Activities

From January 5, 2009 on, you are invited to discover Books About Books, a resource center specialized in “Books & Publishing” in the middle of Paris.

Books About Books is open from Monday to Saturday, from 10am to 6 pm. For any additional information, don’t hesitate to call us at +33(0)1 43 14 73 66.

This meeting, organized by Cerlalc, the Colombian Department of Education, the Book Chamber of Colombia and the Cultural affairs of the city of Bogotá, was special in that it enabled the exchange of experiences between independent publishers from Colombia, from the Alliance (Germán Coronado (Ediciones Peisa, Peru), Pablo Harari (Trilce, Uruguay), Ivana Jinkings (Boitempo, Brazil), Anne Marie Métailié (Editions Métailié, France), Paulo Slachevsky (Lom Ediciones, Chile), Marcelo Uribe (Ediciones Era, Mexico), Thierry Quinqueton, Chairman of the Alliance, and other professionals of the book sector.

An emphasis was put on the theme of new technologies (on-demand printing, Google books search, ebooks) and on their impact on the very know-how of publishers.

Two major aspects of this meeting were the formal creation of REIC (Red de Editoriales Independientes de Colombia) through the signature of its by-laws and the drafting of the Bogota Declaration (see below).

Read: The ninth issue of Bibliodiversity, the newsletter of the Alliance of independent publishers, has just come out!

10 publishing houses from 10 different countries were indeed represented in an especially fit out 60 m² space. Five publishers were present and stayed for 6 days in tune with the fair: Russel Clarke (Jacana Media, South Africa), Béatrice Lalinon Gbado (éditions Ruisseaux d’Afrique, Benin), Marianna Warth (Pallas Editora, Brazil), Marie-Michèle Razafinstalama (éditions Prediff, Madagascar) and Paulin Assem (éditions Graines de pensées, Togo) thus participated both in setting up the stand as well as in managing it.

Read: The eighth issue of Bibliodiversity, the newsletter of the Alliance of independent publishers, has just come out!

The Peruvian publishers that were present at the International Assembly in Paris last July (Germán Coronado, Ediciones PEISA and Álvaro Lasso, Estruendomudo), have participated in founding the Alianza Peruana de Editores in Lima in September. The creation of this Alliance, which gathers about twenty independent, academic and autonomous publishers, is perfectly in line with the appeal launched by signatory publishers in International Declaration of Independent Publishers for the protection and promotion of bibliodiversity (Paris, July 2007): “we call upon independent publishers everywhere in the world to join forces –whether at the national, regional, or international level– creating associations and other collective bodies which will permit us to better defend our rights, and to make our voices heard.”
According to Germán Coronado : “Esta nueva entidad gremial nace como un reflejo de lo que aconteció en París en julio pasado.” (“This new collective entity is born as a reflection of what happened in Paris last July").
The statutes of this Peruvian Alliance are available on the following link: http://alpe.wordpress.com

We wish this national association of independent publishers success in protecting and fostering bibliodiversity as well as its Latin American counterparts (AEMI in Mexico, EDINAR in Argentina, LIBRE in Brazil).

75 independent publishers from more than 45 countries – including members of associations representing over 380 publishing houses – gathered in Paris in the French National Library from July 1-4, 2007 for an International Assembly on Independent Publishing. In the International Declaration of Independent Publishers, they reaffirm their intention to resist and to act with a common purpose.

International Assembly on Independent Publishing -
Paris, 1-4 July, 2007

As the independence of publishing is increasingly discussed, we have decided to bring into debate a possible definition of the “independent creation publisher”. This tool, in the shape of a series of questions, would allow to assess the strengths and weaknesses of a publisher in terms of independence.

The International Alliance of Independent Publishers calls on all international solidarity organisations to mobilise in Haiti. The Alliance will do do its outmost to support Haitian book professionals in the long-term, particularly librarians, publishers and booksellers, by joining forces with existing and future stakeholders in Haiti.

The importance of culture should be considered in the reconstruction process. In the Haïtian context, where symbolism has a special place, reinventing Haïti also involves supporting the arts and culture, particularly books and authors that promote the people’s complex and fascinating identity. A people cut off from its culture is a dead people.

