At the 2018 edition of Frankfurter Buchmesse. Image: FBM, Marc Jacquemin
By Richard Charkin | @RCharkin
‘It Still Energizes Me’
Having moved back to London from our French sojourn, my thoughts turn to 2025 Frankfurter Buchmesse (October 15 to 19).
I have no doubt that the topic of AI, artificial intelligence, large language models, the wholesale theft of copyright works by generative AI companies, and so on, will dominate discussions outside the arguably more relevant and comforting trading of rights, discovery of new trends, and new friendships.
Richard Charkin
I’m reminded that in 1982, while selling the evergreen Shorter Oxford English Dictionary—two volumes, A to Markworthy and Marl to Z)—an Asian customer pointed out that the only definition of the word computer in that edition was “one who computes.” He still bought 1,000 copies.
I thus turned to my trusty 20-volume full Oxford English Dictionary (Clarendon Press, 1989) to check the meaning of AI back then. The first mention is ai, a kind of sloth—useful in Scrabble but not much else. A few hundred pages later, lurking between artificial insemination and artificial kidney was artificial intelligence, defined as the study of “the capacity of machines to simulate intelligent human behavior.”
Not bad, although I imagine it has been expanded enormously in the current online edition.
‘Serendipitous Meetings’
Back to Frankfurt, this will be my 50th-something fair. The extraordinary thing is that it still energizes me and the hundreds of thousands of people who attend every year. I don’t want to reminisce too much in this column but I wrote a series of blog posts for FAZ (Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung) in 2008, behind a paywall now, I fear, so I can’t check what nonsense I wrote. I doubt that AI featured in it.
In many parts of the world, diligent rights departments are putting together their Frankfurt catalogues; sales people are making dates to meet their international distribution partners; editors are putting final touches on the proofs of their forthcoming sure-to-be bestselling titles; stand designers are frantically trying to satisfy everyone with their proposed lighting, positioning, and costs; CEOs are busy ensuring they don’t have to spend too much time in the halls themselves but in incredibly important off-site meetings with other CEOs; catering firms are ordering enormous amounts of alcohol and high-carb snacks; the Frankfurt team itself is wondering what unanticipated crises will face them this year; the guest of honor, the Philippines, will be lining up its top officials to attend and parade their unique and wonderful culture; publishing service vendors will be tweaking their sales pitches and flash presentations; hotels will be revising upwards their accommodation prices. And then there are people like me who enjoy nothing more than serendipitous meetings and drinking in the energy of the greatest meeting place of the greatest industry in my world.
Back to AI, I can assure you that this piece was written, however badly, without the use of any artificial intelligence but with an aging brain and lousy typing.
Looking forward to seeing many of you and wishing you all a profitable, enjoyable, and mind-expanding Buchmesse.
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