EIBF co-signs statement demanding transparency on Generative AI

Artificial Intelligence

On the occasion of the Frankfurt Book Fair, the European Writers’ Council (EWC), the Federation of European Publishers (FEP) and the European and International Booksellers Federation (EIBF) call upon the European co-legislators to seize the opportunity of the AI Act to take decisive action to ensure the transparency of generative Artificial Intelligence (AI) and make it safer for European citizens

Generative AI models have been developed in an opaque and unfair way, illegally making use of millions of copyright-protected books without permission from authors or publishers. This practice impacts negatively not only rightsholders, but also democracy itself, by facilitating the mass creation of misleading, biased, and even dangerous content which has the potential to undermine European democracy. Transparency is therefore essential to the development of a fair and safe AI ecosystem. The EU now has the ideal opportunity to take a leading role in protecting its citizens through the AI Act.

The European Parliament has taken a good first step by proposing transparency obligations for Foundation Models, such as ChatGPT or Bard, to ensure they provide a detailed summary of the copyright-protected works used for training and operate in respect of fundamental rights. Member States and the Commission must now seize this rare opportunity to improve the proposal and finally put an end to the illegal sourcing and data-laundering abuses of generative AI developers. Transparency over inputs to AI is the only way to ensure quality and legitimacy of outputs.

Meaningful transparency obligations allowing a rightsholder to assess whether their work was used are easy for the innovative AI operators to comply with. They are technologically simple to apply and rely on data that AI developers already collect and organise. And they are needed now, as damage is already done since existing generative text models used works since years without consent, credit or compensation to the authors and publishers. On the 19th of October, FEP will dedicate its Rendez-Vous at the Frankfurt Book Fair to the impact of AI on the sector, the necessary legislative action, and how authors, booksellers and publishers may take steps towards protecting their works in the context of Text and Data Mining (TDM).

Read our full statement attached.

EIBF at the 75th Frankfurt Book Fair

2023 EIBF Conference

EIBF is back from another -the 75th!- edition of the Frankfurt Book Fair (FBF). Keep reading to discover some of the highlights of our participation this year at the biggest book fair in the world. 

Opening ceremony 

The 2023 edition of the Frankfurt Book Fair kicked off, as every year, with an opening ceremony at the Congress Centre of the Frankfurter Messe. 

This year’s FBF marked a significant 75th anniversary of the world’s largest trade book fair, which was celebrated with an opening video that evoked some key moments in the history of this event. 

In front of a well-attended auditorium, the ceremony was joined by high-profile figures, including the German minister for Culture, Claudia Roth; the mayor of Frankfurt, Mike Josef; the director of the Frankfurter Buchmesse, Juergen Boos, and Karin Schmidt-Friderichs, Chairwoman of the German Publishers & Booksellers Association (Börsenverein). 

Slovenia, with its slogan ‘Honeycomb of words’, was the guest of honour country in the present edition of the fair, a role that was celebrated on stage by the President of Slovenia, Nataša Pirc Musar. Representing the country’s literary talent, the opening ceremony welcomed onstage the poet Miljana Cunta and the renowned Slovenian philosopher Slavoj Žižek. 

Following a controversial speech from Žižek that, primarily addressing the Israel-Hamas war, prompted interruptions from part of the audience, Mr. Boos went back onstage to point out the Book Fair’s function as a place where freedom and tolerance have a central role. After that, Ms. Schmidt-Friderichs declared the 75th-anniversary edition of Frankfurter Buchmesse open. 

 

EIBF Team 2023 FBF​The now traditional group photo of the entire EIBF Secretariat team, following the opening ceremony of the 75th Frankfurter Buchmesse

Day 1 

The first day at the fair started for the EIBF team with an agenda full of meetings and events with various stakeholders. 

In the morning, we had the opportunity to attend a presentation on the European book market statistics of 2022, an event from our colleagues at the Federation of European Publishers (FEP).

 

FEP data presentation 2023 FBF

Ricardo Franco Levi, FEP President, and Enrico Turin, FEP Deputy Director and Economist, announced that total turnover for the analysed markets in 2022 experienced a +1.3% from 2021. The data also presented a rebound in sales from bookshops, which grew their share as the main distribution channel for book sales. 

The morning continued with several meetings and events, including the opening of the Bulgarian stand at the fair. 

On Wednesday afternoon, EIBF's Policy Advisor Daniel Martín Brennan, joined a panel discussion at the International Publishers Association (IPA)'s 3rd Sustainability Summit. Daniel went through some initiatives from the RISE Bookselling project, explaining how sustainability is at their very core and a cross-cutting priority (the “S” stands for Sustainability after all!). For instance, the Industry Insights on Book Returns is a unique resource that sheds light on the returns dynamics across different book markets, exploring what works, what doesn’t, how sustainable these practices actually are and how we can make the process more efficient and with a lower environmental impact.

