Jyotsna Chugh
Vice president, Repro India
"According to me the Delhi Book Fair, London Book Fair (LBF), Bologna Children’s Book Fair and Frankfurt Book Fair (FBF) are important fairs. Abu Dhabi Book Fair is a region centric whereas Bologna caters to children’s segment.
They impart knowledge and attract publishers from around the world. In future, new technologies will take the major slice in these fairs. The forecast of these fairs is that e-book market will grow worldwide at a compound annual rate of 42% from 2009 to 2012. Also undeveloped and developing countries will provide opportunities in terms of new markets to look at."
Jaya Bhattacharji Rose
Publishing consultant
"The World Book Fair and The State Association of Publishers create interest in the cities. Besides this I find Trivandrum Book Fair, Jaipur Literature Festival and Bookaroo Children’s Festival important as it is a platform to interact with publishers, editors, writers and agents.
LBF and FBF will be a part of the publishing landscape although numbers are showing that the e-sales are outstripping print. The Indian market has great potential and an aggressive promotion of books across the country via traditional book fairs, mobile libraries, social-media etc would be a good idea to pursue."
Radhika Menon
Tulika Books
"The Bologna Book Fair is a smaller fair compared to Frankfurt. This makes it accessible to small independent children’s publishers like Tulika. It offers a smaller more intimate space to meet like-minded publishers and interact with them. With children’s publishing growing steadily in India there are many more publishers participating each year.
Stands are expensive like all international bookfairs, and so most of us just visit and have meetings wherever we can. It’s a shame that NBT who represents India and is given a large stand, every year, makes no effort to make it a collective stand showcasing Indian children’s publishing to the world."
Mary Therese Kurkalang
German Book Office
"The Abu Dhabi International Book Fair and Cape Town Book Fair, both are joint ventures with the Frankfurt Book Fair. With more than 7,500 exhibitors from 100 countries and around 3,000 events, the Frankfurt Book Fair is an important information market for the international publishing industry.
During the course of the fair more than 10,000 journalists from over 60 countries report on more than 3,000 events and around 1,23,000 new titles. German Book Office (GBO) organises various business and cultural events for the Indian exhibitors in Frankfurt, linking the Indian Book Market with Germany and across all countries."
