Here you find information on the South African book market and the book fair in Cape Town. Please visit us at the German Collective Stand. Numerous German publishing houses present their programme, selected book collections invite you to browse through them. Our colleagues are happy to offer you any advise if you wish to become an exhibitor at the Frankfurt Book Fair in October.

Founded in 2006 by the Frankfurt Book Fair and the Publishers’ Association of South Africa, the Cape Town Book Fair has established itself as the most important marketplace for the Black African book industry. Africa’s only internationally positioned fair registered a positive exhibitor response again in 2009: 269 publishing companies, book shops and institutions from 31 countries were represented at the event which attracted around 44,000 visitors. An invitation programme run by the Goethe-Institut in Johannesburg targeted Black African publishing companies and will be continued. For 2010, a number of matchmaking sessions and special interest events are also included in the programme. For the first time, the fair will begin with an exclusive trade visitor day, facilitating undisturbed exchange between the industry’s players.

The market

50 years of apartheid have left their mark on South Africa. Nevertheless, the country has a stable book market. PASA, the South African publishers’ association has 178 members, the South African booksellers’ association, SABA, has 265. Apart from the dominant chain bookstores, the total of around 500 booksellers includes book clubs and online bookstores. The public libraries also play an important part in the provision of literature.

The South African book market is an import market. 70 per cent of all books and media originate in the UK and other English-speaking countries. Education is valued here as an important prerequisite for personal and economic development. Accordingly, there is a demand for non-fiction, STM and academic books and for teaching resources for use in schools. More than half of total sales in the book trade are accounted for by the school textbook sector. South African publishing companies are particularly interested in digitisation, mobile information communication and the e-book market.

In the whole of South Africa, approx. one million people are of German origin. There are German faculties at 15 of South Africa’s universities.

Your gain as a visitor

At the Cape Town Book Fair you are given an insight into Africa’s literary scene and book market. The fair will be even more professional and more international in 2010. The sale of German books is being handled by the bookshop “Ulrich Naumann” from Cape Town.

At the German Collective Stand you can meet us and get all information you might need if you wish to become an exhibitor at the Frankfurt Book Fair.