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As every year on 21 September, exciting activities (book crossing, readings, meetings, etc.) will be held on the occasion of International Bibliodiversity Day (B Day).
This year, we plan to make a lot of noise –rallying new individuals, groups and organisations from all over the world.

Working together in a network, going in the same direction, and with more determination than ever before.

This year, let’s go further!
Are you coming along?

The 7^th workshop of the International Assembly of independent publishers will be held from 30 April to 2 May 2014 in Abu Dhabi, through a partnership with the Abu Dhabi International Book Fair, and the support of the International Organisation of the Francophonie and the Prince Claus Fund. It will convene 15 publishers and digital publishing experts from the Arab world and Argentina, with the common objective of:
• Helping publishers to overcome technical challenges encountered during the creation of ePub files in Arabic;
• Discussing digital distribution platforms used in the Arab world;
• Sharing experiences on online promotion and e-marketing;
• Drafting recommendations to facilitate traditional publishers’ transition towards digital publishing and secure a better diffusion for digital publications in the Arab world.

All proposals and recommendations from this workshop will be communicated to public and standardisation authorities, and will be available on the Alliance’s Digital Lab.

Following the workshop, 3 May, from 11:00 to 12:00, do not miss the public speech on “Words and money”, a book by André Schiffrin translated and co-published by the Arabic-language network of the Alliance. More information here!

For more information on this workshop and on the International Assembly of independent publishers: assises@alliance-editeurs.org
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Twelve publishers based in Africa, Haiti and Madagascar are collectively publishing Lilian THURAM’s “Mes étoiles noires”, initially published by Philippe Rey (2010). As from April 2014, you will find this publication in Algeria (Barzakh), Benin (Ruisseaux d’Afrique), Burkina Faso (Sankofa & Gurli), Cameroun (Presses universitaires d’Afrique), Côte d’Ivoire (EDILIS), Guiney Conakry (Ganndal), Haiti (Mémoire d’encrier), Madagascar (Jeunes malgaches), Morocco (Tarik), Mali (Jamana), Senegal (Éditions Papyrus Afrique), and in Togo (Graines de Pensées).

Lilian THURAM will visit Africa and Haiti to promote “Mes étoiles noires”:
• From 21 to 25 April 2014 in Guiney Conakry, during the event 72 heures du livre (through the support of the French Institute of Conakry)
• From 25 to 27 April 2014 in Benin (through the support of the Charles Leopold Mayer Foundation)
• From 5 to 9 May 2014 in Haiti (details to be confirmed)
• On 19 July 2014 in Senegal (details to be confirmed)

This solidarity co-publishing “Fair Trade book” project is coordinated and supported by the Alliance, and benefited from the support of the Lilian Thuram Foundation – Education against racism and its partners, CASDEN and MGEN.

For more information on this co-publishing project, click here.

Bibliodiversity is cultural diversity applied to the world of books. Echoing biodiversity, it refers to the critical diversity of products (books, scripts, eBooks, apps, and oral literature) made available to readers. Bibliodiversity is a complex, self-sustaining system of storytelling, writing, publishing, and other kinds of production of oral and written literature. The writers and producers are comparable to the inhabitants of an ecosystem. Bibliodiversity contributes to a thriving life of culture and a healthy eco-social system. While large publishers do contribute to publishing diversity through the quantitative importance of their production, it is not enough to guarantee bibliodiversity, which is not only measured by the number of titles available.
Independent publishers, even if they consider their publishing houses’ economic balance, are above all concerned with the content of published products. Independent publishers’ books bring a different outlook and voice, as opposed to the more standardised publications offered by major groups. Independent publishers’ books and other products and their preferred diffusion channels (independent booksellers, among others) are therefore essential to preserve and strengthen plurality and the diffusion of ideas. The word bibliodiversity was invented by Chilean publishers, during the creation of the “Editores independientes de Chile” collective in the late 1990s. The International Alliance of independent publishers significantly contributed to the diffusion and promotion of this notion in several languages, including through the Dakar Declaration (2003), Guadalajara Declaration (2005), Paris Declaration (2007), Cape Town Declaration (2014) and the Pamplona-Iruñea Declaration (2021). Since 2010, International Bibliodiversity Day is celebrated on 21 September.

See the article “Bibliodiversity” on Wikipedia.
The article also exists in French, Spanish and Portuguese.

The bibliodiversity, in pictures!

This co-publication is supported by the Fondation Lilian Thuram - Éducation contre le racisme and its partners: CASDEN and MGEN; this co-publishing bears the label “Fair Trade Book”.

Publication: April 2014 - 404 pages - 14,5 X 22 cm - printed on recycled paper -
First publication: éditions Philippe Rey, Paris, 2010.
ISBN Algeria: 978-9931-325-67-3
ISBN Benin: 978-99919-1-707-8
ISBN Burkina Faso: 978-2-913991-65-1
ISBN Cameroon: 978-9956-444-77-4
ISBN Côte d’Ivoire: 978-2-8091-0062-4
ISBN Guinea Conakry: 978-2-35045-046-9
ISBN Haïti: 978-2-89712-232-4
ISBN Madagascar: 978-2-916362-39-7
ISBN Mali: 978-99952-1-063-2
ISBN Marocco: 978-9954-419-76-2
ISBN Senegal: 978-2-914135-20-7
ISBN Togo: 978-2-916101-58-3

In “The Early Islam, from Ugarit to Samarra”, the history of a religious movement later to be known as Islam will be retold –not as it can be found in all encyclopedias, history books and TV documentaries– but as it can be inferred from the material evidence if investigated in an unbiased fashion. “Unbiased” here means that all we know –or rather only seemingly know– from the Islamic historiographic literature (the “Traditional Account/ Report”) will be ignored: first as it stems from an era several centuries after the alleged events it describes; secondly as it is mostly legendary and follows a “theological program” and thirdly as in many cases it flatly contradicts the material evidence we have on coins, inscriptions etc. The re-interpreted history will be presented in the form of the account of a journey. In some cases, words everyone would expect in a history of “early Islam” will not appear and for good reason. The term “muslim”, for example, appears only very late on in non-Islamic sources, in fact only several generations after the alleged founding of the new religion. Other words appear with different meanings, e.g. “Islām” originally does not designate a new religion, “Arabī” does not designate an ethnic group and other examples.

Publication: 2014 - 304 pages - 22 x 15 cm - ISBN: 978-3-943147-99-5
First publication: Schiler Verlag (Germany), 2006
This translation has received the support of the Prince Claus Fund.

Publication: 2014, 496 pages, 15 X 22 cm
ISBN France: 978-2-3641-303-95
ISBN Switzerland: 978-2-8290-470-4

After the first six preparatory and thematic workshops that were held from November 2012 to December 2013, the seventh and last workshop of the Assembly will take place from 30^th April to 2^nd May in Abu Dhabi, in partnership with the Abu Dhabi International Book Fair. This workshop will gather 15 publishers and digital experts around the topic: “Digital publishing: What issues for bibliodiversity in the Arab-speaking world?”. More information to come soon!

From 17^th to 22^nd September, the Cape Town meeting (South Africa) will conclude the International Assembly of independent publishers. More than 50 independent publishers from 40 countries will meet in Cape Town for an intercultural and interlinguistic event in favor of bibliodiversity.
The Assembly is organized in partnership with the Open Book festival.

For more information, get in touch with the Alliance team and download the document below.

André Schiffrin, great independent publishing figure, passed away on this Sunday 1^st December 2013 in Paris. His work and his analysis (“L’édition sans éditeurs”, “Le contrôle de la parole”…) took an essential part in the creation of the Alliance, back in the 2000s.
After running Pantheon Books (United States) during a long time, André Schiffrin left the Random House group to create in the early 90s the not-for-profit publishing house The New Press, member of the Alliance.
André Schiffrin wrote several fundamental books on independent publishing stakes, translated into many languages –as “Words and money”, the last one, copublished in the Alliance Arabic-language network by Al Intishar (Lebanon), Med Ali (Tunisia) and Atlas Publishing (Syria).

In the current context of the International Assembly of independent publishers, and remembering André Schiffrin had taken part in the Paris Assembly in 2007, the Alliance has lost a fellow traveller –his memory and his reflections will keep on being with us. Independent publishers from all over the world are paying him a tribute here.

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.

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.