Rodney Saint-Éloi, author and publisher member of the International Alliance of Independent Publishers

In view of the worrying situation in Iran and the attacks on freedom of expression, the publishers of the Alliance wish to express their solidarity with their Iranian colleagues. They demand the right to publish freely and call for increased cultural and editorial exchanges with Iran.

As the official campaign for the next European elections is being launched, the Alliance has decided to get involved in a positive fashion by formulating three proposals that would be very simple to implement.

These proposals have furthermore been published on the website http://challengeforeurope.blogactiv.eu, with dozens of others, on the initiative of the Charles Léopold Mayer Foundation in the framework of its “What kind of Europe do we want?” program. Let us hope this impressive corpus of proposals will be a profitable inspiration to the EU’s future elected representatives!

An incredible censorship attempt is endangering the very existence of the publisher Écosociété (Quebec – Canada); more than 60 publishers from 30 countries have declared their undivided support for the Quebec publisher and are calling on the pinstigators of the “Noir Canada” affair to respect the rights of freedom of expression and publication.

As the Casablanca International Book Fair (February 9 to 17, 2008) opens its foors in Morocco, the Alliance of Independent Publishers wishes to express its deepest concerns with regard to the situation of independent book retail and, more generally, of the entire local book industry.

African literature in French is today better represented and better known in Europe than in Africa, where its distribution remains hampered by many obstacles. However, there are solutions, which require the mobilisation of various stakeholders in the book industry. One solution is co-publishing, based on a joint trade agreement. The publication of “L’Ombre d’Imana” by Véronique TADJO, a groundbreaking example of pan-African co-publishing, proves that it is possible, through joint action, to create the conditions necessary for a (re)appropriation by Africa of its literature. To make this possible, the Alliance is appealing to everyone, authors, publishers and institutions alike, to join forces and promote the bibliodiversity at the heart of the francophone spirit. This appeal is endorsed by many authors and book industry professionals.

The role played by books in spreading ideas, analyses, imaginary scapes and proposals, in educating and informing citizens, is essential to understand the challenges of our times, to know oneself and others. Read what follows (in French)

See the list of signatories

Indie Book Day was created in 2013, by German independent publishers; since last year, it has been celebrated in other countries, thanks to independent publishers collectives and the Alliance.

How it works: On the third Sunday of March, readers are invited to visit an independent bookshop, buy a book published by an independent publisher, and post a picture of the book on social media with the hashtag #indiebookday. Booksellers and publishers can then organize a common campaign ahead of the event, to inform their communities (posters in the bookshops, information on social media and websites, etc.).

Find here Indie Book Day logos and more information on the official Indie Book Day website.

Bibliodiversity Day was created in 2010 by Latin American publisher members of the Alliance.

Since then, it has happened every year in numerous countries, especially in Latin America. On September 21, the first day of spring for the southern hemisphere, publishers, booksellers, book professionals and readers are invited to celebrate independent publishing and bibliodiversity.

How it works: All ideas and activities are welcome, coming from publishing houses, collectives of independent publishers, book professionals, and readers: bookcrossing, literary picnics, professional meetings, public readings, radio broadcasts, newspaper articles…

See here the literary and multilingual sound card for B-Day 2021 (and the Alliance’s 20^th anniversary).

Download B Day logos and visit the blog here.

Watch all B Day videos here->https://eldiab.org/videos-oficiales/.

• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/indpub/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/bibliodiversidad/

The Children’s Book HotList highlights children’s books from independent publishers in Africa, Latin America and Europe. It is launched during the 2021 Bologna Children’s Book Fair, on June 14.

Comprising books from 16 countries, 36 publishing houses and 14 categories, this HotList represents the richness and diversity of independent publishing for youth and children’s literature.

You can find a book by searching its country, publisher or literary genre. If you are interested in a book, please do get in touch with its publisher.

We wish you a great discovery!

While the Arab world shares a language, the Arabic language, which has cemented its culture over centuries, it is far from being the only one. From the Maghreb to the Mashreq, from the Horn of Africa to Cham, this immense space covers a diversity of realities. Linguistic diversity is therefore inherent to it.

More than 30 independent publishing houses from 7 countries (Algeria, Egypt, Lebanon, Morocco, Qatar, Syria and Tunisia) and 9 languages offer you an immersion in the literature, humanities and children’s literature of the Arab world!

