English

“More than ever, the future of the book—namely its diversity and promotion of minority and alternative voices—rests on the shoulders of independent editors, who give life to the book’s cultural necessity through their commitment, convictions, and attachment to causes that break with the lone dictature of capitalism.”

“My third novel, Munyal ; les larmes de la patience (forthcoming in English translation in October 2022 as The Impatients), is now available in many Francophone African countries because of the Alliance’s ’Terres solidaires’ collection. Many African authors feature on that list, but the part that brings me the most pride is to have such a recognition from Sub-Saharan Africa, where I live and work. This is truly the spirit of diversity that is so dear to the Alliance, and what represents the values that we writers and editors must defend and promote. The Alliance plays such a fundamental role in this sense, mitigating as much as possible the issue of book distribution in Sub-Saharan Africa, particularly Francophone countries.”

Read the speech by Djaïli Amadou Amal at the closing of the International Conference on Independent Publishers, Pamplona-Iruñea, 26 November 2021.

Translated from the French by Allison M. Charette.

This speech is also available in audio on the Alliance’s Youtube channel.

From 21 to 22 September 2022, in support of International Bibliodiversity Day, join the 1^st edition of Babelica online – the international book fair for independent publishers!

The Babelica Fair, via its online platform, will be showcasing the diversity of international independent publishing over three days. More than 65 publishing houses from 37 countries present a selection of 200 titles (literature, children’s books, humanities, comics, etc.) in Indonesian, Arabic, Portuguese, Basque, Spanish, Kinyarwanda, German, Creole, French, Italian, English, Malagasy, etc., to be discovered at Babelica and purchased online.

Babelica also offers a host of meetings, webinars and round tables, to be followed live and in several languages: see here the programme of the 5 round tables scheduled between 21 and 22 September.

The sixth edition of the Tehran Book Fair, Uncensored takes place from 11 May to 12 June 2022, starting in London and then travelling through several European and American cities!

This book fair is timed parallel to the Iran Book Fair, hence the name: Tehran Book Fair, Uncensored. The aim of the exhibition is to provide an opportunity for authors and publishers who would be censored or banned in Iran to speak out freely and present their work.

Participating publishing houses:

• Forough Book (Germany)
• Naakojaa (France)
• Gardoon (Germany)
• Nogaam (UK)
• Satrap (UK)
• Dena Book (Netherlands)
• Red Intellect (Netherlands)
• Aftab Publication (Norway)
• Roonak Publication (Netherlands)
• Pendaar Publications (UK)
• Arzan (Sweden)
• Ferdosi (Sweden)
• Iran Academia (Netherlands)
• Pegah Books (Canada)
• Ketab Corp (USA)
• Saraye Bamdad (Canada)
• Ketab Corp (USA)

For more information: www.uncensoredbook.com / #UBF22

In the aftermath of the Russian aggression against Ukraine and the invasion of its territory, the International Alliance of Independent Publishers expresses its support and solidarity with the Ukrainian people and cultural professionals and reiterates its commitment to the right of self-determination of each population.

We, independent publishers from over 55 countries around the world, members of an international solidarity network, condemn in the strongest terms the violence committed against the Ukrainian people and call together for a return to peace. We also reaffirm our support for all people on all continents, facing wars and conflicts, fighting for their freedom and emancipation.

We strongly oppose stigmatizing and dehumanizing discourses, and we recall here the essential role of culture, in particular of books, as a tool for dialogue, analysis, understanding and discovery of plurality and diversity.

Co-publishers: Eburnie (Ivory Coast), Ganndal (Guinee Conakry), Graines de Pensées (Togo), Proximité (Cameroon)
Year of publication of the Pan-African version: 2022, 11,5 X 19 cm
© Mutt-Lon, 2020.

A Fair Trade Book co-publishing.

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).

1/ The Alliance, a place for experimentation and reflection through the Bibliodiversity Observatory

• Continue the analyses, reflections and advocacy via the thematic working groups set up during the 2014 Conference and set up new working groups on the themes and issues discussed during the 2021 Conference
• Providing tools and documenting international independent publishing

2/ The Alliance, a space for collaboration and sharing

• Share practices and know-how (on regional, national or even international levels, depending on the needs expressed) between publishers
• Meet and strengthen the flow of exchanges

3/ The Alliance, a tool for promoting independent publishing and the circulation of books

• Encourage the visibility and promotion of independent publishing
• Promote the circulation of works and productions of independent publishing houses

4/ The Alliance, a laboratory of alternative editorial practices

• Pursue and strengthen solidarity-based publishing partnerships (transfer of rights, translations, co-publishing projects, etc.)
• Communicate and increase awareness

5/ The Alliance, an evolving governance and operation

• REthink
• Get involved

Gathered in the city of Pamplona-Iruñea from 23 to 26 November 2021 at the fourth International Conference of Independent Publishers, organised in partnership with EDITARGI (Association of Independent Publishers of Navarre), we, the publishers of the International Alliance of Independent Publishers (IAIP), reaffirm our commitment to:

• the cultural, social and political character of books and reading;
• the democratisation of books in our societies;
• reading as an emancipatory practice that strengthens the critical thinking of citizens and stakeholders within their society.

