There’s no shortage of challenges these days for the international publishing community, especially in the ever-evolving digital landscape. But at this year’s Frankfurt Book Fair, the publishing community will have the chance to celebrate the success of a truly collaborative, international effort: the 10-year anniversary of Thema, the upstart global, multilingual subject category scheme that continues to grow year after year—and continues to improve the efficiency of the global book market.

“Ten years ago, we were in a world where we were seeing the increasing growth of e-books and online book sales around the world, which really highlighted the need for better, high-quality metadata. But what stood out then was that when it came to how to describe a book, almost every country with a significant book trade used its own subject scheme,” says EDitEUR executive editor Graham Bell. “So Thema was conceived of and created with the aim of providing a scheme for better international metadata that could be used in a wide range of markets around the world.”

Managed by EDItEUR, the international trade standards body for the book trade, the effort to develop Thema was first launched at the 2012 Frankfurt Book Fair, guided by a volunteer-led technical group. The scheme made surprisingly quick progress. Within months, an early version was developed. And the first live version was presented at the CONTEC Conference at the Frankfurt Book Fair in 2013.

Designed to meet the needs of publishers, retailers, and trade intermediaries in all sectors of the global book publishing business, Thema is now the most widely used subject classification for markets outside North America—more than 50 countries now use Thema, and it has been translated into some 24 languages across countries that use a common code framework, enhancing the discoverability and sales of books, and reducing the need to maintain numerous national subject schemes. And, thanks to volunteer labor and the support of membership fees, Thema is free to use.

A decade after its launch, Thema has been so successful that many of the countries that have adopted it have stopped developing their own country-specific schemes. In the U.K., for example, the BIC classification scheme (Book Industry Communication) has not been updated since 2015 and is scheduled to be discontinued in early 2024. And in North America, BISG (Book Industry Study Group) now maps BISAC codes to Thema to help North American publishers identify categories they can apply when distributing books to international markets.

“The development of Thema is a good story about an international need that has been met in a collaborative way,” says BISG executive director Brian O’Leary, noting that Thema’s international steering committee, which is made up of representatives from countries that have formally adopted the scheme, meets at least twice a year (usually at the London and Frankfurt Book Fairs) to review proposals and ratify changes to the code list. “It’s a great example of effective international cooperation around a common issue.”

The Thema steering committee will once again meet at this year’s Frankfurt Book Fair—and Bell says the work of growing and improving Thema continues. “The challenge for Thema over the next 10 years will be maintaining its relevance,” he says. “It’s had a great first 10 years. But now we need to thread the needle between continuing its development and not adding too much detail. Thema needs to remain relatively easy to use.”

Thema can never be “all things to all people,” Bell acknowledges. “But we do want it to be most things to most people.”

One wish for Thema’s future, says Chris Saynor, standards editor for Thema, is to get more bookseller involvement in terms of Thema’s governance. While many retailers are happy to use the standard, he notes, including major firms like Amazon and Kobo, many other retailers have thus far struggled to find the time to participate. “We do hear from the large retailers and platforms, but I think that is really important that more booksellers get involved in the governance process,” Saynor says, adding that more participation from bookseller associations, for example, would be welcome.

A decade later, if there is one surprise about Thema’s success, it is that it has become so widely accepted so quickly, Saynor says. “Standards are usually things that take time. I fully expected there to be very deep, very long disagreements about how things are understood differently in different countries,” he notes. “But it’s turned out to be relatively harmonious.”

“It’s made us a lot of friends around the world,” Bell adds.

Come Celebrate Thema

Want to learn more about Thema—and celebrate the 10th anniversary of a true global publishing success story? Catch what promises to be an informative panel discussion today at the Penguin Random House stand in Hall 4 beginning at 5 p.m.

The panel will be moderated by Holtzbrinck director of metadata & system Tobias Streitferdt, and will feature:

Ricardo Costa, MVB Brasil, São Paulo

Marjolein van Doorn, Kobo, Amsterdam

Andrew Joseph, Wits University Press, Johannesburg

Dorette Peters, Penguin Random House, Germany

Chris Saynor, EDItEUR, London

The discussion will reflect different experiences with Thema across the industry, and will be immediately followed by a cocktail party.