Through this HotList, available in Arabic and English, the independent publishers of the Arab world invite you to discover the 1001 facets of literary and intellectual creativity of their country.

Discover the HotList Arab world here!

This year, on the occasion of the Frankfurt Book Fair (14-18 October), two HotLists will be presented... virtually!

The Latin American HotList - 4^th edition: a selection of titles from more than 35 independent Latin American publishing houses from 8 countries (Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, Mexico, Peru, Uruguay) and from all genres: literature, humanities, youth/ children’s literature, comics... Find the Latin American HotList 2020 online here! Previous HotLists are also online, here.

The Arab World HotList - a very first: while the Arab world shares a language, the Arabic language, which has cemented its culture over centuries, it is far from being the only one. From the Maghreb to the Mashreq, from the Horn of Africa to Cham, this immense space covers a diversity of realities. Linguistic diversity is therefore inherent to it. More than 30 independent publishing houses from 7 countries (Algeria, Egypt, Lebanon, Morocco, Qatar, Syria and Tunisia) offer you an immersion in the literature, humanities and children’s literature of the Arab world! Through this HotList, the independent publishers of the Arab world invite you to discover the 1001 facets of literary and intellectual creativity of their country, online here!

The HotLists, while offering an opportunity to discover the creativity of independent publishers, are also tools facilitating the exchange of rights: books and authors are presented in the original language of the book and in English, the contacts of publishing houses are easily accessible and up to date – these lists are thus to be consulted and used throughout the year!

Discover here the HotList 2019!

Thanks to a partnership with Kurt Wolff Stiftung (the German collective of independent publishers, member of the Alliance) and the Frankfurt Book Fair, independent Latin American publishers in Frankfurt will be exhibiting at the “Reading Island for Independent Publishers” stand (Hall 4.1), twenty books of various genres: novels, short stories, art books, essays, children’s literature... from Argentina, Ecuador, Chile, Colombia, Mexico!

Context:
- 2009: The members of EDINAR (a group of Argentinian independent publishers) present a selection of the best books from their list at the Buenos Aires Book Fair. This selection is then promoted in independent bookstores across Buenos Aires.
- 2010: Argentina is the guest of honour at the Frankfurt Book Fair. To make sure Argentinian independent publishing is well represented, the Argentinian independent publishers, in partnership with the Frankfurt Book Fair, present a HotList at the stand of independent German publishers, showcasing the diversity and quality of their books.
- 2017: The HotList 2017 opens to independent publishers from Latin America! Thanks to the collaboration with the collective Kurt Wolff Stiftung, a selection of about 40 titles from Argentina, Chile, Colombia, Peru, and Uruguay is exhibited in Frankfurt on the “Reading Island” (Hall 4.1 / D36).
- 2018: Following the success of the 2017 edition, the HotList 2018 is back and opens to Brazilian publishers. In addition, a thematic and international selection is launched: this year, the theme of “women’s struggle” is selected in the “WomenList”, showcasing more than 30 titles edited by independent publishing houses from all continents.
- 2019: The International Alliance of independent publishers and the Kurt Wolff Stiftung collective offer a new edition of the HotList. Some twenty books (novels, essays, children’s books, comics, art books) will be exposed at the Frankfurt Book Fair 2019. A colourful and powerful HotList this year!

More than 30 novels, short stories, essays and comics on feminism, women’s struggles, their emancipation across the world – these titles are from independent publishers’ lists from all continents.

There is a resurgence of the Women’s Movement following #MeToo and other events and a greater awareness of structural violence against women. Now is the time to know about books being published all around the world by independent publishers, in different languages and across a wide range of issues from the political to the imaginative.

To read through all the books of the WomenList is a reminder of just how much violence women have suffered – from rape, torture, and mass violence against women to indifference and neglect in the case of child abuse, to survival in war, sexual slavery and marriage forced by custom. But there is also resistance and optimism whether it be Pussy Riot or women rebelling against patriarchy as well as the inspiration of women in the vanguard of environmental projects or gathering together the works of women poets.

