"Dreamtalker": Book release by Peter Pannke
Textbox
German reading session with school pupils from Delhi
German Collective Stand at 19th New Delhi World Book Fair 2010
A report
Events in and around the Book Fair
organised by
German Book Office, New Delhi & Frankfurt Book Fair
with support from partners
The German Pavilion
Germany’s official participation at the New Delhi World Book Fair saw the biggest stand at the International pavilion Hall 7A, appropriately situated at the very entrance. With a participation of 18 German Publishers including literary, children’s, medical, scientific, sports and other subjects. The German Publishers met with many Indian Publishers and discussions on the buying and selling of rights and licenses and collaborations were initiated between quite a few. Apart from the books from the participationg German Publishers the German Pavilion also displayed the latest literary and childrens‘ books from Germany and there were many visitors who were disappointed at not being able to purchase these books. The section with children’s and young adult books and the books by Herta Müller drew in quite a crowd.
Lange Nacht der Deutschen Literatur
The Lange Nacht der Deutschen Literatur held on 30th January at India International Centre, a long night of readings and interactive sessions with authors from Austria, Germany & Switzerland, drew an audience of about a hundred german speakers and literature enthusiasts from Delhi. A first of it’s kind and jointly organised by Austrian Cultural Forum, Goethe-Insitut/ Max Mueller Bhavan,Pro Helvetia- Swiss Arts Council and GBO New Delhi, the programme was a successful attempt at making known new contemporary literature and writings from the German speaking world.
Dreamtalker by Peter Pannke
On 31st January at the German Pavilion we had the release and a discussion of ‘Dreamtalker’ by German Author Peter Pannke. The discussion was with his Indian Publisher, Dhritabrata Bhattacharjya Tato. The session which lasted for an hour on a Sunday afternoon, perfectly timed for book lovers to sit and listen to the story of Peter Pannke’s spiritual journey through his collection of songs, poems and essays.
The Text Box
The Text Box, a new poetry performance format from Germany by Bas Boettcher was clearly one of the highlights on the Book Fair. The textbox- a soundproof cabin in which poets perform and connect to their audience who listen in with headphones, was an intimate affair in the midst of the bustle of the book fair. Both Bas Boettcher and Dalibor Markovic from Germany performed daily, interspersed with guest poets from Switzerland - Nora Gomringer and Raphael Urweider and from Delhi - Arka Mukhopadhyay, Taru Dalmia aka Delhi Sultanate, Dan Husain and Rahul Rai. Each session timed every half an hour from 1.30 pm onwards drew crowds of people, from children to adults, young students to swamijis, and many publishers and books people from the various stalls who took a break from their meetings and stands to listen in… Many were clicking away and recording the performances on their mobile phones and quite a few were seen swaying to the rhythmic beats of poetry performed in German, English, Hindi and Urdu!
German reading and book activity sessions
From the 1st to 3rd February at 11am every morning through the 3 days the German Pavilion was thronged by children aged between 12 and 15 coming from 3 different schools in Delhi –they all had one thing in common – the German language! In collaboration with the Goethe-Institut’s PASCH project an exchange programme between Indian and German schools. Young students from Ahlcon International School, Amity International School and Springdales School took part in “Interactive German reading and book activity sessions‘ which were conducted by teachers from the German School. In addition the students from the German School also interacted with the Indian School children. The sessions saw the students animatedly performing the stories they were given and solving book puzzles. From detective stories to the Oktoberfest to enacting TV shows, all the while munching on brightly colored jelly bears (Gummibaerchen), the students were seen thoroughly enjoying the sessions while conversing and broadening their knowledge of German. They all went back with a bag of goodies which included the famous German mini Pixie books. Quite a few passersby also stopped to watch these sessions and we’re sure quite a few of them will go back to school to learn German – if only for all the fun and goodies!
