I was about to conclude my interview with Vanessa Badroodien, managing director of the Cape Town Book Fair, when there was a knock on her office door. It was one of the Book Fair’s security personnel who had an urgent message to relay.
I quickly wound up the interview and, at the door, met Mike Martin, managing director of Jacana Media. He told me that the Jacana delegation was about to be evicted from the International Convention Centre, where the book fair was held this week.
In the end an incident was averted and no one was thrown out.
In a later interview, spokesperson for the fair, Jennifer Crocker, explained what happened. “Jacana chose not to buy space and as far as we are concerned they are not here in an official capacity.”
In fact, the Jacana delegation was at the book fair to attend the European Union Literary Award on June 14, not as exhibitors.
The absence of Jacana from the Cape Town Book Fair was conspicuous. Last year the company had a gigantic, beautifully crafted stand that functioned as a magnet for the biblio-public.
Explaining its absence this year, Jacana’s spokesperson, Oageng Tsatsi, said the company is questioning the cost of the event and the returns. “Is it worthwhile? Does it reach the wider public out there? All we are saying is: let’s find ways of doing this.”
Most stands — even for the big publishers — occupied less space than they did last year. In total the fair occupied 400m2 less.
Terry Morris, managing director of Pan MacMillan, admitted that most players had “scaled back” and were “trying to find their niche”. Her company took less space than last year, she said.
“We have learned to do this on the cheap,” she said at her stand. It cost the company around R250 000, including accommodation and transport costs for staff flying from its Johannesburg office.
Some of the money is recouped through sales and it’s “great exposure” for new books, she said.
Pan MacMillan tends to release a lot of books just in time for the book fair.
Alison Lowry, chief executive of Penguin Books, said that “it’s expensive to exhibit — but it’s worth coming” because of the great exposure and the interaction the public has with authors and books. But, she said: “You can’t recoup the investment from selling books”. As a big multinational “we have to be represented”. She said her stand was smaller and fewer staff members were flown to Cape Town than last year. The company also cut back on giveaways.
When asked whether Penguin would be at the book fair next year, Lowry would only say “I guess so”.
“It would be great to have a similar event in Gauteng as most of our business is in that province,” she said.
Indeed, there are moves in Johannesburg to host the first book fair in the country’s commercial capital a few months from now.
Beth le Roux, from Unisa Press, said the company hadn’t scaled back because it is “subsidised by the university”. But fewer people had visited compared to last year.
“We have done a few sales,” she told me. “Our books are based on research and are considered heavy. People want bestsellers.”
She added: “Children’s books seem to be doing well.”
Le Roux said she would like to see more international publishers represented but that it was expensive even for them.
Thabo Chabalala, marketing manager of Cambridge University Press, agreed. “We couldn’t bring anyone here. We used authors based in Cape Town to push their own books.”
He said because of the gloomy economic outlook, Cambridge University Press had reduced giveaways and didn’t market old titles. He called on the government to reduce taxes on books because “books are expensive”. He also bemoaned the lack of black teenagers visiting the book fair.
Seung-Hyun Moon, representing the Korean Publishers’ Association, said the South African public had shown interest in Korean literature and culture at the book fair, but the absence of other Asian publishers was notable.
Indian exhibitor, Kumaresan Vadivelu, said that although he had done deals with two British firms in Cape Town he had not sold any books at his stand.
His presence at the fair was relatively costly. “The hotels are expensive,” he said. And more could be done to improve security because he was almost mugged: “It’s not safe after 7pm.”
Liepollo Rantekoa, of Chimurenga magazine, said the fair had not “been friendly to small publishers”. On the other hand, “it would be ridiculous for us not to be here” because of its networking potential.
Imke Buhre, product manager of the Frankfurt Book Fair, which is a partner of the Cape Town Book Fair, said she had noticed the buzz at the fair. Publishers from her country would like to use the fair to sell rights and licences for their books, she said, “but this is not the place” because of the fair’s retail component for the public.
Badroodien said the fair has to be all things to all visitors: “Our book fair has to be shaped and sculpted according to our needs.”
She admitted space was expensive but said prices have reflected the fact that the fair had no government sponsorship.
The event has had to “marry culture and commerce” in order to be sustainable, she said.
Several government departments, including the department of arts and culture, had stands. Former arts and culture minister Pallo Jordan visited this year. But this is not the kind of support the exhibition wants from the government.
If another big player such as Jacana begins to question the fair’s effectiveness its future might be thrown into doubt.