News and press releases

Liber, the International Book Fair promoted by the Federation of Spanish Publishers’ Guilds (FGEE) and organised this year by Fira de Barcelona, is set to welcome 346 exhibitors from 10 different countries, confirming it as the Spanish-language book industry’s leading professional event, held for the 34th time. Combining retail offer and activities, Liber will showcase book sector innovations, business models and growth opportunities in new areas connected with book digitization, marketing and internationalisation from 12-14 October.

With a turnover of €2.257bn last year (+2.8%), the Spanish publishing industry is the fifth largest in the world despite the economic crisis, digitization and changes in cultural consumption habits having brought down its business by 30.8% since 2008. However, the sector is looking to this year’s Liber Fair with some optimism, given the positive trend since 2014 in the recovery of Spain’s book market and the good performance of exports in recent years.

In the words of the Chairman of Liber and the FGEE, Daniel Fernández: “The Fair will help us sound out the Spanish market, learn about the challenges we are up against as an industry and further our commitment to the international expansion of book sector companies’ business, particularly in Latin America. Liber is also a space for reflection and debate on future challenges, and it provides visibility for a sector representing our country’s leading cultural industry.”

The Spanish language is thriving, with 567 million speakers worldwide, providing the book industry with major future projection and business opportunities. Liber is an efficient tried-and-tested export platform for the Spanish publishing industry, and this year it has directly selected and invited 500 key international buyers and consumer motivators from 60 different countries to take part in business meetings with the exhibiting companies. These business missions are backed by ICEX España Exportación e Inversiones, the Financial and Commercial Offices abroad and Acción Cultural Española (AC/E) through the Programme for the Internationalisation of Spanish Culture (PICE) in the Visitors category.

Visitors include a delegation of librarians from the USA, a country that will have the largest number of Spanish speakers in the world in three or four generations’ time, according to the Instituto Cervantes.

The most represented sector at the Liber Fair is that of publishing companies and entities, who will showcase innovations in numerous areas and will account for over 80% of the exhibitors. There will also be group participation from different publishers from Andalusia, Catalonia, the Valencian Community, Madrid, the Basque Country and Castilla-León, through the professional associations and guilds of their Autonomous Communities. Another important group participation will be that of publishers specialising in religious books, a sector accounting for 3.7% of all books published in Spain.

The “Liber Micro” area will also form part of the Fair again this year, to allow the attendance of small publishers, service providers, start-ups and entrepreneurs that have been on the market for under three years or have less than six employees, as it was previously difficult for them to participate in an event of this type. Six companies will attend the Fair in this category.

The rest of the participants will be service providers, distributors, professional associations, bodies and institutions, literary agents and graphic arts companies. In addition to Spanish companies there will also be firms from the USA, India, Italy, South Korea, Latvia, Russia, Czech Republic, Mexico and the Netherlands.

Liber will have four specific exhibition and activities areas concentrating on book digitization, apps, desktop publishing and printing services.

The Digital Area will showcase different technology products and services related to publishing, distribution and marketing of e-books, complemented this year with the new Apps Area with apps for mobile phone reading. Specific items on offer in these areas range from software for publishing management and metadata to platforms for worldwide e-book export, and also include anti-piracy solutions, e-books and audio books in the form of cards or apps offering users interactive literary experiences.

Also, the Authors’ Area will help independent authors find out about self-publishing tools and services connected with book creation, production, promotion and sale. In this area there will be conferences, round table debates and workshops on writing skills and techniques, crowdfunded publishing for raising funds from the general public, using online marketing to reach readers and selling works in bookshops and online. A new feature at Liber 2016 will be the Graphispag Area, which will display innovative new products using eye-catching inks, materials, processes and finishes and inform of the advantages of customisation and Print on Demand.

Liber also has a packed programme of activities making it the publishing sector’s best hub for knowledge transfer and debate, with participation from over 150 sector experts and professionals in 85 round table debates, conferences, forums and presentations. These professional conferences will address different topics including new business models, foreign markets, marketing and evolution of book digitization. Speakers include the acclaimed international analyst Edward Nawotka, who will talk about the 12 trends that are transforming the publishing world.

Other topics will include children’s and teenagers’ books, technical/scientific publishing and comics, libraries, translation, copy editing and bibliodiversity. There will also be information on new developments in DILVE/ISBN and the Bookshop Quality Stamp, the contract will be signed with the Spanish National Library to use book market metadata for the Legal Deposit and the Comprehensive Plan for promotion of books and reading will be presented.

Another of the Fair’s events is an awards ceremony, at which the FGEE will hand over the Liber Awards for the careers and work of different people and entities connected with the book world. The writer Juan Marsé, the founder of Tusquets Editores Beatriz de Moura, Radio Nacional de España journalist Pepa Fernández, film director Fernando León, who directed “A Perfect Day”, the Cálamo Bookshop in Zaragoza and Barcelona Province Public Library Network are the winners of this year’s awards.

Liber is held annually and its venue alternates between Barcelona and Madrid. This year’s Fair will be held at the Fira de Barcelona Gran Via venue, coinciding with Barcelona being declared Literary City by UNESCO and the commemoration of the fourth centenary of the death of Cervantes.