Response to Middle East crisis sees FBF delegates withdraw as UK firms check in

Many publishers and agents have returned to the Frankfurt Book Fair with full complements for the first time since Covid-19, though the Israel-Gaza conflict – and the fallout from FBF’s response to it – has hit meeting schedules and “added a sense of sadness overall”.

Just prior to the opening of the 75th FBF several organisations, including the Arab Publishers Association, the Sharjah Book Fair, the Emirates Publishers Association and the Indonesian Publishers Association, withdrew from the fair, citing FBF’s initial statement on the conflict, which described Hamas’ attacks as a “barbaric terror war against Israel” and said FBF would give Israeli and Jewish voices additional time on its stages.

Lorella Belli, of her eponymous literary agency, said: “We have had cancellations of our meetings with Israeli publishers, but not with those from other Middle Eastern publishers so far. The whole situation has certainly added a sense of sadness and concern in general; [it’s] yet another conflict affecting people locally and, of course, publishers and our industry as a whole.”

Some of the biggest British publishing groups landed at the fair in numbers. Bloomsbury is bringing 46 staff from its UK and US arms, with head of corporate communications Ginni Arnold saying: “We are back with a full complement… our diaries are encouragingly full and we are thrilled that this year Bloomsbury UK staff have embraced travelling by train to and from the event.”

Chantal Noel, group rights director at Penguin Random House, revealed that PRH UK is sending more representatives this year, from rights to editorial, along with more delegates from PRH US, DK and other group companies. The PRH stand also has more floor space this year.

HarperCollins has “broadly the same number of people attending” compared to last year, while Maud Sepult, group rights director for Simon & Schuster UK, said: “Our rights team has an extremely busy fair ahead, with packed schedules. But attendance is lower, with many of our customers coming only for a couple of days, and there are fewer parties.”

A spokesperson for Andrew Nurnberg Associates (ANA) said: “For the first time since Covid, we have colleagues from all 12 ANA offices in Frankfurt for the fair.”

Sam Edenborough, director and co-owner of Greyhound Literary, said it was bringing four staff, including former Picador boss Philip Gwyn Jones, who joined the agency earlier this year. Edenborough added: “It’s been fantastic to see many colleagues from Korea, China and Japan for the first time in some years. I’m hearing that some are leaving earlier this year, on Thursday, but our schedules are fully booked through to the end of Friday.”