Features

Save the date—trade fairs 2012

Taipei International Book Exhibition
1st to 6th February
Taipei City, Taiwan
Now celebrating its 20th year, the Taipei International Book Exhibition is one of Asia's largest book fairs, held annually in the Taipei World Trade Center. Last year's six-day fair saw an all-time record of more than 590,000 visitors, an increase of 12% on 2010. With over 700 events on the line-up, a total of 856 publishers and 450 writers from 59 countries visited TIBE 2011.

Organised by the Taipei Book Fair Foundation—formed by 18 Taiwanese publishers in 2004—the theme for this year's fair is Green Reading, which will showcase e-reading trends, environmental awareness, climate issues and eco-living related exhibitions from countries including Australia, France, Finland and Germany.

There are three halls: general books; comics; and children's books and special exhibits, which include the Asian Publishing Forum, the Digital Publishing Forum, the Librarian's Workshop, the Children's Literature Forum, the Editor's Workshop and the Copyright Workshop. Around 20% of titles published in Taiwan are translated from other languages (40% in children's and Young Adult), making it one of the most active rights fairs for English language books in Asia.

Paris Cookbook Fair
7th to 11th March
Paris, France
The world's biggest book fair devoted exclusively to cookery and drinks books returns for its third year, held at the Paris cultural centre Le 104. The 2011 event had more than 100 publisher exhibitors, with 30 companies occupying tables in its rights centre, and trade visitor numbers topped 8,000.

The brainchild of Edouard Cointreau—founder of Gourmand International and a scion of the Cointreau liqueur empire—this year's fair features China as the Guest of Honour. The cuisine of Brittany will be the French region under scrutiny this year, and beer will be the fair focus. President of Honour will be the Michelin-starred celebrity chef Michel Roux. In addition to the publisher hall, there will be two show kitchens with celebrity chefs cooking for the public, and an International Wine Bar for tastings.

The night before the fair, Gourmand will announce the worldwide winners of its prestigious Gourmand World Cook Book Awards (regional winners are announced in December) at a gala event at the Folies Bergère theatre.

Abu Dhabi International Book Fair
28th March to 2nd April
Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates
Running over six days, last year's Abu Dhabi International Book Fair hosted more than 150 events, with close to 900 exhibitors—turning it into the UAE's biggest book shop. This year the UK will be the Country of Focus.

The fair itself features a Show Kitchen, a Creativity Corner and an Education Chapter, as well as offering exhibitors a professional programme that aims to help generate contacts in the Middle East and North Africa region. The annual Spotlight on Rights stream will run again in 2012, supporting the translation of books by offering a subsidy of $1,000 to help with the costs of licensing rights to and from the Arabic language for each rights deal that is negotiated at the fair itself.

New for 2012 is the fair's Arab Rights Showcase, which will give publishers the opportunity to present up to five Arabic titles in an online catalogue and in the Business & Rights centre at the fair.

Book Expo America
5th to 7th June
New York City, USA
Book Expo America is the most important book fair in the US, and includes three days of exhibitions plus multiple conferences, including the two-day digital conference IDPF Digital Book Conference. BEA 2012 will feature a revamped and expanded Digital Zone—which is sponsored by IDPF—complete with a new networking lounge, networking happy hours and live streaming of select events, available online during and after the fair itself.

Held over two days, starting on 5th June, IDPF Digital Book covers topics such as e-books, tablet apps, multimedia, social integration and content clouds.

Russia will be the Country of Focus of BEA's Global Market Forum in 2012, with BEA figuring prominently in Read Russia 2012, the largest Russian initiative ever to promote Russian literature and Russian book culture in the US.

The 2011 conference reported a slight dip in attendance figures compared to 2010, with total attendance at 21,664, compared to 21,919 the previous year. However, in 2011, the BEA co-hosted the social media trade show BlogWorld, which actually bought numbers up to 23,067.

Sharjah International Book Fair
7th to 17th November
Sharjah, United Arab Emirates
This year marked the 30th anniversary of the Sharjah International Book Fair, which is held in the “undisputed cultural capital of the Arab world”, according to the organisers.
This 10-day annual event now draws more than 800 publishers, showcasing books from more than 40 nations and attracting over 400,000 visitors. Run by Sharjah's Department for Culture & Information, the fair's primary aim is promoting reading to younger generations through the availability of books at affordable prices.

With dedicated programmes split into three strands—professional, cultural and children's—the fair has seminars on multiple issues facing publishers, including distribution, as well as a closer look at Arab culture.

Global book fairs in 2012 at a glance:

25th January to 2nd February
Kolkata Book Fair
Kolkata, India
www.kolkatabookfaironline.com

26th to 29th January
International Comics Festival
Angoulême, France
www.bdangouleme.com

1st to 6th February
Taipei International Book Exhibition (TIBE)
www.tibe.org.tw

7th to 11th March
Gourmand International Paris Cookbook Fair
www.cookbookfair.com

16th to 19th March
Salon du Livre
Paris, France
www.salondulivreparis.com

19th to 22nd March
Bologna Children's Book Fair
www.bolognachildrensbookfair.com

28th March to 2nd April
Abu Dhabi International Book Fair
www.adbookfair.com

16th to 18th April
London Book Fair
www.londonbookfair.com

19th April to 7th May
Buenos Aires Book Fair
www.el-libro.org.ar

10th to 13th May
Warsaw International Book Fair
Warsaw, Poland
www.targi-ksiazki.waw.pl

5th to 7th June
BookExpo America
New York City, USA
www.bookexpoamerica.com

15th to 17th June
Cape Town Book Fair
Cape Town, South Africa
www.capetownbookfair.com

18th to 24th July
Hong Kong Book Fair
Hong Kong, China
hkbookfair.hktdc.com/en/

29th August to 2nd September
Beijing International Book Fair
Beijing, China
www.bibf.net

10th to 14th October
Frankfurt Book Fair
Frankfurt, Germany
www.buchmesse.de

7th to 17th November
Sharjah International Book Fair
Sharjah, UAE
www.sharjahbookfair.com

24th November to 2nd December
Guadalajara International Book Fair
Guadalajara, Mexico
www.fil.com.mx

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