There are voices from so many places around the world – from Algeria, Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Cameroon, Canada, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, Egypt, England, France, Haiti, India, Indonesia, Iran, Ivory Coast, Gabon, Guinea, Morocco, Mexico, Senegal, South Africa, Switzerland, Syria, Turkey... Languages include Arabic, English, Indonesian, Farsi, French, German, Spanish, Portuguese and Turkish. Women write poetry, short stories, political tracts, novels, biography, graphic novels and again more. These are words that matter: women’s voices are loud. It is time to listen!

The WomenList is an initiative of the International Alliance of independent publishers, through a partnership with the Kurt Wolff Stiftung (collective of German Independent Publishers) and the Frankfurt Book Fair. The WomenList is presented at the Frankfurt Book Fair on the “Reading Island for Independent Publishers” stand (Hall 4.1 / D36) and is also available online, on the Alliance’ website. The catalog of the WomenList was made by Julie Agor (Oréka graphisme).

The WomenList was born in the wake of the HotList (selection of books published by independent Latin American publishing houses and presented at the Frankfurt Book Fair in 2017 and 2018 – Hall 4.1 / D36).

Read here the article published by Publishing Perspectives, October, 5, 2018

In 2019, a new international selection will be showcased in Frankfurt, on another theme... succeeding the WomenList 2018!

The International Alliance of independent publishers celebrates the remarkable vitality of independent publishing in Latin America at the Frankfurt International Book Fair through a selection of books from Latin America: the HotList 2018!

Through a partnership with Kurt Wolff Stiftung (a collective of independent German publishers) and the Frankfurt Book Fair, independent Latin American publishers in Frankfurt will be exhibiting, at the “Reading Island for Independent Publishers” stand (Hall 4.1 / D36), more than thirty books of various genres: novels, short stories, art books, essays, children’s literature, and poetry... from Argentina, Brazil, Ecuador, Chile, Colombia, Mexico, Venezuela!

The HotList is also available online, an opportunity to discover the wealth and creativity of independent publishers all year round.

Discover also the WomenList: a thematic and international selection created in 2018, celebrating women’s struggle!

Context…

• 2009: The members of EDINAR (collective of Argentinian independent publishers) present a selection of the best books from their list at the Buenos Aires Book Fair. This selection is then promoted in independent bookstores across Buenos Aires.
• 2010: Argentina is the guest of honour at the Frankfurt Book Fair. However, Argentinian independent publishing is poorly represented. The Argentinian independent publishers, in partnership with the Frankfurt Book Fair, decided to present a HotList on the stand of independent German publishers: a showcase of the diversity and quality of their offering.
• 2017: The HotList 2017 opens to independent publishers from Latin America! Thanks to the collaboration with the collective Kurt Wolff Stiftung (independent German publishers), a selection of about 40 titles from publishers from Argentina, Chile, Colombia, Peru, and Uruguay is exhibited in Frankfurt on the “Reading Island” (Hall 4.1).
• 2018: Following the success of the 2017 edition, the HotList is repeated and opens to Brazilian publishers. In addition, a thematic and international selection is launched: this year, the theme of “women’s struggle” is selected in the WomenList 2018, showcasing more than 30 titles edited by independent publishing houses from all continents.

WHY A HOTLIST?

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

These 80 recommendations are built on the principles upheld in the 2014 International Declaration of independent publishers, an important document promoting bibliodiversity, signed on September 20^th 2014, by more than 400 independent publishers from 45 countries.

They raise the necessary prerequisites, divided by themes, for the development, maintenance and strengthening of bibliodiversity in concerned countries. Some recommendations are accompanied by tools and projects (existing or to be developed in the context of the 2015-2016 Alliance programme of activities), enabling a practical implementation of independent publishers’ proposals.

Contents of the 80 recommendations & tools in support of bibliodiversity:

* Public policies safeguarding bibliodiversity
* Proposals and actions supporting digital bibliodiversity
* The Amazon system, a threat to bibliodiversity?
* Essential measures for publishing in local and national languages
* Methods for rethinking book donations
* Proposals and actions to develop solidarity publishing partnerships
* Activities to strengthen diversity in youth publishing

For all book actors to take ownership of these recommendations and tools, we invite you to contact us with your comments, suggestions, ideas, and proposals that could enhance and strengthen this document.