The Frankfurt Book Fair 2024 Begins Today
The Frankfurt Book Fair, the world’s most important industry meet, begins today. For five days, publishers, authors, and readers from all over the world will once again convene to discuss new books and trends. Bertelsmann is represented with numerous publishers from Penguin Random House.
The Frankfurt Book Fair, the world’s largest event for the book and media industry, opens its doors today. Until Sunday, the fair offers visitors the opportunity to discuss current political, social and cultural issues. As every year, publishers, authors, and readers from over a hundred countries come together to discover the latest trends and topics in the industry, network with each other, and enter into dialog. It is initially only open to trade visitors before opening to the general public on Friday.
Penguin Random House publishers and their authors will be represented in large numbers at the fair. The Penguin Random House Verlagsgruppe Random House Verlagsgruppe once again has a large joint stand at D21 in Hall 3.0. Yesterday, several authors were already featured at the “Blue Sofa” event to open the Frankfurt Book Fair reading festival, “Open Books.” The authors included writers Anna Katharina Hahn and Christoph Peters, archaeologist Harald Meller, and historian Kai Michel. Penguin Random House Verlagsgruppe’s audiobook publishers – Hörverlag, Audio Verlag, Cbj Audio and Random House Audio – also have a joint stand: K25 in Hall 3.1.
The Frankfurt Book Fair is also a must for our colleagues from the English-, Spanish- and Portuguese-language Penguin Random House imprints, especially those in the licensing departments. As usual, Penguin Random House Grupo Editorial can be found in Hall 5.0, Stand C113, while Penguin Random House’s English-language publishers are in Hall 5.1, Stand D20.
Celebrity guests in the ‘30-minute flat share’
Many other authors will be visiting the book fair in the days ahead. On the “30-Minuten-WG” (30-minute flat share / roommates for 30 minutes) stage at the publishing groups’ joint stand D21 in Hall 3.0, e.g., visitors can listen to authors talk about their books or attend one of the signing sessions. This year’s celebrity guests include Melanie Raabe, Thomas Gottschalk, Maren Vivien Haase, Yuval Noah Harari, Juliane Löffler, Peter Wohlleben, Bob Blume, Lauren Roberts, Richard David Precht, and Ulrike Draesner. All “30-Minuten-WG” events will be streamed live on litlounge.de.
The Bertelsmann Stiftung’s publishing house will also be represented in Hall 3.1, at Stand D25. A discussion event under the heading “Anders wird gut – Berichte aus der Zukunft des gesellschaftlichen Zusammenhalts” (Different will be good – Reports from the future of social solidarity) with authors Verena Carl and Kai Unzicker will be held there on Sunday.
A special feature of this year’s fair is the new “New Adult Area” in Hall 1.2, where authors including Penguin Random House’s Maren Vivien Haase, Stella Tack, and Lauren Roberts will appear at various events. This is an exhibition area dedicated to the successful “New Adult” genre with its “Romance” and “Dark College” subgenres. By setting up this specialized exhibition area, the Frankfurt Book Fair is responding to the enthusiasm and attention that the genre has received in recent years, particularly on social media such as TikTok.
