The Frankfurt Book Fair: what happens there, and does it concern you

The Frankfurt Book Fair is one of the main places where book translation rights are sold, and this year it runs from October 7 to 11. Publishers and agents go there to convince publishers from other countries to buy the right to translate and publish their books. For most independent authors it's not the place to sell a book, but it's worth understanding what goes on there, because it explains how a book moves from one language to another.

What is the Frankfurt Book Fair

According to the fair's official website, this year it runs from October 7 to 11, 2026, and the guest of honour is Czechia. The first days are for industry professionals only, and at the weekend the fair also opens to the public.

From the outside it looks like a huge book exhibition. From the inside it's a marketplace. The important part happens at small tables, in short meetings one after another, between people who sell rights and people who buy them.

Who comes, and what each of them does there

Publishers come from both directions. They pitch their own books to foreign publishers, and they look for books from abroad to translate.

Rights agents (people who represent an author or a publisher and sell the right to translate a book on their behalf) arrive with a list of books and a packed meeting schedule. The fair even has a separate area for agents and scouts.

Scouts (people foreign publishers hire to find books for them before everyone else does) move around between them, looking for the next book worth recommending.

This week Publishing Perspectives ran a roundup of the books rights agents are bringing to Frankfurt this year. One agent describes a French book that sold to many countries "before the full manuscript was even available". That's what it looks like when it works.

How translation rights are sold

In short: a publisher in another language buys from you the right to translate the book and sell it in its language, usually for a set period and in a set territory. It pays for the translation, the design and the distribution, and pays you a share of the income.

For a foreign publisher to be interested, it has to know about the book. That's the agent's job. The agent brings a one-page summary, information about sales in the original language, and sometimes a sample chapter already translated into English, because the editors at the foreign house don't always read the original language.

We wrote in detail about who holds these rights in who owns the translation rights to a book.

Does it concern an independent author

Honestly, usually not directly. Many of the meetings at the fair are set up in advance, between people who have already worked together. An author who turns up alone with a manuscript in hand will struggle to get into a conversation.

But there are three things worth taking from it:

1. There are two roads into a new language. You can sell the rights to a foreign publisher, or you can translate and publish it yourself. On the first road someone else pays and decides. On the second you pay and you decide. We wrote about the difference in do I need a foreign publisher for my book to come out in another language?.
2. The materials an agent brings to Frankfurt are useful to anyone. A one-page summary, a short description of the audience, and a well-translated chapter. Even if you publish on your own, you'll need the same things to win over readers, stores and reviewers.
3. If you do want a foreign publisher, start with an agent. Not with the fair. An agent who handles translation rights is the one who will take your book into the meetings next year.

What to do if your book is already doing well at home

If the book sells well in its original language, or got reviews or a prize, that's exactly the information foreign publishers look for. In that case, ask your publisher, if you have one, whether they sell rights and to whom. Many publishers do it themselves or through an agency.

If you don't have a publisher, you can approach agencies that specialize in translation rights. Come prepared with the summary, the sales figures and a sample chapter. And if you end up deciding to translate on your own, a sample chapter is also the quickest way to check how the book sounds in the new language. We wrote about that in translating a sample chapter first.