The Alliance has adopted an original method of internal organization, respecting both the democratic principles and the functioning of an international network. The Alliance rests above all on its member publishers, represented by the International Committee of Independent Publishers (ICIP). It also relies on a Board – charged with upholding and respecting the publishers’ decisions – and a permanent staff.
Publishing countries : South Africa, Armenia, Australia, Bulgaria, United States, India, Iran, United Kingdom, Syria, Turkey
Publisher members of the English-speaking network of the Alliance will meet with European, Iranian and Syrian colleagues, to discuss the following issues:
⁃ Situation analysis of the publishing landscape in the various countries;
⁃ Strengthened mutual knowledge of participating independent publishers lists;
⁃ Setting up of publishing projects between publishers from the different countries;
⁃ Exchanges and discussions on digital publishing and freedom of publishing within publishing houses.
This meeting is facilitated through the support of Metis Publishers (Turkey), with the participation of the Chamber of Mechanical Engineers, the Turkish Publishers Association, the Hrant Dink Foundation, and UNESCO Melbourne City of Literature.
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 20th 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.
Read “Rethinking book donations”
Read ’Activities to strengthen a plural youth publishing’
Read ’Proposals and activities to develop solidarity publishing partnerships’
Read ’Essential measures for publishing in local and national languages’
Read ’The Amazon system, a threat to bibliodiversity?’
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Author(s) : Philippe BRASSEUR
Publishing countries : Republic of Guinea, Benin, Ivory Coast, Gabon, Madagascar, Mauritius, Niger, Democratic Republic of Congo, Rwanda, Togo
1001 activités autour du livre is not about learning to read but about giving children from 2 to 11 years old and beyond a passion for books and reading. How can you achieve this? By playing, drawing, inventing, talking, miming... all thanks to books. This playful and original work of practice and experience makes you want to devour all the others! An authentic tool for child education professionals and attentive parents.
Initially published by Éditions Casterman in 2013.
Date of publication (Pan-African version): September 2020
A specific adaptation for this pan-African co-publishing has been made by Philippe Brasseur; the co-publishers have also updated and adapted to their contexts and environments some of the references of the book.
A book co-published by 11 publishing houses in sub-Saharan Africa and the Indian Ocean: AGO Média (Togo), Atelier des Nomades (Mauritius), Editions Bakame (Rwanda), Editions Elondja (DRC), Ganndal (Guinea), La Farandole des livres bookstore (Niger), Gashingo (Niger), Jeunes Malgaches (Madagascar), Editions Ntsamé (Gabon), Ruisseaux d’Afrique (Benin) and Vallesse (Ivory Coast).
This co-publishing bears the label “Fair Trade Book”.
This solidarity co-publishing is the result of a workshop on children’s literature organised by the Alliance in Abidjan in May 2019, as part of the International Conference of Independent Publishers 2019-2021. It received the support of the Centre national du livre.
The International Alliance of independent publishers wishes you a blooming year!
Greeting card made by Mariette Robbes, member of the Board of the Alliance
Read here the 2021 programme of the Alliance and the 2020 highlights!
The Independent Publishing Glossary is a collective project led by publishers from the Spanish-language network of the International Alliance of Independent Publishers.
It shows the meanings and definitions of words commonly used in publishing. It is an evolving project, which will be enriched over time in order to include new concepts and to take into account other proposal for definitions. The idea is not to freeze or petrify the concepts, but to open them up to enhance their multiple meanings.
Each term is signed by the person who worked on the definition. The glossary was edited by Germán Gacio Baquiola (Corredor Sur Editorial, Ecuador / Colectivo Editores independientes de Ecuador), Teresa Gottlieb, (Editorial Maitri, Chile), Paulo Slachevsky (Lom Ediciones, Chile) and Miguel Villafuerte, (Editorial Blanca, Ecuador).
To order this title digitally (in French), it’s here!
Sales price (digital copy – PDF version): 5 Euros
ISBN: 978-2-490855-27-8
Publication: February 2022
Presentation
The world of books and writing is not necessarily diverse. Like all places of power, whether real or symbolic, it does not escape the forms of exclusion and predation that can be observed elsewhere in society.
By deliberately favouring a plurality of approaches to the question of inclusion, this issue of the journal attempts to explore a multidimensional phenomenon. Thus, whether through feminism, indigenousness, the LGBTQ+ movement or by considering those excluded from the written word, the authors question the inclusive capacity of this sector.
Beyond the observations, they propose practical examples (collected in France, Quebec, Belgium, Spain, India...) to promote inclusion: the establishment of a gender editor within an editorial office, the creation of a native publishing house, the management of bookshops, publishing houses or feminist or gay journals, the reflection of librarians on the conditions of reception of minorities, etc.
Little by little, thanks to these many initiatives, often without wanting to polemicise or to whitewash issues, professionals are fighting discrimination daily and promoting the expression of real diversity.
