Why indies authors need to take note of this year’s Frankfurt Book Fair

We’re a couple of weeks away from the 2014 Frankfurt Book Fair (FBF), and it’s promising to be a huge step forward for indie authors. ALLi staff, advisors and members will be joining the hundreds of thousands cramming the cavernous halls of Frankfurt’s exhibition centre this October. Whether you’re attending or not, this year’s FBF is going to be big news for indies.

Why this year’s Frankfurt?

Frankfurt is the biggest international book fair: a whirlwind of meetings, stalls, authors and readers from across the globe. For self-publishers, it may seem daunting, but in keeping with the recent positivity on this blog  this year’s FBF is shaping up to be the most indie-author-friendly to date. With two days of programming devoted to self-publishing, we’re delighted to see Frankfurt really open up to indies — and acknowledge the hugely invigorating effect self-publishing is having on the rest of the industry.

A Discount for our Members

If you are planning to attend, we’ve got a special discount for you, giving you 10% off Frankfurt entrance. Use the code: Self-Publishing14Discount10 when purchasing your tickets on the Frankfurt Book Fair site to claim.

ALLi at Frankfurt

This year’s FBF is a first for ALLi and our members and advisors will be offering advice and sharing their publication successes over the various seminars and workships.

If you are attending the fair, an invitation has been extended to ALLi members who have found success in self-publishing from Alison Baverstock, who's chairing a day on self-publishing, and looking for case-studies who have discovered considerable commercial success by going indie. If this sounds like you, drop me an email explaining why.

Orna Ross will be announcing her own experiment in translation, working directly with a translator to publish in German next year, in association with Berlin company and ALLi Partner Member, epubli. Orna will share costs and outcomes from this experiment as she goes through it, to establish whether it works for indie authors to go direct.

And Orna will be highlighting the positive effect self-publishing is having on the entire industry, speaking  as part of a publishing business masterclass, aimed at junior staff members from publishing companies: “Is It All About Sales?”

She will argue for the proper balance between creative and commercial concerns as key to success for any publisher, trade, author or indie (more on those thoughts here and here) — and suggest how publishing needs to transform, if it is to benefit from the skills and talents of its most fundamental creative resource: authors.

It’s an important lesson and one that successful self-publishers are bringing home to the rest of the publishing world —  and one that we’re delighted to be passing on.

Alongside that, we’re planning to build further on our work round the exploiting of global rights for self-publishers, in advance of publication next Spring of our latest guidebook, How Authors Sell Rights. We'll be examining how indie authors can best equip themselves to find and cultivate their own world of readers, no matter where they are based.

So plenty to share and discuss. If you are attending, we’ll be having an ALLi MeetUp, so let us know you're coming.

And if you’re not, stay tuned – as always, we’ll be writing and reporting back.