With 2018 edition, the Rome book fair Più Libri Più Liberi, dedicated to small and medium publishers, continues to develop its international dimension through the collaboration with Aldus.

The renovated Rights Centre, that is part of the brand new Business Centre designed by AIE in collaboration with Aldus, will be hosting on 5th and 6th December a number of B2B meetings among around 30 publishers and literary agents from 21 countries (Canada, China, Colombia, Czech Republic, Egypt, France, Germany, Indonesia, Japan, Lithuania, Mexico, Norway, Portugal, Rumania, Russia, Spain, Sweden, Turkey, Ukraine, United Kingdom, USA), that will be presented with the top-class books from the small and medium Italian publishing sector to be translated in their own countries.

Moreover, during the new thematic Fellowship programme, on December 3rd and 4th a small group of foreign publishers will be involved in a tour of publishing companies and book shops organised in cooperation with Bologna Children’s Book Fair, thus focussing their visit on children’s books and comics.

Following a new approach in designing the professional programme that has been experimented in this edition of the book fair, Aldus will introduce the 2018 edition of the programme for book professionals with a truly European initiative: on 5 December at 14.30, the international conference “Sfide comuni”(“Common Challenges”, simultaneous translation available) will address the challenges faced by small-medium publishers following up the transformation of the production and distribution system due to the growth of e-commerce and the raise of e-books and audiobooks. A panel of European  publishers from UK, Spain and France will talk about the impact of such evolution, how they reacted and innovate their practices to embrace the change.

This conference will open a series of three coordinated meetings centred around distribution and promotion in bookshops (6th-7th-8th December).

On 6th December (10h30), “I piccoli editori e le politiche d’acquisto delle catene editoriali” will be a meeting with buyers from the main Italian distribution chains to discuss strategies to enhance visibility of small medium publishers.

On 7th December (10h30), representatives from leading players operating in the promotion of books from will analyse current practices, criticalities and aspects to be improved in “Troppe novità da presentare? I piccoli editori e la promozione”.

On 8th December (11h30) the final meeting “Che fare? Alcune proposte per la piccola e media editoria per migliorare la sua visibilità e le sue vendite in libreria”  will present possibile paths to develop together with buyers, bookshops and the promotion network to improve visibility, particularly in brick-and-mortar book stores.

As far as other Aldus events in the professional programme, the event “Perché l’editoria italiana piace sempre di più all’estero?” (6th December, 16h30) will start from the latest data on translation rights exchange from Italian publishers to foreign publishers, to explore other aspects of internationalisation,  from co-editions to design and production of books for foreign publishers.

On 8th December (10h30) book bloggers meet publishers. Two coordinated events dedicated to book bloggers will take place at 10h30 and 14h30: in the first open seminar “Blogger X Voi” publishers will have the opportunity to meet bloggers during one-to-one meetings in the speed date format “I blogger letterari e gli editori come punto di riferimento di una community” focus on the role of book bloggers in books promotion.

Toto celebrate the 10th anniversary of the European Union Prize of Literature , on 6th December (11h30) the fair will host the EUPL event “10 anni di Premio letterario dell’Unione Europea. Quando le istituzioni europee incontrano la cultura” with EUPL winners Magdalena Parys and Faruk Sehic, whose books have been translated and published in Italy by Mimesis, and the journalist Gabriele Santoro. The event is organised by Aldus and EUPL partner FEP – Federation of European Publishers and Mimesis.

Through these and other initiatives that will be held during the exhibition, Più Libri Più Liberi aims at becoming an international hub and incubator of innovative ideas and knowledge sharing among small and medium publishers, with the support and collaboration of Aldus for the design of the professional programme of the fair.