To read here, the 2019 programme and an overview of the activities carried out in 2018.
To read here, the 2019 programme and an overview of the activities carried out in 2018.
The ICIP meeting is a special occasion where the activities of the Alliance’s respective networks, upcoming projects, strategic issues and governance of the association are discussed.
It is a crucial annual meeting in the life of the Alliance, often decisive in terms of objectives and choices.
This year, new coordinators and vice-coordinators are joining the ICIP : we propose an “ICIP induction day”, enabling newcomers to understand its functioning and role.
This meeting will further provide an opportunity to examine decisions taken at the previous ICIP and analyse their impacts on the current governance of the Alliance and ahead of the future Assembly of the Alliance (2019-2021).
Finally, a meeting session will be focusing on cultural rights.
Have a look !
HotList and WomenList
In partnership with the Kurt Wolff Stiftung (collective of German independent publishers) and the Frankfurt Book Fair, the Alliance presents two thematic selections on the “Reading Island for Independent Publishers” stand (Hall 4.1 / D36) !
Roundtables to attend !
For the 2018 Frankfurt Book Fair, the Alliance is partnering with Lettres d’Afrique, BIEF, the Kurt Wolff Stiftung and the Frankfurt Book Fair ; and would like to thank the organisations and people who have collaborated to the drafting of our programme (African Books Collective, Afrilivres, PEN International...).
On 21 September, it is the first day of Spring in the Southern hemisphere… and the Bibliodiversity Day !
Don’t miss this 9th B Day – an initiative launched by Latin American independent publishers, and then disseminated all around the world. Picnics, readings, bookcrossing, discussions… the activities are gathered on the B Day blog and in the social networks.
15 publishers from 10 countries meet in Cotonou for a workshop dedicated to creating ePub files from Indesign. The workshop will also be an opportunity for discussions on the commercialization of digital books between the publishers : Cassava Republic publishers (Nigeria) will share their experience - a cross between French and English speaking Africas !
This workshop, supported by the International Organization of La Francophonie, was organised with the support of Ruisseaux d’Afrique publishers in Benin, a member of the Alliance. Ruisseaux d’Afrique publishers celebrate their 20th anniversary in 2018, offering activities throughout the year. The Alliance will celebrate the 20th anniversary of Ruisseaux during the workshop !
Since 2010, the Alliance Lab offers capacity-building workshops to independent publishers in French-speaking Africa. Several publishing houses in French-speaking Africa have developed a digital strategy.
The Alliance Lab regularly publishes surveys and analysis on digital publishing :
The Alliance Lab provides tools :
The touring “Tehran Book Fair, Uncensored”, organized in May in the same time as Tehran Book Fair in Iran, will occur for the third year, thanks to Farsi-speaking publishing houses based in Europe and North America.
Publishers, authors, and translators from and into Farsi are thus gathering in several cities in Europe and North America to circulate Farsi books (especially some censored in Iran) and books about Iran (in French, English, German…).
A special occasion to know a literature that has escaped from the censors. A free literature. Some muzzled voices that express themselves.
From May 4 to 27, 2018, the Tehran Book Fair Uncensored will occur in :
Other places and dates planned in the end of May will be updated on the website Uncensored book. More details : +33 (0)1 72 40 84 40 / www.uncensoredbook.com.
Read here the article published by Publishing Perspectives, on May 16, 2018.
Some resources to know more on the subject :
On Saturday 24 March, independent publishers and booksellers propose readers to celebrate Indie Book Day. The principle is simple : you just need to go in your favourite independent bookshop, to buy a book published by an independent publisher. Then, you are invited to share a picture of the book on the social networks (Facebook, Twitter, Instagram…), with the hashtag #indiebookday.
Indie Book Day aims to highlight the creativity, diversity and dynamism of independent publishing and make readers aware of the essential aim played by independent bookshops in favour of bibliodiversity.
Created in 2013 in Germany by the Hamburg-based publishing house Mairisch Verlag –member of the German association of independent publishers Kurt Wolff Stiftung, the Indie Book Day has first met a great success in Germany, and then has been celebrated also in other countries – like the UK, Italy, Portugal, and Brazil. For this special occasion, independent bookshops promote the event (posters in their bookshops, specific campaign on the social networks). To help readers to make their choice, specific spaces can be proposed in the bookshop to focus on the diversity of independent publishing.
In 2018, the Kurt Wolff Stiftung (Germany), the ODEI (Italy) and the International Alliance of independent publishers (550 publishers from more than 52 countries around the world) keep fostering the Indie Book Day.
Indie Book Day website : www.indiebookday.de/english
Independence, diversity and solidarity !
The Alliance’ team wishes you a very happy new year 2018.
The 2018 action program will soon be available on the Alliance website.
After Ouagadougou, Tunis, Dakar, Abidjan ... it is in Conakry – UNESCO World Book Capital in 2017 – that will be held the next digital workshop of the Alliance, bringing together more than 15 publishers from West Africa, Central Africa and Madagascar. This workshop, facilitated by publishers and typographers, will explore digital tools to solve the typographical problems encountered in the production of books in local languages.
This workshop is supported by the International Organization of the Francophonie and is held thanks to the partnership with Ganndal publishers, a member of the Alliance in Guinea Conakry.
Ganndal publishing, who are celebrating their 25th year in 2017, are also organizing several activities during this period, to be held at the Centre culturel franco-guinéen. Publishers participating in the workshop will participate to some of these events, and will speak at the symposium on children’s literature in Africa :
• Colloquium on children’s literature in Africa : 22 to 23 November
• Children Book Fair : from 23 to 26 November
• Colloquium on the challenges related to the promotion and distributing of books in African languages : 27 and 28 November
Overview of the activities and programme here.
In 2009, together with the members of EDINAR (Argentinean Alliance of independent publishers), we decided to launch a promotion strategy, following the “Young independent Germans” : a HotList.
Against the tendentious ranking of the most sold out books published in the newspapers, every member of the collective had to choose one book among her/his new books -the one that she or he saw as the most outstanding, for whatever reason. With all EDINAR publishers, we thus formed a list, promoted at the same time by a group of booksellers from Buenos Aires who arranged a special table dedicated to this list in their bookshops during one month.
In 2010, Argentina was Guest country of Frankfurt Book Fair and the Argentinean National Book Chamber had a spacious booth with a strong presence of local publishing, which did not include many independent publishers. However, the Hotlist had an outstanding exhibition space in this Fair : thanks to a German colleague, curious publisher, philoanarchist, employed by the Fair, we got a well-situated booth and the possibility to exhibit our HotList.
Because a lot of Latin-American publishers cannot travel every year to Frankfurt, we have reminded this adventure and decided to implement it again this year, extended to Spanish-speaking publishers from Latin America, in order to give a better visibility to the vibrant Latin-American independent publishing, in the biggest commercial Book Fair of the World.
This HotList presents a selection of about 40 books published in Peru, Colombia, Argentina, Uruguay, Chile… exhibited in the “Reading Island for Independent Publishers” (Pavilion 4.1) of the Frankfurt Book Fair, thanks to the cooperation of the Kurt Wolff Stiftung, group of German independent publishers.
We hope you will appreciate !
Guido Indij
Argentinean publisher, coordinator of the Spanish-speaking network of the International Alliance of independent publishers
Alliance internationale
des éditeurs indépendants
38 rue Saint-Sabin
75011 Paris - France
