Talking books: deals done at the fair.

The Frankfurt Book Fair from 15 to 19 October saw more visitors on the penultimate day (18 October, with over 78,200) than at any time in the fair's history. This didn't reflect the more cautious tone adopted by many, with the gathering global economic downturn.

Hong Kong-based printing companies could, however, take a positive note from comments made by specialist publishers.

Said Matthias Mantey, who's responsible for production at educational publisher, Cornelsen: "for productions with a high element of assembly, we use facilities in Hong Kong or southern China. We rely on [Hong Kong] brokers that organise and control the production facilities, provide samples and organise the production and delivery to our German distributor."

For Mantey, Hong Kong is the preferred venue for contact with both Southeast Asian and Mainland printers. "From our point of view, brokerage from partners in Hong Kong is necessary to find appropriate partners [on the Chinese mainland]," he added.

Springer speaks of Hong Kong link.

Dr Hubertus Riedesel from giant Europe-wide publisher Springer also sees companies from Hong Kong as a relevant link to the entire East Asian markets as well as for the Chinese mainland. In his opinion, competent knowledge of English is not widespread on the Mainland, while Hong Kong-based companies have better communicating skills in the language.

Sustainability was a topic that is equally important as a cost factor for the printing industry, said buyers. The fair organised special meeting points where printing companies could show their products to potential customers.

One whole day was dedicated to companies from Greater China, with environmental certification high on the list of priorities.

"Our company is going to get an ISO 14000 and [Forest Stewardship Council] (FSC) certification," said Anna WS Tang, representing Hong Kong's Anpak Printing Limited. The higher price for certified paper is a critical point, "but if the customers want it they have to pay for it", said Tang.

Anpak Printing goes for certification.

Chan: enquiries from clients.

European companies are more willing to pay for environmental friendly products than Asian customers, Tang said.

"If our customers have a green concept, they ask for recycled or FSC products," added Heidi Chan from Asia One of Hong Kong. The company specialises in photo and arts books.

Digitisation high on the list of attractions

Jürgen Boos, director of the Frankfurt Book Fair, said digitisation was the main element attracting visitors this year. Some 299,112 visitors attended the event, 5.6% up in aggregate on 2007. The main reason for the growing interest of professional visitors is the need for orientation in the face of new digital business models, Boos added.

The German book market generated revenues of Euros9.6 billion in 2007, up 3.4% over the previous year. This was remarkable because it was the first year of growth after two years of dropping revenues in the book market. The most important distribution channel was the local retail book trade, with revenues of Euros5.1 billion, followed by direct sales from publishing houses to end customers - and the Internet.

Record numbers at the show but warnings for the year.

The German Internet segment showed growth rates of more than 21% per year, for a market share of 8.9%.

But 2008 has been another story. In August, revenues in the German publishing market dropped1.6% compared to the same month last year. Apart from special interest groups all subsectors suffered, including the previously gilded literature for kids, guide books and tourist guides.

In France, there was some growth in 2007, but slower than in the German market. Revenues for last year stood at about Euros4.1 billion. The most dynamic segments were for essay books, children's literature and comics (the last of these largely due to the popularity of so-called manga output).

E-book trend is firmer

E-books came in for plenty of discussion at the fair. In a survey published shortly before the event, 65% of respondents said they would like to use e-readers.

Electronic publishing coming to the fore.

Sony announced a co-operative deal with retail chain Thalia and distributor Libri. Sony's reader PRS-505 will be on the German market in spring 2009. No pricing details have been revealed for the German launch, but in France and the UK the price will be around Euros300.

Thalia will offer the reader in its stores, while Libri will be offering e-books and readers to retailers.

Rumours that Amazon might reveal details about its Kindle reader for Europe stayed as rumours. Amazon doesn't publish figures, but the technology blog TechCrunch estimates that for the first eleven months of last year, 240,000 Kindle units were sold in the US.

Amazon's Kindle comes in a proprietary format, while Sony's reader digests normal PDFs. In Germany, the digitalised Cybook and iLiad are available, but not yet with substantial success.

In September Plastic Logic, a spin-off company from Cambridge University in the UK, announced a newspaper-like device. "Research confirms professionals read much more business content than recreational content. They require access to all formats of digital content at their fingertips, and want a large readable screen," said Richard Archuleta, CEO of Plastic Logic.

Asian presence strong.

The Plastic Logic reader supports a full range of business document formats, such as Microsoft Word, Excel and Powerpoint, as well as Adobe PDF files.

For Dr Olaf Ernst, president for eProduct management and innovation at Springer Science+Business Media, e-books are opening a completely new market, mainly for students who are "hungry for highly digestible content".

From January to August this year the usage of e-books at Springer Science+Business Media grew by nearly 90%. In fact, since 2005, every new book at Springer is available as an e-book.

Book accessories attract attention.

The resonance of e-books among traditional retailers is muted. Some are considering e-books as a threat to revenue bases. "The question is [whether] the retailers are able to convert the risk to an opportunity," said Hermann-Arndt Riethmüller from Osiander, one of the most prestigious university book retailers.

Next year, the Frankfurt Book Fair could become even more attractive to companies from Hong Kong and the Chinese mainland as China will be guest of honour at the event, with presentations from Hong Kong, Macau and Taiwan.

from special correspondent Pia Grund Ludwig, Frankfurt