Rushdie’s Presence Felt at Book Fair

The most discussed publishing-world figure at the sprawling 1989 Frankfurt Book Fair, it emerged Thursday, was a man who wasn’t there: Salman Rushdie, author of “The Satanic Verses.”

“The secret theme of this year’s book fair is Rushdie,” said Michael Naumann, the thoughtful head of Germany’s Rowohlt Publishers. “There is apprehension among the publishers who are printing him. I spoke out for Rushdie. I received warnings. I am somewhat scared.”

Rushdie, as most people in the publishing world are aware, has been in hiding since Muslims charged that his book is blasphemous and Iran’s late Ayatollah Khomeini called for his assassination earlier this year. And there is virtually no sign of him and his fast-selling novel here among the 8,189 exhibits in the world’s largest fair of this kind.

Rushdie’s book is not being displayed by his American and British publishers, Viking Penguin. And in a collective effort designed to discourage Muslim retaliation against a single company, a German consortium has been formed and is planning to bring out the book after the Frankfurt fair.

However, one European publisher has braved the threat of terrorism: Aschehoug of Oslo, Norway, has posted a large picture of the hounded author in its exhibit along with four copies of “Sataniske Vers.”

During the day, a West German policewoman strolled discreetly nearby with her hand on a walkie-talkie.

But the saga of Rushdie, a Bombay-born, naturalized Englishman, also struck a sour note here. European publishers disclosed Thursday that Rushdie’s agent is hawking four future books by him at about $17 million for the U.S. and English rights and something less for European-language publishers.

“I think that is preposterous,” snapped one publisher. “It is an insult to other writers we have, who live on a short string.

“They cite the fact that Rushdie has to pay for his security, but terrorism is a threat against the state and the government should pay for the protection of its citizens.”

If there was a consensus developing for the 41st Frankfurt Book Fair, it revolved around that issue: that the enormous sums being asked by agents for the works of their authors are out of control.

As Rowohlt’s Naumann put it: “The prices demanded by agents are going through the roof--they are mind-numbing--$30 million for the next four Stephen King novels. Even $10 million for a sequel to ‘Gone With the Wind,’ before a single line is written.

“This is getting like the Chicago commodity market: You don’t buy a book you have read; you buy a prospectus on books to be written.”

Even the best-selling British novelist Jeffrey Archer’s agent, Deborah Owen, agreed that prices are becoming excessive.

“That’s why this fair has not been so electric--which comes from the buying power you feel around you,” she said. “American and British publishers here are exhausted over the high figures paid during the past 12 months for properties.”

But with all the money problems, bomb threats and security checks, the exhibitors here take the view that the fair must go on. The number of exhibitors was the highest ever, and the crowds are also expected to top a record 220,000 during the fair, which began Wednesday and continues until Monday.

In the great high-tech halls that look like assembly hangars at an aircraft manufacturer, about 378,000 book titles are on exhibit--including almost 115,000 new publications. The number of participating countries is 93, down from last year since Iran has been excluded because of the Rushdie threat.

Publishers, agents and literary scouts, all buying and selling, swarm through the enormous fairgrounds here not far from Central Frankfurt. The financially well-fixed tend to arrange fancy luncheons and dinners at the city’s expensive restaurants. But most stay in the huge halls at dozens of fast-food bars and counters, munching frankfurters, pizzas, quiche Lorraine, and health foods; sipping mineral water, beer, and wine; all in order not to miss the swirling action around them.

A veteran of 21 years here, Paul Gottlieb, the affable president of Harry N. Abrams of New York, the premiere publisher of art books, said that the fair is more than just mystique.

“If we’re going to do these (art books) in foreign-language texts, we need co-producers, both to share the expense and to help with the expertise in their countries.

“So that means we find them here in Frankfurt. This is where we make the deals with the foreign rights.”

While here, Gottlieb said, “I wander around looking for new concepts, for trends. I want to see if there’s a glut in some areas of the art book market, and where there’s a need.”

Gottlieb acknowledged that the art book market is in pretty good shape: “More people have disposable income for such things, schools are teaching the subject, there are more museum-goers, and more people are simply interested in books involving art, fashion, architecture and culture.”

Another publishing figure interested in art books, as well as others, was David Ross, marketing director for London’s Weidenfeld & Nicolson, who laughed when asked about the attraction of the fair.

“We all come and get afflicted with Frankfurt fever,” he said. “It’s a disorder of the mind that makes you buy 15,000 copies of a book when the right number is 7,500, because you get over-excited by this bazaar atmosphere.

“I sense that real business is being done this year--not just going through the motions you see at some other fairs. However, I don’t sense any big titles this year. I think that nonfiction travels here better than fiction, and that biographies and autobiographies are better than novels when it comes to going across borders.

“For instance,” Ross added, “a new book about Simon Weisenthal, ‘The Nazi Hunter,’ is the kind that could have much broader audiences in many countries.

“But if you said: ‘I have a rather interesting first novel by a young author,’ people here would stifle a yawn.”

But William Morrow publisher James Landis thinks otherwise:

“I detect increasing interest in new, young writers,” he said, “particularly literary writers, particularly American literary writers. People like (Californian) Robert Ferrigno, who wrote ‘The Horse Latitudes,’ and Jill Niemark, who has a novel called ‘Bloodsong’ coming out.”

For an executive like Peter Osnos of Random House, the name of the game in Frankfurt is adjusting to the international quality of the event.

“I see the major trend here as one towards becoming more international. British publishers now own American firms and vice-versa, and it was not that way just a few years ago.”

It is a time, Osnos added, when “many publishers are feeling the effect of mergers, and are coping with many changes in their organizations. But business is good, when you have these kinds of mergers and activity, it tends to change the chemistry of business--so we are all still trying to absorb it.”

Among the many burgeoning fields here are children’s books, with hundreds of publishers carrying such lines.

Mark Sweetnam, an official with Milliken, a St. Louis publisher, said:

“We’ve seen a trend back toward the classics--’Henny Penny,’ ‘Jack in the Bean Stalk,’ ‘Peter and the Rabbit,’ ‘The Ugly Duckling,’ and ‘Little Red Ridinghood.’ ”

One subject of continuing but complex interest is the prospects for publishing in Europe after the single market European Community comes into effect--due in 1992. Many publishers are worried that current practices in each country may be outlawed--for instance, permitting widespread discounting, which, according to some sources here, would have “fatal consequences” for the book business.

Mike Naumann of Rowohlt worries about the effect in Europe if the discount houses move in on the market.

“When you have a situation with Walden and Brentano’s,” he said, “if two people--just two buyers--decide not to take a publisher’s list, 20% of the American market is lost to them.”

On the other hand, in Germany, “We have 4,000 independent book sellers, and that is why we have 4,000 independent publishing houses.

“Believe it or not, this year, Germany published more first editions than the United States--about 67,000 to 65,000.”

The biggest book club in Europe is run by Bertelsmann, whose resident official here, York Seewald, said: “For us, nonfiction is increasing.

“Why? I’d guess it’s the lack of information on television, as it becomes more show business. People look for other sources to inform themselves seriously. I also think that young people embarking on careers read for professional reasons, and they don’t get enough information for their future on television or other sources.

“We believe in the future. We believe in reading.”