Leipzig book fair : The relaxation of the books industry makes hope

last week, the London book fair took place, was there dampened the mood. The reason, of course: the Brexit, the power to create the British book industry hard. She fears the loss of its exports to its leading position on the European market, especially in Competition with the United States, and thus many of its 70,000 jobs.

In comparison, the Leipzig book fair, which opens this Wednesday evening, traditionally at the Gewandhaus in Leipzig, the Saxon metropolis to a peaceful, harmonious, atmospheric event. Heart: the books, the authors, the prices that you get given on the opening night the Russian-American journalist Masha Forgotten the Leipzig book prize for European understanding.

However, the colorful hidden object, the the stands with your book shelves and at the latest on the Friday show, the Manga-young people in their Fantasy uniforms are deceiving in Leipzig. The German book industry is not unlike the British in a strong change, even without a Brexit. It is under economic pressure, because of the shrinkage makes the end of reader, and reader the inner shaft on the market.

The media supplier KNV is insolvent, but still there

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This seems to be the industry, the structural changes due to the digitalization have a good grip on to. Analog like digital business practices lead to a peaceful Co-existence, and no one has more to be afraid of, that the printed book is soon to be discontinued model. Controversial however, the end of March to vote on EU intellectual property law.

It requires that the author be involved in the Gain of digital giants such as Google, Facebook and Co that their making is not arbitrary and for free on their platforms, may be shared or linked to. Which in turn brings out the opponents of the amendment to the barricades, see the free Internet is threatened.

the Immediate and the harder the industry at the Moment, the insolvency of the KNV group. KNV is the biggest book and media supplier in Germany, and acts as a hinge between the publishers and the book trade, as an intermediary. Small and medium-sized publishers are Worried about their already delivered batches and the lack of remuneration, which, in turn, could draw some of the bankruptcy.

the group is also represented at the fair, as a positive Signal suggest – in fact, nobody is located in the industry because KNV disappears from the market. Would lose all, even the reading audience. It would have to get used to it, wait a few days for book deliveries, especially if it is the well-stocked bookstore, gives in the neighborhood of his trust (and not Amazon).

The hottest culture war revolves around asterisk

A controversial subject in the Leipzig trade fair days and in the next few years should also be gender-fair language, not least because of the doubtful-clumsy, alarm modernist, full of exclamation marks plug-in call at the fair also represented the "Association of German language", with the Gender of mischief had "finally!".

The opposition came immediately, and in a way appropriate to nature the struggle for linguistic gender justice has quickly become the symbol of the political culture war. Writers such as Judith Hermann, Angelika Klüssendorf, or Katja Lange-Müller has been attested because of your signature under the call of the other, equal to the AfD close, because some of the male signatories to the VDS-feel call in the environment of this party.

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Russian-American journalist Masha Forgotten receives the Leipzig book award

Well, that one is just in the publishing scene, a certain ease to the day, on balance, is considered and, above all, the authors can opt in to – always in the awareness that language changes anyway continuously, without any stop to field calls, and many other forces involved. The hard bandages, with which the controversy over the gender-appropriate language is fought, fit, however, to the ever increasingly unruly social climate and its vibrations. In turn, the Leipzig book fair, which belongs to its essence, is how to register a Seismograph.