“Bibliodiversité” is co-published by Double ponctuation and the International Alliance of Independent Publishers.
See all the other issues of the journal here (“The alternatives. Ecology, social economy : the future of the book ?”, “Minority languages”, "Public book policies”, “Self-publishing”, “Publishing and commitment”, “Translation and Globalization”...)
Discover publishers’ backgrounds, get to know their work and their publications, and listen to the voice of independent publishers… by reading the exclusive publishers portraits in this section!
In partnership with the online magazine ActuaLitté, interviews with publishers member of the Alliance are regularly added here. Explore the interviews:
* Élodie Comtois (Écosociété publishers in Québec),
* Samar Haddad (Atlas Publishing in Syria),
* Marie Michèle Razafintsalama (Jeunes malgaches in Madagascar),
* Constanza Brunet (Marea Editorial in Argentina),
* Antoinette Koleva (KX Critique & Humanism in Bulgaria),
* Karine Joseph (Sirocco in Morocco),
* Colleen Higgs (Modjaji Books in South Africa),
* François Nkémé (Proximité in Cameroon),
* Aliou Sow (Ganndal, Guinea Conakry),
* Ritu Menon (Women Unlimited in India).
* Ivana Jinkings (Boitempo in Brazil),
* Sophie Bazin and Johary Ravaloson (Dodo vole in Madagascar),
* Dorota Hartwich (Format in Poland),
* Amanda Crocker (Between the Lines, Canada),
* Dieulermesson Petit Frère (LEGS Édition, Haiti),
* Corinne Fleury (Atelier des nomades, Mauritius),
* Abdulai Sila (Ku Si Mon, Guinea Bissau),
* Susan Hawthorne (Spinifex Press, Australia),
* Dan Bomboko (Elondja, Democratic Republic of Congo).
To order this title digitally, it’s here!
Sales price (digital copy – PDF version): 5 Euros
ISBN: 978-2-490855-11-7
Sales price (hardcopy): 15 Euros
Format: 14,5 X 21 cm; 236 pages
ISBN: 978-2-490855-10-0
Publication: February 2021
“Bibliodiversité” is co-published by Double ponctuation and the International Alliance of Independent Publishers.
See all the other issues of the journal here (“Minority languages”, "Public book policies”, “Self-publishing”, “Publishing and commitment”, “Translation and Globalization”...)
Presentation
At a time when environmental concerns are becoming more and more important and when traditional production patterns are increasingly being questioned, is there such a thing as an ecological, responsible and solidarity book?
At a time when a significant proportion of printed books end up unread and when the physical flow of books generates significant greenhouse gas emissions, printers, publishers, booksellers and distributors are questioning their practices and the impact they have.
They are proposing alternatives to the dominant system to respond to these challenges – and thus define the future of the book?
In just this past month, three prominent Iranian writers, translators, and members of the Association of Iranian Writers, Bektash Abtin, Kayvan Bazhan, and Reza Khandan Mahabadi, and journalist and sociology researcher, Khosrow Sadeghi Boroujeni, have been sentenced to prison on charges of “propaganda against the Islamic Republic of Iran, and gathering and collusion with the intent of acting against national security.”
These accusations, which have led to long prison sentences and the charges levied are false. Their objectives are to further oppress writers and the people of Iran.
At a time when the world is under crisis by the pandemic, Iran, and especially within its prisons has a very unstable environment, with the increasing spread of Coronavirus among inmates.
We as authors and scholars would like to ask you to let the voices of our fellow authors in prison be heard by the people of the world and to demand their immediate release.
Read here the IPA (International Publishers Association) support, and here the manifesto published by the Brazilian actors, to defend the book in Brazil.
Analysis of data collected in 10 countries from independent publishers and public actors, by Andrés E. Fernández Vergara (University of Chile)
This article, written in Spanish, offers a regional analysis of public policies for the development of books and reading in Spanish-speaking Latin America, from the point of view of 53 actors in the book world from 10 different countries. It takes into account the similarities and differences that exist from one country to another in the region: on the one hand, there are complex networks of institutions and book promotion mechanisms; on the other hand, there is no national policy or strategic objective. The actors interviewed highlight the difficulties they encounter in their sector today: market concentration, piracy, lack of support for indigenous languages, etc. These are all dangers that threaten bibliodiversity in the region.
Contents:
This analysis is to be found in a special issue of the Bibliodiversity Journal on “Public book policies” available in paper and digital versions (in French).
See also the analysis on “Public book policies in sub-Saharan Africa and Madagascar” by Luc Pinhas, published in September 2019.
To complement these analyses, see the mapping of public policies and in-country support mechanisms here: publicbookpolicies.alliance-editeurs.org
Data collection in the 11 countries of sub-Saharan Africa and Madagascar as well as in Latin America, cross-sectional data analyses and online mapping were supported by the Fondation de France and the SDC Switzerland.
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