The International Book Fair is an effective export platform for publishing houses and their production
In October, Liber returns to Fira de Barcelona with the expectation of uniting more than 350 companies
Fira de Barcelona will once again organise a new edition of Liber, the International Book Fair, promoted by the Spanish Association of Publishers Guilds (FGEE). From 3 to 5 October, the Gran Via location will host the main professional European event dedicated to Spanish-language books, with the expectation of uniting more than 350 publishers and companies from more than ten countries. Throughout its history, Liber has consolidated itself as a significant business and professional exchange centre, generating orders and contacts that represent almost one third of sales in the Spanish publishing sector in the foreign market.
In its 36th edition, Liber will once again bring together all the book sectors and will offer business opportunities, business meetings and professional contacts for both the national and international markets. At the same time, with its Professional Conferences, the event will promote debate, awareness and the trading of experiences regarding the many varied aspects related to the book world.
The chairman of the FGEE and the Liber Planning Committee, Daniel Fernández, highlights “the effectiveness of the fair to generate opportunities and revitalise exports in the publishing sector, as it has been shown that international professionals who attend place significant orders while at the show”. Fernández also highlights the vocation of the Liber event to accommodate the entire “ecosystem of books” and to “take advantage of synergies and explore collaboration channels in the book world with companies and professionals from other cultural industries and sectors that are related to technology”.
Areas with own content
In this respect, in addition to showing the new arrivals and the behind the scenes of Spanish publishing production, Liber 2018 will once again place a special focus on new technologies and digital content, desktop publishing, new publishers, printing solutions and other aspects related to intellectual property, which will have specific areas with stands and activities.
In doing so, Liber hopes to grow in those spaces that, having been well received, have been incorporated into its offer in recent editions. Such is the case of the Digital Zone, where technological trends and innovations in the field of publishing are presented; the Apps Zone with the presence of new content and software for editing and reading for mobile devices; the Author’s Zone, where independent writers can find out about possibilities that desktop publishing can offer them, as well as tools and services within their reach; and the MicroLiber Zone, which allows small publishers, start-ups, and recently established companies to participate in a more agile and economic way.
In addition, Liber 2018 will have an exhibition and conference space designed by Graphispag, the largest Spanish trade fair in the graphic arts industry, which will present materials, mediums and printing and finishing solutions of high added value for the publishing sector. There will also be space to create contacts between the publishing and audiovisual industries, as well as a Video Game Zone where companies that develop and produce titles and propose projects and collaborations with the publishing sector can participate. On the other hand, the organisation is exploring the possibility of adding new exhibitors related to copyright and other services of interest to the book value chain.
While reaffirming its status as an effective platform for Spanish books to access new international markets, Liber 2018 will include business meetings and inverse trade missions with participation from some 450 key foreign professionals from 70 countries that are directly invited by the organisation, including distributors, librarians, booksellers and publishers that purchase Spanish book rights.
Likewise, Liber 2018 will also stand out for its activities that make it a centre for sectoral debate, knowledge exchange and observatory of trends in the publishing market with a specific program that, as in previous years, will feature more than one hundred round tables, conferences, forums and presentations included in the Professional Conferences. The calendar of events will be completed with the presentation of the Liber Prizes for the Promotion of Reading in the Media and in Public Libraries; the most outstanding Hispanic American author; the best audiovisual adaptation of a literary work; the Boixareu Ginesta Prize for Bookseller of the Year; and the Liber Tribute to a person or institution with an outstanding career in favour of books.
The Liber fair is held annually with the location alternating between Barcelona and Madrid. This edition is sponsored by the Ministry of Education, Culture and Sport, ICEX Spanish Institute for Foreign Trade, The Catalonia Government, the Barcelona City Council, and the Spanish Reproduction Rights Centre (CEDRO), with collaboration from the Catalonia Publishers Guild and Acción Cultural Española (AC/E), Spain’s Public Agency for Cultural Action.
The publishing industry annually moves close to 3,000 million euros, providing direct and indirect employment to over 30,000 people in Spain, according to FGEE data.
Barcelona, February 2018