Liber, the International Book Fair, the great showcase for the export of Spanish books, is back, and it does so with the best figures in six years, leaving behind the complicated pandemic moment. The Liber, a basically professional exhibition that drives a third of Spanish exports, although it also welcomes the public, and which is held alternately in Barcelona and Madrid, will take place this year from October 4 to 6 at the Ifema venue. 373 companies from 13 countries will participate, of which 210 are direct exhibitors, 80% more than in the 2021 edition that was also held in Madrid. Poland will be the guest country and generative artificial intelligence and its impact on the rights of authors and publishers will focus a good number of debates.
Daniel Fernández, president of the Federation of Editors’ Guilds of Spain, highlights the goodness of this year’s figures. “We have recovered the pre-pandemic figures and we surpass them in almost all areas. There will be a lot of international participation, the Minister of Culture of Greece will come and have a stand with editors, and the Chinese vice-minister of culture will also come. We had offered the Publishers Association of the People’s Republic of China that at some point were a guest country, and perhaps it is a visit to get to know it.
There will be, he noted, companies from the United States, Israel, Italy, Turkey, Panama, Venezuela or the Netherlands, 333 professionals – importers, distributors, booksellers, buyers of rights and those responsible for public organizations and libraries – from 53 countries will participate in the program. of buyers and Poland will display a large presence that will include the presence of Dariusz Jaworski, director of the Polish Book Institute, twenty Polish publishers and even events outside the fairgrounds, such as a Chopin concert at the Museum of Romanticism.
In a great year in which the sector expects to grow – Fernández pointed out – at least 5% in Spain and in which exports last year reached 403 million – despite the fact that the majority of publishing groups have subsidiaries in Latin America who print their own books there – the Liber in Madrid will go from the 2,198 square meters it had in 2021 to 4,229, a 92% increase. A space in which the Federation of Editors’ Guilds has made an effort, highlights its president, to expand “the number of activities, talks, debates and conferences associated with Liber.”
“Before, professionals came to see importers, but now they also want to understand what the future is going to be like,” he points out. Especially now that he plans on the sector, he has said, “the shadow of generative artificial intelligence: language is not innocent, if it is intelligence, we already attribute human and moral qualities to it.” Generative AI – with the presence of Iban García del Blanco, “the most active speaker of the community regulation that will be approved before the end of the year, the first regulation on a global scale” -, piracy and sustainability – in 2024 the regulation against deforestation comes into force – will be key topics of the debates.
A striking fact is that in Liber there will be 19 religious publishers, double that of the last edition, which surprisingly are the largest export item to many Latin American countries -except Argentina, where more literature is exported-, from Bibles to books. of spirituality and liturgical calendars.
On the 5th at the Ortega-Marañón Foundation the Liber awards will be presented. The founder of Ediciones Urano, Joaquín Sabaté, will receive the Liber 2023 Tribute for his extensive career, while Elvira Lindo will be awarded as the most outstanding Spanish-American author, the series Doctor García’s patients, based on the novel of the same name by Almudena Grandes, will be awarded For the best audiovisual adaptation of a literary work, the Library Network of the Madrid City Council will receive the Promotion of Reading award and the Boixareu Ginesta award for bookstore of the year will go to the Casa del Libro on Gran Vía in Madrid for its centenary.