The Role of international Book Fairs in the promotion of books
On 2nd February a session on ‘ The Role of international Book Fairs in the promotion of books‘ was organized at the Fair grounds in partnership with CAPEXIL Book Division. Mr. S.K Ghai – President Capexil Book Division gave an overview of International Book Fairs, Claudia Kaiser -Vice President Frankfurt Book Fair spoke about the Frankfurt Book Fair, the Abu Dhabi International Book Fair and Cape Town Book Fair and Mr. A K Chakraborty, Regional Director, Capexil presented the various schemes and financial support available with Capexil for publishers. The session ended with a round of questions and answers.
Jumpstart - Marketing Children’s Books, Seminar and Workshop
The Jumpstart- Marketing Children’s Books, Seminar was held on 3rd February at the India Habitat Centre and the speakers were Joachim Kaufmann, Managing Director- Carlsen Verlag Germany, Ralf Rebscher, Director Marketing & Sales - Loewe Children’s Books Germany, Sayoni Basu, Director Publishing - Scholastic India, Samir Patil, CEO & Founder of ACK Media India, moderated by: Akshay Pathak, Director GBO. The seminar was well attended with about 100 persons, all from the children book publishing industry – publishers, editors, marketing and sales professionals, book sellers and children’s books authors. The President of the Frankfurt Book Fair, Mr Juergen Boos gave the welcome address which was followed by presentations the 4 speakers, they each presented their companies, their markets, marketing campaigns and strategies, some case studies, touching on new techniques and technology used to market their books, and the different segments of children’s books and how they are marketed differently. Joachim Kaufmann presented Carlsen Verlag the biggest children’s books publisher in Germany, talking about the various characters started by Carlsen and various sales campaigns from the famous mini Pixie books that almost every child in Germany recognizes and the marketing of the German Harry Potter series, to the highly successful relaunch of Kai Meyer – a series of love stories targeted to young women adults etc. Sayoni Basu from Scholastic India presented the unique marketing channels of Scholastic through their strong network of School Book Clubs and School Book Fairs as well as distribution and sales at bookshops. Sayoni presented an interesting study of how children choose the books they read, who chooses for them and looking beyond the metropolises. Ralf Bescher’s session presenting Loewe Verlag and the kind of books they do and products around the books, presenting books for young adults and new and exciting ways to publicise the books from interactive websites to posters and book marks and products targeted differently for girls and boys was very enlightening. Lastly we had a presentation from Samir Patil on ACK Media’s beliefs, vision, strategy and the company’s growth and the various activities they have branched to, staying with children’s content combining entertainment and education. The seminar ended on that high note and we were all almost light headed from the journey that Samir took us through and the scope and reach of what ACK has planned for the future!
The Jumpstart- Marketing Children’s Books, Workshop was held on 4th February at the Park Hotel and it was conducted by both Joachim Kaufmann, Managing Director- Carlsen Verlag and Ralf Rebscher, Director Marketing & Sales - Loewe Children’s Books from Germany. In groups of 6 -8 people over 2 sessions, the participants which comprised of marketing professionals, editors and booksellers, were led through a range of marketing strategies and possibilities. Looking at promotional material, advertising, internet presence, merchandising, social networking, Author engagement, involvement of target groups, target audiences, target sales figures, budgeting etc. Both Carlsen Verlag and Loewe made presentations of 3 -4 successful marketing campaigns.
E-books session by Ronald Schild
On 5th February, at the German Pavilion we a small meeting was organized between 10 Indian publishers and Ronald Schild, CEO of MVB Marketing and Publishing Services of the Book Trade GmbH, Germany. (MVB is a subsidiary of the German Booksellers and Publishers Association). MVB recently launched its own platform for the distribution of digital books, libreka.de - which has since risen to be the leading internet platform for German language books. Mr. Schild made a short presentation on e-books - market development, e-reading devices, success factors for selling e-content, challenges for publishers and sample architecture for a universal e-book platform. The publishers who attended gave feedback that they found the session very useful given the present atmosphere of confusion and varying views and speculations on how and when e-books will affect the book trade in India.
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