Image copyright: Frankfurt Book Fair

By Petra Strobl, Germany Managing Director for Licensing International

In early October, the world’s largest book fair opens in Frankfurt for the 78th time—a long-established event that a new generation of readers has claimed for itself. Alongside the trade audience, tens of thousands of fans will make their way to the fairgrounds, and their numbers grow every year. The biggest magnet: the booming Young and New Adult segment.

A Genre that Plays by its Own Rules
New Adult, Young Adult, and Romantasy currently rank among the most in-demand genres, especially with young female readers. The stories revolve around love, self-discovery, and big emotions, often with fantasy elements. Social media fuels the momentum: platforms like TikTok turn authors into stars and sell out signing sessions within minutes. Publishers have responded with dedicated imprints and are reporting record results.

The engine behind it is #BookTok. What began during the pandemic as readers filming themselves recommending books has become a global community phenomenon—and a commercial force. TikTok reports that more than 50 million books were sold across Europe in 2025 on the back of #BookTok recommendations. Germany leads every European market analysed, with 28 million books and roughly €482 million in revenue. Since 2023, TikTok has published its own monthly #BookTok bestseller list, now covering 17 genres, with separate Young Adult and New Adult categories added in 2024.

The German trade is catching up with its own success: New Adult and Young Adult were only established as official, standardised product categories in the German books-in-print register (VLB) in March 2025—a direct consequence of the boom, introduced to make buying, shelf placement, and sales analysis work across the industry.

Star Power You Can Watch in Real Time
The Frankfurt Book Fair is where the scale of this becomes physical. In 2025, the fair dedicated an entire hall to “Meet the Author” for the first time: 5,600 square metres, 84 authors, 91 hours of signing time, and around 20,000 visitors expected for that area alone. The year before, 8,000 square metres had already been reserved exclusively for New Adult.

On peak days, up to 15 queues run in parallel, roughly 50 metres each, with floor markings like a concert entrance. Fans arrive early in the morning and wait patiently, often long before the author has even arrived. For names in highest demand, signing sessions require a ticket bought in advance—the format we know from Comic Con, now standard at a book fair.

The Gap: Demand Without Product
And this is where it gets interesting for our industry. New authors and stories can rise to fame quickly via #BookTok, leaving a void that licensed products have yet to fill.

Nathalie Quillmann, an expert on #BookTok and fan communities and part of the Book Fair team, describes what this looks like on the ground:

“New Adult and Young Adult have taken on a dimension all of their own at the Frankfurt Book Fair. For many fans, the fair is not just a place to buy books but a genuine community and fan event: they come to meet their favorite authors, to attend signings and panels, to exchange ideas, and to celebrate their enthusiasm together. The crowds are enormous. At the same time, we can see how much the scene still runs on people’s own initiative: many authors currently create their own merch and bring it along, because there are still hardly any officially licensed products for their books and communities. That is exactly where the great potential for the future lies.”

That is a rare situation: a young, highly engaged, purchase-ready community with a documented willingness to invest in physical objects—the “bookishness” that has made the printed book desirable again—and to date only very limited licensed product ranges to meet it. Apparel, stationery, home and lifestyle, beauty, collectibles, live experiences: the categories are obvious, the brands exist, the fandoms are already organised.

An Invitation
For the licensing industry, New Adult is not a niche trend to observe from a distance. It is an established, growing segment with proven emotional loyalty and unusually little competition on the product side. Anyone looking for the next brand universe with real depth should take a serious look here—ideally before Frankfurt, and best of all in Frankfurt itself.