Show Notes: Frankfurt Book Fair 2013: Trains and Trade

Sitting down? Good: There are more than 7,800 exhibitors from close to 100 countries listed for the 2013 Frankfurt Book Fair (October 9-13), the world’s largest publishing trade show, and the one that doubles as a showcase for the financial capital of Europe’s railway service. You'll want to sit down and rest your feet before heading to Frankfurt to try to cover the show!

Gutenberg might consider it magic to zip into town on the S8 and S9 trains from the airport. For you, the magic is that your Exhibitor Pass or five-day Trade-Visitor ticket includes your use of the U-Bahn and S-Bahn trains, trams and buses free all week.

This is important because, as any old hands at the 64-year-old event can tell you, you’re going to think you’re on the trains and trams more than you’re on the floor of the fair among the international rights deals and the endless unveilings of new books and digital publishing services.

If you’ve been to the London Book Fair or BookExpo America (BEA) in New York and think you’ve seen a big trade show, then you’re a newcomer to Frankfurt, and willkommen. Between the Entrance Hall East 3.0 and the Hot Spot for Digital Innovation in Hall 8.0, there are some dozen buildings brought into play at Frankfurt, featuring, for example: the Antiquarian Book Fair in Hall 6.0; International Publishers in Halls 5.0, 5.1, 6.1, 8.0; Literature (Children’s and Young Adult, Fiction and Nonfiction) in Halls 3.0 and 3.1…you get the idea. (And you get on the train.)

Don’t wait. Since publishing is probably the most Twitter-happy business on Earth, start tracking the 
@Book_Fair and @PubPerspectives handles now. Publishing Perspectives will be issuing free, printed “show dailies” with news and updates; pick them up on your way into any of the show’s halls each morning. Follow hashtags: #fbm13 for the fair, #CONTEC for some of the leading conference chatter.