LIBER gives an overview of today's book world, which continues to be an ever-changing sectorInternational Book Fair

Liber, the International Book Fair promoted by the Federation of Spanish Publishers' Guilds (FGEE) and organised this year by Fira de Barcelona, is set to welcome 346 exhibitors from 10 different countries, confirming it as the Spanish-language book industry's leading professional event, held for the 34th time.

Combining retail offer and activities, Liber will showcase book sector innovations, business models and growth opportunities in new areas connected with book digitization, marketing and internationalisation from 12-14 October. 

With a turnover of €2.257bn last year (+2.8%), the Spanish publishing industry is the fifth largest in the world despite the economic crisis, digitization and changes in cultural consumption habits having brought down its business by 30.8% since 2008. However, the sector is looking to this year's Liber Fair with some optimism, given the positive trend since 2014 in the recovery of Spain's book market and the good performance of exports in recent years.

In the words of the Chairman of Liber and the FGEE, Daniel Fernández: "The Fair will help us sound out the Spanish market, learn about the challenges we are up against as an industry and further our commitment to the international expansion of book sector companies' business, particularly in Latin America. Liber is also a space for reflection and debate on future challenges, and it provides visibility for a sector representing our country's leading cultural industry."

The Spanish language is thriving, with 567 million speakers worldwide, providing the book industry with major future projection and business opportunities. Liber is an efficient tried-and-tested export platform for the Spanish publishing industry, and this year it has directly selected and invited 500 key international buyers and consumer motivators from 60 different countries to take part in business meetings with the exhibiting companies. These business missions are backed by ICEX España Exportación e Inversiones, the Financial and Commercial Offices abroad and Acción Cultural Española (AC/E) through the Programme for the Internationalisation of Spanish Culture (PICE) in the Visitors category.

Visitors include a delegation of librarians from the USA, a country that will have the largest number of Spanish speakers in the world in three or four generations' time, according to the Instituto Cervantes. 

The most represented sector at the Liber Fair is that of publishing companies and entities, who will showcase innovations in numerous areas and will account for over 80% of the exhibitors. There will also be group participation from different publishers from Andalusia, Catalonia, the Valencian Community, Madrid, the Basque Country and Castilla-León, through the professional associations and guilds of their Autonomous Communities. Another important group participation will be that of publishers specialising in religious books, a sector accounting for 3.7% of all books published in Spain. 

The "Liber Micro" area will also form part of the Fair again this year, to allow the attendance of small publishers, service providers, start-ups and entrepreneurs that have been on the market for under three years or have less than six employees, as it was previously difficult for them to participate in an event of this type. Six companies will attend the Fair in this category.

The rest of the participants will be service providers, distributors, professional associations, bodies and institutions, literary agents and graphic arts companies. In addition to Spanish companies there will also be firms from the USA, India, Italy, South Korea, Latvia, Russia, Czech Republic, Mexico and the Netherlands.

Read full press release here 

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