7 Things Attending the Leipzig Book Fair Taught Me About the Future of Indie Publishing
If you have a story inside you, this shift matters more than ever
For weeks now, through the conversations with my coaching clients in the Beyond Membership1 I’ve been thinking about the future of publishing.
Because a few months ago, I was at the Frankfurt Book Fair. That’s the biggest book fair in the world. The place where rights are sold, deals are made, and the industry defines itself and the cool thing is, it’s in Germany. Yay.
And now, a few days back, I attended another event for book lovers called Leipzig Book Fair in the middle of 300,000+ readers from 54 countries.
And somewhere between packed halls, quiet conversations, and one very unexpected downpour… something became very clear to me looking at the Book Fair with a beginner’s mind:
The center of publishing is steadily shifting and there’s now an era for the small guys.
And if you’re writing a book or thinking about writing a book. Or quietly carrying a story inside you…this matters.
Table of Contents
1. Frankfurt Book Fair vs Leipzig Book Fair
2. Publishers are data-driven gatekeepers
3. Word of mouth looks different but is as important as ever
4. Earning 10% from your book is not enough
5. Indie publishers are writing and publishing without permission
6. Indie authors are quietly building support systems with AI
7. Marketing for book authors is becoming more important than ever
1. Frankfurt Book Fair vs Leipzig Book Fair
If you’ve never been to the Frankfurt Book Fair I can tell you, as the leading Book Fair in the world happening in the Little Big Apple, it’s super impressive.
You walk through the buzzy halls and you feel it:
This is where decisions are made. This is where books become products. This is where global publishing moves. This is where to pitch my story or my designs.
It’s of course where hundreds of thousands of readers show up, 240,000 (with 118,000 trade visitors!) to be specific. In comparison, Leipzig reached a record of 313,000 (with only 55,000 of them being trade visitors!).
So in my view the numbers alone show, Leipzig is different. It doesn’t feel so business-y and it’s where readers show up, cosplayers, manga and comic fans and loads of indie publishers.
I saw teenagers sitting on the floor reading or playing card games. I saw people carrying five, six, seven books at once (okay, maybe it was me in the mirror!). You see lines forming around authors you may have never heard of. You see colourful and unique looking booths or simply a table with some decoration.
And suddenly I realize: