English

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.

“Walaandé, the art of sharing husband”, is a novel about the hardships women from polygamous marriages face every day. The themes discussed in the book include polygamy, woman education, discrimination and violence against women, early marriage, and repudiation.

This novel is a sound testimony of women’s lives that are deeply affected by years of emotional muzzling. A novel that completely sweeps all hopes of happy tomorrows and sinks them into a day-to-day life with its constraints, its conflicts, its pressures as well as its drama, whereby the wealthy polygamous family with its variety of female characters, exhibits external signs of wealth, but in fact faces a lot of problems.

The setting is in one of the richest muslim households in Maroua. The head of the family, a wealthy businessman, is the father of many children, has a number of domestic servants and renews his harem at will and according to his adventures.

Four wives, a dozen of children and a myriad of servants are the daily actors in a household that has the necessary comfort for a luxurious life. Alas! Walaandé is instead a portrayal of their boring existence.

Behind the golden walls and beautiful fences of this luxurious palace where perfumes, colours and flowers forecast a taste of the well-being of rich people, there is finally nothing but boredom, loneliness, despair, conspiracies and jealousy. But also, this male dictatorship, this pride of the “supreme repudiator”, this husband, once very gentle when he needed to conquer his target’s heart, had described to her a beautiful life in which he instead chained her. The same love lines to Aissatou, Djaili, Nafissa, Sakina, the same become a set of disappointments for all of them.

This novel, like any other work of art, is inspired from real life whereby lives and delights, charms and tears, worries and frustrations paralyse women energies and distort their beauties, once very irresistible. The reverse of polygamy as described in this realistic novel echoes the long muzzled sigh of many females who dreamt in their early ages of a wealthy lover with perfumed and luxurious cars, but finally find themselves trapped in the external appearance of this comfort.

Djaïli Amadou AMAL is North Cameroon’s first female author. She is a young Peulhe woman, with an Egyptian mother. These mixed origins have probably enabled her to write more freely, just to write, and, what is more, on a subject up to now taboo in her society, polygamous marriage, which is known to be closely related to the premature marriage of young girls.
Djaïli Amadou AMAL undoubtedly forms part of the elite of the new movement of regional Cameroonian authors. Her novel has already been reprinted in less than six months. She attracted great attention on a tour of Cameroon and Chad visiting the Alliance Française network to discuss the theme of polygamy.

Year of publication: 2013, 144 pages, 16,5 X 21,5 cm, ISBN: 978-614-404-419-3
First publication: 2010, éditions Ifrikiya, Cameroon

The translation and co-publishing of “Walaandé, l’art de partager un mari” have been supported by the Prince Claus Fund.

The International Committee of independent publishers (ICIP) will gather in Paris from the 17^th to the 19^th October, at the BULAC (University Library of the languages and the civilizations), for its annual meeting. What’s on for these days: publishers presentations and analysis of the first conclusions (tools and recommendations) of the workshops of the International Assembly of the independent publishers; preparation of the general meeting which will close the Assembly in Cape Town in September 2014.

After Guadalajara in November 2012, Paris and Bologna in March 2013 and Ouagadougou in June 2013, the sixth workshop of the International Assembly of Independent Publishers will be held in Frankfurt, from 13 to 15 October 2013, on the issue of “Diffusion of human and social sciences books: what innovative strategies?”.

15 publishers from Latin America, Asia, Europe and Africa will share experiences and knowledge in order to question the solutions offered by digital possibilities for the diffusion of their books, to share some tools, and to develop translation and co-publishing projects.

This workshop is organized in partnership with the Frankfurt Book Fair, and with the support of the Fondation de France, the Centre national du livre and the Goethe-Institut in South Africa.

You can follow the International Assembly of Independent Publishers here !

Publishers will also be present throughout the Frankfurt Book Fair (from 9 to 13 October) on their respective stand and / or the stand of the International Alliance of independent publishers (hall 5.0 D111)

Cross-sectional analysis of data collected in 12 countries, by Luc Pinhas, University of Paris 13 Villetaneuse (France)

In a comprehensive cross-sectional study that enriches our knowledge of public book policies in French-speaking sub-Saharan Africa, Luc Pinhas discusses the similarities and differences that exist between 12 countries in the region. While some very interesting developments for local book production and the local book chain should be acknowledged – cf. the preference given to local actors by the Ivorian law of 2015 – the legislative and regulatory frameworks would certainly benefit from being strengthened to support and strengthen the local book economy.

Contents:

• Preamble
• Methodology
• Introduction
• Legal framework
• Taxation and market regulation
• Professional organisation
• Administrative organisation
• Direct support for the book
• Conclusion

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 Latin America”, 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.

Read the article here.

References:
The myth of the ‘book famine’ in African publishing, Review of African Political Economy
DOI : 10.1080/03056244.2020.1792872
Elizabeth le Roux (2020)

Abstract:
The publishing industry in Africa is usually described in terms of ‘booklessness’, ‘hunger’ or ‘famine’. But does this language of scarcity reflect the realities of book production and consumption? In this paper, the concept of ‘book famine’ is analysed as a central frame of discourse on African books, using a survey of existing documentation. Two ways of responding to book famine – provision and production – are identified, and the shortcomings of book aid (provision) are contrasted with strengthening local publishing industries (production). It is argued that the concept has become a cliché that is no longer relevant and that African publishing, while variable, is responding to local needs.

“Être éditeur au Maroc : la pensée au triple défi du marché, du droit et des libertés” / “To be a publisher in Marocco”
Kenza Sefrioui (En toutes lettres, Marocco)

In Morocco, it is very difficult to be a publisher, due to the conjunction between the lack of economical development of the sector and a long history of hostility of the authorities toward intellectuals, which destructured the fields of knowledge and culture. En toutes lettres’s experience, a young independent publishing house based in Casablanca and specialized in narrative journalism and humanities, proves the need to take the triple challenge of market, law and freedoms, and to invent new forms of solidarity between publishing, press, research and civil society, in order to rebuild a pole of production of critical thinking.

Read here the article (in French).

RELIEF – Revue électronique de littérature française 14 (1), 2020, p. 32-48
DOI : doi.org/10.18352/relief.1065
ISSN : 1873-5045 – URL : www.revue-relief.org

Download the report produced by APNET (African Publishers Network) in April 2020.

“Francophone African books are still very often published by French imprints, which can make them hard to get at home. But there is a growing push for change...

When Cameroonian author Daniel Alain Nsegbe first saw his debut novel for sale in his home city of Douala, the price was so high “you would have to ask someone to stop eating for two days in order to buy the book”. It was around 16,000 CFA francs (£20); the average monthly salary in Douala is £150. The book, Ceux qui sortent dans la nuit (Those Who Go Out at Night) was published by Grasset, a French imprint. [...]”

Read here the article by Olivia Snaije, published in The Guardian, 14 May 2020.

An unprecedented mapping of policies supporting reading and books in 22 countries, which can be consulted and downloaded online: publicbookpolicies.alliance-editeurs.org

Arising from the observation of the lack of data on public book policies in regions where the member publishers of the Alliance operate, particularly in Latin America and sub-Saharan Africa, the public book policy mapping project is the result of several years of collaboration between book and publishing professionals, academics and experts on public book policies. It relies first and foremost on the investment and involvement of the Alliance’s member publishers, who are its primary actors. It is one of the flagship projects of the Bibliodiversity Observatory.

The mapping proposes several items: one entry per country (country fact sheets listing existing mechanisms for public support for books at the national level); a regional entry (comparative data through cross-cutting analyses). It is interactive and evolving: the fact sheets presenting the institutions and national public book policies can be amended and modified as the systems evolve. This mapping is thus intended to be extended to new countries in both regions, or even to integrate a new region in the long term (the Arab world in particular). For now, the mapping exists only in Spanish and French for lack of financial means to carry out a translation into English. The Alliance hopes to find the necessary funds to translate the mapping into English soon.

The objectives of the mapping are to:
• make available data on the public book policies of the respective countries;
• offer an overview of public book policies, freely accessible, consultable and reusable by professionals and public authorities;
• promote dialogue and exchanges between public authorities and publishers;
• develop advocacy tools for independent publishers;
• contribute to the establishment and consolidation of public book policies in developing countries (among others, for a greater circulation of books and ideas, for the appropriation of digital tools by book professionals, for balanced exchanges between North and South);
• affirm the role of civil society (book professionals and particularly independent publishers) in the development and implementation of public book policies.

The Alliance warmly thanks the partners of this project: the Fondation de France and the Swiss SDC.

See the complementary issue of the Bibliodiversity journal “Public book policies”.

Press release

• « Quelles politiques publiques en faveur du livre ? », Publishers & Books, numéro spécial OAPE/AIEI, May-June, 2020
• « Quel avenir pour le livre dans l’après-Covid ? », The conversation, June 3, 2020
• “Cartografía de las políticas públicas para el libro en América latina, y en África subsahariana y Madagascar”, Valor de Cambio, June 3, 2020
• « En Afrique subsaharienne, le secteur du livre lourdement impacté par la pandémie », Le Monde Afrique, May 27, 2020
• “Mapping Book and Publishing Policy in Africa and Latin America”, Publishing Perspectives, May 21, 2020
• « Politiques publiques du livre : une cartographie en ligne pour la bibliodiversité », News Mada, May 20, 2020
• « Cartographie des politiques publiques du livre à travers 22 territoires », ActuaLitté, May 13, 2020
• « Cartographie des politiques publiques du livre », En toutes lettres, May 13, 2020
• « Cartographie des politiques publiques du livre », Fédération internationale des coalitions pour la diversité culturelle (FICDC), May 2020

If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact the Alliance team at: equipe@alliance-editeurs.org

Publishing & the Book in Africa: A Literature Review for 2019
The fifth in a series of annual reviews of select new literature in English that has appeared on the topic of publishing and the book sector in sub-Saharan Africa. Extensively and critically annotated and/or with abstracts, the present list brings together new literature published during the course of 2019, a total of 156 records.

Read the pre-print version here.

The final print/online version to be published in The African Book Publishing Record, vol. 45, issue 2 (May 2020).

Reprinted with permission of the author.
Copyright © Hans Zell Publishing Consultants 2019

This chronological timeline sets out some of the key dates, events, and landmarks in the history and development of indigenous publishing in Sub-Saharan Africa. It also includes details of the major conferences, meetings or seminars on African publishing, held in Africa or at venues elsewhere, since 1968. An earlier version of this chronology first appeared in The African Publishing Companion: A Resource Guide, and has now been updated through to the period up to 2019, and considerably expanded to also include publication of a number of benchmark studies, conference proceedings, journals, and reference resources on the African book world.

Read here the pre-print version on Academia.edu, 21 October 2019.

Final version, to be published in African Research & Documentation. Journal of SCOLMA (The UK Libraries and Archives Group on Africa), no. 136 (2019)

Reprinted with permission of the author.
Copyright © Hans Zell Publishing Consultants 2019

“Minority languages”, the new issue of the Bibliodiversity journal, coordinated by Nathalie Carré (Institut National des Langues et Civilisations Orientales, Inalco) and Raphaël Thierry (independent researcher)

Contact the Alliance team to get a free digital version of this issue.

Bibliodiversity is co-published by Double ponctuation and the International Alliance of Independent Publishers.

See all the other issues of the journal here (“Public book policies”, “Self-publishing”, “Publishing and commitment”, “Translation and Globalization”...)

Presentation
More than half of the languages spoken in the world are in danger of disappearing; if nothing is done, UNESCO estimates that 90% of languages will have disappeared in the course of this century. Languages are an essential part of a people’s culture, yet they are much more than just a tool for communication; they offer a unique view of the world and of the people who live in it. What can the publishing sector do – and is already doing – to help preserve and sustain these minority languages? This book attempts to answer this question through academic articles and testimonies of book professionals who, together, propose a novel approach to the subject.

In the light of their publications, the book analyses the situation of several minority languages - Haitian Creole, Corsican, Innu, Yiddish, Kikuyu, Basque, Malagasy, Náhuatl, etc. and shows that solutions are possible when the actors in the book system are mobilised.

Summary:

• Publishing in minority languages – On diversity of publishing languages in a
  globalized context / by Nathalie Carré (Inalco, France) and Raphaël Thierry
  (independent researcher, France)

• Creole publishing in Haiti – Obstacles, initiatives and development prospects /
  by Sandie Blaise, Duke University (United States)

• The spread of Yiddish poetry in German speaking world – The case of bilingual editions / by Caroline Puaud, Paris Sorbonne University

• Write and publish in Madagascar – How to reach the world? / by Dominique Ranaivoson, University of Lorraine (France)

• Make minority languages dialogue (online) – The example of intergenerational collaboration in East Africa / by Pierre Boizette, Paris-Nanterre University (France)

• Normativity, diversity and dynamics of creation in the contemporary Basque literary field – Study of its operating trends through the literary trajectory of Eñaut Etxamendi / by Itziar Madina Elguezabal, Bordeaux-Montaigne Doctoral school (France)

• Locate, catalog, make visible – The place of minority languages in collections of the University Library for Languages and Civilizations Studies (BULAC) / Interview with Marine Defosse, Soline Lau-Suchet and Nicolas Pitsos, librarians at BULAC (France)

• “As long as the language circulates, we will have books to produce” / interview with Bernard Biancarelli (Albiana Publishing, Corsica/France)

• “Publishing must grow the world” – Mémoire d’encrier and the languages of the world / interview with Rodney Saint-Éloi, Mémoire d’Encrier Publishing (Quebec / Canada)

• “Saving a language is a task for all of us” / by María Yolanda Argüello Mendoza, Magenta editions (Mexico)

• Public book and reading policies for indigenous languages in Chile. Intervention (updated in 2020) in the Parliament of Books and Speech / by Paulo Slachevsky, Lom Ediciones (Chile)

• Save, transmit – An example of transcription-translation from oral literature
  of some Vietnam’s peoples / by Mireille Gansel, translator, writer

• PEN’s commitment to Linguistic Rights – The importance of writing, publishing and reading in marginalized languages / interview with Peter McDonald (University of Oxford) and Carles Torner (PEN International), July 2018, Oxford and London

These recommendations and proposals are taken from the 80 recommendations & tools in support of bibliodiversity; they are built on the principles upheld in the 2014 International Declaration of independent publishers.

These recommendations are based on the experiences and practices of the International Alliance of independent publishers: they mainly focus on publishing partnerships between publishers from the South, given that support for publishing in these countries is often weak or inexistent, and between publishers of the South and North, given that these exchanges are few.