Read the full Declaration here:

This Declaration is in line with the discussions and work of the International Alliance of Independent Publishers, in particular the Declarations of 2003, 2007 and 2014 and the 80 recommendations in favour of bibliodiversity. It will be complemented by a Guide to Good Practice (collective work in progress, for publication in the first half of 2022).

The round-table discussions of the Conference are available in replay on the Alliance’s YouTube channel.

Illustrations and video: Mariette Robbes (https://marietterobbes.fr/)

The International Conference of Independent Publishers held in Pamplona-Iruñea brought together more than 100 book professionals from 40 countries and was attended by more than 300 participants connected to the Babelica platform.
6 round-table discussions and 3 collective workshops in 4 languages of communication; B2B meetings; closing speeches by Vandana Shiva and Djaïli Amadou Amal...

The round-table discussions of the Conference are available in replay on the Alliance’s YouTube channel.

The conclusions of the Conference are currently being drafted and will be available on the Alliance’s website in early 2022. They will present the highlights of the Conference, the proposals and recommendations of the independent publishers for REthinking, and the Alliance’s perspectives for the period 2022-2025.

The declaration of the Conference “For an independent, decolonial, ecological, feminist, free, social and solidarity-based publishing” is also being finalised (proofread by the different networks of the Alliance, in several languages). This declaration will be completed by a guide of good practices - the first drafts of this guide were elaborated during the Conference and are the object of a collective work within the Alliance, for publication during the first quarter of 2022.

The photos and press review of the Conference can already be found here!

The Alliance would like to thank once again all the partners of the Conference (see here) and especially the association EDITARGI, co-organiser of this unique meeting!

International Conference of Independent Publishers, round tables and workshops: the international independent publishing online on Babelica!

All information about the Pamplona Conference is available on Babelica in English, French, Spanish and Basque.

Although several debates and discussions on book donations were held, very few considered, complementary to the essential point of view of librarians’ professional collectives, the point of view of publishers and booksellers.

This workshop, facilitated in the context of the International Assembly of Independent Publishers, therefore has 3 main objectives:
• To question existing practices and the impact of the “donation chain” on the “book chain”, from the perspective of local librarians, publishers and booksellers;
• To question, promote and “complete”, if applicable, existing benchmark tools (amongst others, the Book Donation Charter developed by the Culture and Development Association, in partnership with several structures and institutions);
• To propose realistic and sustainable alternatives to “classic” book donations, enabling us, hopefully, to enrich and built on current practices, through the input of local professionals.

The Alliance wishes to express its gratitude to the Ile-de-France Region for its support and trust and BULAC (Languages and civilisation University Library) for hosting us.

The primary outcomes of this workshop are detailed below.

Also read about the workshop’s indirect impacts on book donations: An article on Africultures, a programme on RFI...

Unlike other Asian publishing markets, like Korea or Japan, the Indian book market is nearly unknown by French children’s book publishers, though this industry is actually blooming.
The Indian book market is a very specific one: the country’s size makes book distribution difficult, many languages are spoken and written, and there is a wide gap between urban reading habits and rural ones. Independent publishers in this country adapt business strategies to these difficulties and the solutions they find are original and innovative. In view of the lack of studies and data about Indian publishing, this study is based on a certain number of interviews with booksellers, book fair directors, market specialists, illustrators, distributors, and publishers.

• In the first part ’’Quel paysage pour l’édition indienne?’’, this study deciphers the socio-economic and statistical data in order to better understand the Indian youth readership (gender, language, economical issues, among others).

• In the second part ’’Le monde de l’édition jeunesse’’, a typology of the different players in Indian publishing is sketched out: multinational companies, state publishing, commercial publishers, independent publishers, NGOs... what are their respective roles?

• In the third part ’’Quelles perspectives de diffusion et de valorisation?’’, the study examines the level and the nature of exchanges between Indian publishing and worldwide youth publishing.

An exciting treatise on a little-explored subject... a must read!

Mariette ROBBES, holder of a Master 2 in the World of the Book (Aix-en-Provence University) lived for six months in India in 2009, and returns often ever since. Since 2017, she is a member of the Alliance Board. Mariette concurrently works on several textile and graphic creation projects.

The label “Fair Trade Book” is attributed by the International Alliance of independent publishers to works published in the context of international publishing agreements that respect each other’s particularities: fair co- publishing. These fair copublishings enable the sharing of costs linked to intellectual and physical production of books and therefore ensure an economy of scale; an exchange of professional know-how and a common experience, while respecting the publishers’ cultural contexts and identities; and a distribution of works on a broader scale by adjusting prices for each geographic zone.

Download the format epub here!