Sharjah International Book Fair witnessed a huge participation of more than 500 publishers and industry professionals from around 81 countries . The first day of the conference marked events and discussions on the present challenges and opportunities in the publishing industry.

HE Ahmed Bin Rakkad Al Ameri, Chairman of SBA, introduced the conference by stating the event’s main objective was to look at publishing in the most comprehensive manner, and from various perspectives, including that of the publisher, the reader, the author and the distributor. He said: “We in Sharjah are working on different levels to promote the publishing industry based on the feedback we have received over the years. Our success can be gauged by the fact that we have received 2,900 applications for the SIBF Translation Grant last year. We have also successfully translated 1,200 books in the past few years. Last year, 3,000 matchmaking meetings were held with the participation of more than 400 publishing experts from all over the world.”

Al Ameri added: “We are gathered here to engage in a dialogue about the future of the publishing industry and study strategies to promote the global book industry. We are working on expanding the horizons of the publishers, which will open out more markets for them, taking into account new technology.” 

Raccah noted that initiatives such as the SIBF Publishers Conference were key to a healthy publishing industry. “The global publishing industry today is better and healthier than ever before. We expected digitalization to take over the printed books industry, but the opposite has happened. The reason is that books perform a different role. We have seen that 25 percent of books sold are given as gifts. Children’s books keep growing year on year. Around 80 percent of the sales are of physical books. I could not have predicted this a decade back. Communities have played an extraordinary role in this renaissance. Publishers should seek out innovative ways of reaching out to their audience.”

The conference  focused on the latest publishing trends, emerging markets, digital strategies, threats and challenges to the industry.