. The not-social-media complement rather than replace a trusted source. People navigate between these forms. Authors who have insight knowledge and evidence that links and information have been validated are necessary conditions for success. We still travel with advice from books. Probably even more of us “travel in books”, where the reading of a travel guide becomes a fantasy journey. Traveling with or in books has a great ecologically-minded future, too. 

globe travel book imagination

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Hybrid publishing threat

For decades there have been strong initiatives which defended the freedom of expression. Historically, the press and book publishing have a pretty long track record. The IPA Freedom of Expression Defenders Award has been inaugurated at the Frankfurt book fair #fbm26 on 2026-10-8 with much acclaim. The challenges of the freedom to publish are on the rise again as many countries tackle these freedoms as part of the rise of authoritarian governance. Democratic countries, however, have to live up to the challenges that publishing, as part of the whole media world, has been included into a kind of hybrid way of influencing and even hybrid warfare. AI is a dangerous 2-sided sword in this endeavor as well. The publishing sector starts to address the issue, but finding a consensus seems rather time consuming. Foster alliances before it is too late to regulate, build and strengthen defenses. 

IPA award 2026

 

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Czechia coast

At the Frankfurt book fair we dream ourselves into the imagery of Czechia as a country with beaches and sand castles. The country pavilion of the partnerland of #fbm26 takes us to the ephemeral aspects of literature. While reading we deep dive into uncharted territories and discover unknown landscapes, sometimes even fees. These worlds of imagination become part of us or enlighten sequences of our life course. Taking the perspective of an external viewer widens cognitive and emotional predispositions. There are remarkable ol and new light houses to discover, too. Drawing as performative art, washed away every day like dreams, acknowledges the ephemeral nature of our reading or listening experiences. This message is going to stick with us. 

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More about books

The Frankfurt book fair opens its books and doors on 2026-10-7. The thousands of authors, publishers, translaters and agents are quite concerned about the amount of infringements that AI has brought to the industry. The market is under increasing pressure to secure intellectual property rights and copyright protections. A flood of AI-produced books shall ruin margins out of which authors are paid as well. The spreading of ideas in form of books across borders is threatened. Sebastian Guggolz from the German book trade association claimed even a double theft, first the books, then the ideas by AI. In order to counteract this, the Frankfurt book fair is continuously expanding is function as a platform of exchange of ideas (Juergen Boos) and face-to-face meetings of all involved in writing, editing, producing, trading, teaching and discussing books in the broadest sense. This discourse about books is the real human added value which AI is lacking so far. In this sense of talking about books, books become a kind of merchandising product of an event or a form of take-home-message to participants. A great and promising forward looking agenda for us rather than the retro-captive approach of AI. 

Frankfurt book fair 2026-10-6 press conference

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Book as Entry

Libraries are full of books. But there is much more to a library than just books. However, many users of libraries focus on the “classic” origin of libraries as large and more or less exquisite collections of books. Therefore, it is a decent tradition to think of libraries and most of all books as a kind of “memory of the world”. Judith Schalansky writes texts and conceives books. Authors are used to choose typescripts from a huge potential choice. Going through the history of book production, can inform about the diversity of appearances of texts in book form. The panel discussion at the Stabi West in the presence of Schalansky and about Schalansky raised awareness to the point that there can be many more than just one entry into a book. However, we are so used to read front to back, that it is even hard to think about more entries. Images, typescripts and typesetting or the kind of binding, all may serve as facilitators for more ways of handling a book.