 

IPA 3rd Sustainability Summit​EIBF's Policy Advisor Daniel Martín Brennan, at the 3rd Sustainability Summit, organized by IPA in Frankfurt

 

At the same time, the Frankfurt Studio was home to an event with winners of the European Union Prize for Literature (EUPL), where Jasmin B. Frelih, 2016 winner from Slovenia, and the 2022 winner, Georgian author Iva Pezuashvili, sat down and discussed with Martina Vidaić, the winner of the present edition of the EUPL. 

 

EUPL 2023 FBF​The European Union Prize for Literature winners Jasmin B. Frelih (2016, Slovenia), Martina Vidaic (2023, Croatia), and Iva Pezuashvili (2022, Georgia) at the Frankfurt Studio. Image: Johannes Minkus / Publishing Perspectives

 

Later that day, we listened in to the event “From Inclusion to Innovation: How Accessibility is Transforming the Book Value Chain” to get up to date with initiatives within the book sector and upcoming European legislation on accessibility. Most highlighted was the European Accessibility Act, an EU Directive coming to force in June 2025, obliging products and services to be accessible to people with various forms of disabilities. In the book world, this directive will apply primarily to e-books and retailers’ websites. 

To complete this eventful first day, EIBF celebrated the traditional dinner with members, ahead of the Annual Conference. This evening was an occasion to celebrate a year especially significant for EIBF, as it saw the 1st RISE Bookselling Conference, held in Prague last March. 

 

EIBF FBF dinner 2023

 

Day 2 

The second day at the Frankfurt Book Fair started with the 2023 EIBF Annual Conference, gathering most of our members, as well as new partners, booksellers and representatives of the book industry from across the world. 

 

2023 EIBF Conference

 

The programme kicked off with a keynote speech by bookseller and EIBF’s Executive Committee member Iris Hunscheid, who shared the innovative contributions of MVB’s Lesemotive, an AI tool that helps booksellers arrange their store based on customers’ reading rationales. 

On behalf of the guest of honour country, Slovenian literary agent Zala Zagorsek Golob, member of the independent publishing house VigeVageKnjige, offered a fascinating take on the book market in her country. 

The audience was also able to listen to a panel session on the topic of banned books in the US, in which booksellers Kate Layte (Papercuts Bookshop, Boston, MA) and Cheryl Lee (44th & 3rd Bookseller in Atlanta, GA) sat down with EIBF’s Policy Advisor, Daniel Martín Brennan, to exchange views on this urgent issue that underscores big concerns about freedom of expression in the country. 

After a short break, the conference welcomed onstage Georg Haeusler, Director of Culture, Creativity and Sport at DG EAC, European Commission, who delivered an address to the book sector, praising its role as an essential contributor to the sharing of knowledge and culture across countries. 

 

Georg Haeusler​Georg Haeusler, Director of Culture, Creativity and Sport at DG EAC, European Commission, during his address at the 2023 EIBF Conference

 

Hazel Kenyon, Director of Book Research at NielsenIQ, was in charge of offering an exhaustive analysis of the book trends that are currently gaining traction around the world, paying particular attention to the direction in which these trends might indicate the market is heading. 

Finally, the EIBF conference also gave space to this year’s Frankfurt Book Fair International Translators Programme, with a panel session that explores the often overlooked role that translators play in bringing literature closer to other cultures. This panel was moderated by John Mutter, editor-in-chief at Shelf Awareness, and featured Sulagna Mukhopadhyay, a translator and teacher from India, and Tiya Hapitiawati, translator and acquisition editor at the publisher Moooi Pustaka, in Indonesia. 

Next up was the EIBF’s General Assembly, where we presented an overview of EIBF’s policy and communications activities over the past year. The GA also served as an opportunity to present the different calls to action from RISE Bookselling’s campaign on ‘Reviving the high street’. 

In parallel to this, EIBF also facilitated a meeting with different bookselling schools from around Europe. Representatives from L’École de la Librairie (France), Scuola Librai Italiani (Italy), Fundación Germán Sánchez Ruiperez (Spain) and MediaCampus Frankfurt (Germany), exchanged views on how the bookselling profession is formally trained in their respective countries, and laid the groundworks for a more regular collaboration, aimed at sharing information and best practices with each other to improve the professionalization of the next generation of booksellers.  

 

Bookselling schools 2023 FBF​Representatives from various bookselling schools from all around Europe, after their first meeting in Frankfurt

After these two days of relentless meetings and events, that was another edition of the Frankfurt Book Fair under the belt of the EIBF team. Back in Brussels, it’s time to take stock of the key learnings of this experience and employ them to the best advantage in our future activities! 

