You might remember me totally losing my cool the other day about the Book Expo not being a bookshop and if not, I did everything except swear so be warned. We’re currently in the middle of the Frankfurt Book Fair and I’d call it the elder sibling of our Book Expo. It is massive, I thought the Book Expo last year was big as it was at the showgrounds but this is even bigger. When I look at the plan I can see three floors! I would so love to be there. And there’s so much news coming into my email just from there. Here are some snippets.

Frankfurt Book Fair 2016: Charkin Says IPA Stands With Turkish Publishers

There’s a lot of unrest in Turkey at the moment, it makes me worry about my friend who I haven’t heard from for far too long. Just in the publishing world more than 30 publishers have been closed with thousands of authors, journalists, academics and intellectuals arrested. Not a good place to be.

Bankrupt Shipping Company Causing Woes for Publishers

What happens when a company goes bankrupt? There’s a bunfight by the creditors to get as much of their money as possible. This article gives some idea of the disruption this can cause further down the line as books get held up on ships. If you’re wondering where your hotly awaited book is I suggest you check your publisher’s website, there’s a chance it’s currently on a ship somewhere.

NAIBA 2016: Younger Booksellers Bring Invigorating Presence

This one isn’t actually in Frankfurt but it’s another illustration of how good these events can be. The New Atlantic Independent Booksellers Association hold an annual conference and this one is so well attended they were able to organise a late night celebration. Look at all those tables! And it’s just one corner of the room.

Abrams to Launch New ‘Text-Driven’ Imprint

A new imprint! An imprint is a different arm of the same company, they generally do slightly different things to the original company. It’s capturing the market that’s there rather than sending the author away somewhere else. It’s basically having one umbrella company with little offshoots sprouting up.

I’m so jealous that the northern hemisphere get all these awesome book events happening but because we’re a much smaller market, so far away and still a relatively new country we don’t get them.

And I lied. Not all the news I’ve given you today comes out of the Frankfurt Book Fair, it just felt like it when I wrote my heading.