Like foam. This is how the growth of the Arab publishing industry, particularly the Emirati, could be considered through its figurehead at the Sharjah International Book Fair, a bookseller meeting that this weekend closed the celebration of its 40th edition with difficult face-to-face figures to conceive for a still pandemic context.
But that growth is not accidental nor is it a secret. It is part of a market positioning plan in a relatively short term, but effective. To learn more about this vision and shark mentality, The Economist talks with Ahmed bin Rakkad Al Ameri, president of the Sharjah Book Authority, on the eve of the closing of this literary meeting that has become a node in the region.
“In the world, in the world, not only in the region. This year we became (the market) number one in the sale of rights ”, the Emirati official is allowed to clarify that he was the first to bet on a face-to-face edition last year still in the health uncertainty, but able to control the entry of all your visitors with SARS-CoV-2 negative PCR results and the ability to further test all your guests during the meeting.
“The last two editions have been a success because we have learned a lot from them. Last year we were the first fair and the only one in the world that took place after the outbreak of the pandemic, with about 70 countries participating. And although it was a hybrid version, we had around 380,000 registered visitors for the fair, ”he shares.
However, the numbers for this year’s edition are even more surprising. Broadly speaking: almost a million 700,000 visitors from more than 100 nationalities stepped on the Expo Center Sharjah during the 11 days of the fair to learn about the offerings of more than 1,600 publishers from 83 countries.
The inevitable of the great fairs
If the growth plan were plotted, the vector would show a significant rise in the last five years. Sharjah was Guest of Honor at five fairs in the two years leading up to the pandemic. It was at the São Paulo Book Biennial and at the Paris Book Fair, in both editions of 2018, as well as at the Madrid Book Fair (Liber), the New Delhi World Book Fair and the International Book Fair in New Delhi. Moscow, all in 2019.
“And next year we will be in three more,” Al Ameri anticipates. “First it will be the Bologna Children’s Book Fair, in March, then the London Book Fair, such as Market Focus, in April, and finally the FIL Guadalajara in November.”
It is very clear to him. Sharjah is currently building links with the rest of the main markets. He mentions two cases, the Spanish-speaking one and the Portuguese-speaking one.
“This year we have reached good agreements with Spanish publishers who came here to sell or buy rights. Right now we see many books written in Spanish that are translated into Arabic. It is a great achievement of collaboration between the Arab and Spanish-speaking world. But it is not only about the Hispanic world but about all markets. Here was a Brazilian publisher who showed me one of the children’s books for which she acquired translation rights when we were Guest of Honor in São Paulo. She sold 37,000 copies of this book in Brazil. That is proof that our literature, our culture, is being interesting to export to the whole world and vice versa ”.
They prepare a broader program for FIL
Regarding books for the youngest readers, the president of the Sharjah Book Authority, by the way, designated by UNESCO as the “World Book Capital” in 2019 – an honor that Guadalajara will hold in 2022 -, shares that “the future It will always be the children and that is why we think a lot of our programming in the children’s audience. We are extremely focused on them. And, by the way, we have a beautiful surprise for the Mexican children’s audience when we get to be there ”.
The program that would have been presented at FIL Guadalajara in 2020, whose face-to-face edition was impossible due to sanitary restrictions, will not be at all the same as Sharjah will carry out next year.
“We have changed a lot. The delay gave us time to develop a better and much bigger program. Marisol Schulz and Raúl Padilla – director and president of FIL – were here this year, so we were able to have a good exchange of ideas for a deeper and stronger program ”.
Finally, he confirms that he will travel to be present, once again, at the change of post of the Guest of Honor, now with Peru, during the closing of the 35th edition of FIL that will take place from November 27 to December 5 .
Reference-www.eleconomista.com.mx