EIBF runs campaign on Reviving the High Street through RISE Bookselling project

Campaign picture

This past month, from 3 October to 3 November, EIBF ran an awareness raising and communications campaign on Reviving the High Street through its flagship project, RISE Bookselling.

Booksellers and retailers working across European town centres and high streets are facing increasing challenges, from the growth of online retail and the closure of retail spaces to soaring overhead costs and insufficient investment in local infrastructure. Now more than ever, they need political leadership, investment and support.

Through the ‘Reviving the High Street’ campaign run on the RISE Bookselling social media channels, 9 calls to action were presented, with practical and concrete measures to guide local political stakeholders in their efforts to support, protect and reinvest in their town’s high streets and ensure that local businesses remain viable, thriving and resilient spaces for all to enjoy, both now and in the near future.

Calls to Action

 

Each social media post raised awareness about an individual call to action, explained by a bookseller in an engaging video or through a video infographic, adding context, additional real-life examples and resources.

The campaign was supported by booksellers from all over Europe and endorsed by EIBF members at the recent Frankfurt Book Fair, as well as some Members of the European Parliament (MEPs).

 

EIBF GA - Reviving the High Street

 

 

For more information, take a look at the RISE Bookselling website, where you will find all the campaign material, including:

  • RISE Report on Buying Local and Reviving the High Street
  • 2-pager with Calls to Action
  • 4 videos from booksellers and bookseller professionals
  • 5 video infographics

Last but certainly not least, don’t forget to #BookShopLocally!

EIBF Position on Late Payment Regulation Proposal

Late Payment

Last 12th September, the European Commission presented a proposal for a Regulation to combat late payment in commercial transactions. The proposal will replace the current Directive by, among other changes, imposing a strict payment cap of 30 days between all Business-to-Business (B2B) transactions without flexibility or exception.

EIBF is the voice of booksellers in the European Union and globally. EIBF’s members are national Booksellers Associations, which represent all kinds of book retailers, a majority of those being small and medium-sized independent and family-owned bookshops. As representatives of SME retailers, EIBF welcomes the proposal and its aim to address what is a serious issue for many businesses across Europe: late or even no payment for their services. 

However, EIBF is concerned by its likely negative impact on the sector and calls for the recognition of essential flexible payment terms for certain trade sectors working with slow-moving and seasonal goods, particularly the book sector. EIBF stresses that this proposal should not come at the expense of certain SMEs and their sectorial business models, where long payments terms are not late payments and are both desirable and necessary for the sector’s basic financial, logistical and operational structure. This is the case for the book sector, where long payment terms are essential to keep an optimal stock rotation throughout the year, while guaranteeing a healthy cash flow for bookshops and ensuring consumer needs are met. 

Our position

There are several concerning points in the legislative proposal that may severely impact the bookselling trade, given its unique business model and the particular rotation and shelf life of a book as a cultural product.

  1. One size does not fit all
  2. Sector specificities and particular business models need to be considered 
  3. Flexible payment terms are an integrant part of the freedom to contract 
  4. Books are slow-moving and slow-selling products
  5. Long payment is not late payment
  6. Shorter payment terms mean less liquidity for bookshops
  7. Uncertainty for trade outside EU

Our asks

For small business owners in the bookselling sector who rely on flexible and long payment terms as an integral part of the business model, a 30-day cap for invoice payment with no flexibility or exception would have catastrophic consequences. Taking the points presented above into consideration, and given the unique structure of the trade and the specificity of books as a slow-moving product, EIBF asks for the book sector to be exempted from the Regulation’s obligations.

See our full position paper attached.

New research paper on E-commerce platforms published by EIBF’s RISE Bookselling

Industry Insights E-commerce RISE Bookselling

Through RISE Bookselling, the three-year EU co-funded project run by EIBF, we have published a research paper that presents e-commerce platforms dedicated entirely to independent booksellers in three different countries: Libris in the Netherlands, Todostuslibros in Spain and IndieCommerce in the United States. This report is the third volume of a series of research papers called Industry Insights, investigating priority topics for the bookselling sector. 

Until recently, online sales only represented a moderate share of the revenues of many independent bookshops; the physical shop was still, uncontestably, the main outlet. However, the global COVID-19 pandemic, during which shops were forced to close and people to stay at home, provided a shrill wake-up call for many booksellers of the benefits of having an online shop. Moreover, the pandemic also made customers more aware of how their spending habits could actively support the local commerce. 

As a response, e-commerce platforms for independent bookshops experienced a surge of new bookshops signing on. Through these platforms, small, indie bookshops were able to access the online market space with relatively little means at a crucial time. Now, in post-pandemic times, customers have returned to their local brick-and-mortar shops, but online sales continue to make up a significant part of independent bookshops’ revenues. 

