The 2010 Frankfurt Book Fair took place from 12 to 16 October 2010. The world’s largest book fair had given considerable focus on e-books, but the indications showed that the digital publishing posts no threat to the traditional publisher. At least some of the famous authors right now, are still being cautious with electronic publishing. Their new works are still published traditionally.

From what we have observed, there are two important aspect of Frankfurt Book Fair this year. The first one is to see whether the publishing industry recovers from the financial crisis; the second one is to see how the e-publishing industry influences the traditional publishers. From the situation at the scene, it was not so clear. Compare to the 7,200 publishers from last year, the participants are reduced to 6,900. Some Eastern European publishers didn’t come due to financial difficulties.

Nevertheless, some publishers from developed countries are more optimistic about the future. For example, the UK publisher Patrick Smith from Harper Collins Press said that, the situation improved, and everybody was ready to resume business. However, but more people are cautious about the world publishing industry. Because the publishing industry’s recovery is usually slower than other business, they fear that the industry may experience economic fluctuations during the recovery process. That would make the future uncertain.

From the other aspect, the e-publishing industry looks pretty interesting and popular. However, compare to the large traditional publishing industry, it is of little importance. Report showed that out of the 6,900 publishing industries, around 1700 or more exhibitors displayed their results for e-publishing. Apple brought their tablet PC ipad; Amazon brought their Kindle electronic reader; and the Chinese company SDO brought their BamBook.

However, as a whole, most new works by famous authors in the book fair seemed to exclude electronic publishing either intentionally or unintentionally. For example, the Nobel Laureate Orhan Pamuk’s new novel decided to go with traditional publishing. The book was sold to "Penguin" India Press. The Booker Prize winner Kiran Desai’s new novel, also decided to go to traditional publishing.

One major problem with e-publishing is around the copyright issues. The e-publishing royalties are lower than traditional publishing. And the launch of e-books would impact paper book. The Frankfurt Book Fair president said, the traditional paper book remained the absolute protagonist of the Book Fair. The German industry generated EUR 9.6 billion last year, and the traditional paper books still account for 99% of the share.