Taiwan publishers active at Frankfurt fair

This article was written by Chen Ting and published by Taiwan Journal on November 5, 2004. It features the world's largest publishing trade show, the Frankfurt Book Fair, which was held in Germany from October 6 to 10. This year the festival saw almost 6,700 exhibitors from 110 countries, including 17 Taiwanese publishing houses. More than 350,000 titles were displayed, to the delight of more than 270,000 local and international visitors.

The close economic relationship between Taiwan and Germany is mentioned in the article. Germany is Taiwan's No. 1 trading partner in Europe, and Taiwan is Germany's fourth-largest trading partner in the world. Many Taiwanese publishers come to the Frankfurt Book Fair every year, looking for publications suitable for the Taiwanese market. The festival also provides a chance for international publishers to explore the diverse literary tastes of Taiwanese readers, for Taiwan publishes 40,000 titles each year, more than 50 percent of which are translations. The article concludes with a note on audio books and online book shopping in Europe.