To showcase different approaches to e-commerce options for independent bookshops, this research paper spotlights three platforms from different countries: Libris in the Netherlands, Todostuslibros in Spain and IndieCommerce in the USA. Throughout the report, these platforms are analysed as case studies, providing valuable insights into existing online solutions for independent bookshops around the world.  

The Industry Insights on E-commerce platforms, as well as the two previous papers – on Returns and Culture vouchers – are available on the RISE Bookselling website

 

What are Industry Insights?  

RISE Industry Insights is a series of research papers that investigating priority topics for the bookselling sector. They give insights into key issues, policy reforms and other external initiatives that affect the bookselling sector. In addition, they provide network members with tools to engage with relevant political stakeholders, culture sector professionals and private sector representatives to ensure that their priorities are adequately upheld and supported.  

The Industry Insights are produced by Daniel Martín Brennan and Tora Åsling, Policy Advisor and Policy Officer respectively at the European and International Booksellers Federation (EIBF).  

What is RISE Bookselling?  

‘Resilience, Innovation and Sustainability for the Enhancement of Bookselling’, or RISE Bookselling in short, aims to upscale, reinforce and maximise the capacity and resilience of the European bookselling sector. The project helps bookshops innovate and stay up to date with new trends and technologies to ensure their long-term sustainability. This three-year programme is organised by EIBF and co-funded by the Creative Europe programme of the European Union.

International book sector urges Sri Lankan Government to reconsider 18% VAT on imported books

logos

The European and International Booksellers Federation (EIBF) and the International Publishers Association (IPA) have expressed their concern about the imposition of an 18% tariff on books imported into Sri Lanka.

In letters to both the Sri Lankan government and the International Monetary Fund, the international organisations express their belief that the policy may contravene Sri Lanka’s commitments under the Florence Agreement and urge the Sri Lankan government to reconsider the tax hike.

EIBF represents the Ceylon Importers and Exporters Booksellers Association and IPA represents the Sri Lanka Book Publishers Association (SLBPA). Both associations have worked together to explain the catastrophic consequences that such a tariff will have on the country’s book sector and dissuade the government from adopting the policy. EIBF and IPA stand in solidarity with their Sri Lankan colleagues and urge the government to reconsider this measure for the benefit of the Sri Lankan literary landscape.

Karine Pansa, IPA President said: "While we acknowledge that certain fiscal policies are necessary in times of financial difficulties, we do not believe that cultural products, including books, should be subject to such measures. Tariffs should not be imposed on books, regardless of format, because of their key role in ensuring the success of education, literacy and cultural development policies in all countries. Books, whether for adults or children, provide the basis of reading skills, curiosity, comprehension and individual enterprise, all of which contribute to a country’s sustained socio-economic growth"

Fabian Paagman, EIBF Co-President added: "Replacing an exemption with a significant tariff on imported books will immediately cause Sri Lankan booksellers to reduce or cease imports of books. Combined with the high prices of books due to the devaluation of the rupee, this can only have negative impacts by reducing access to books, increasing prices for consumers, and incentivizing piracy to the detriment of domestic publishing"

It is understood that the Sri Lankan government’s recently adopted proposal to introduce new VAT measures and remove exemptions for books are being implemented to comply with International Monetary Fund (IMF) fiscal obligations.

Sri Lanka is a signatory and States Party to the UNESCO Florence Agreement on the importation of educational, scientific and cultural materials, whereby the countries involved commit to not impose customs duties on certain educational, scientific, and cultural materials that are imported. The removal of books from the list of VAT exemptions seems entirely at odds with the country’s commitment under the Florence Agreement.

See our full statement attached.

EIBF at the Guadalajara Book Fair

EIBF FIL

With the European Union as the Guest of Honour of the Guadalajara International Book Fair in Mexico, EIBF was in attendance of Latin America’s largest book trade event. Keep reading to get a feel for the experience! 


The city of Guadalajara in Mexico is home to the International Book Fair of Guadalajara (FIL), the world’s largest book trade fair for the Spanish-speaking market. For the 2023 edition of the FIL, held between 25th November and 3rd December 2023, the European Union was the Guest of Honour, with a whole programme of discussions, panels, author talks, and other activities tailored to European literature. 

In this context, it seemed adequate for EIBF and its different projects to be represented in Guadalajara. This responsibility was bestowed upon Policy Advisor Daniel Martín Brennan and Content and Communications Officer Álvaro Martínez, who travelled to Mexico to present EIBF’s activities to a Latin American audience, as well as to set up new links with different key stakeholders in these markets. The two of them also participated in the International Booksellers Forum programme, integrated in the portfolio of activities of the Guadalajara Book Fair. 

Before venturing into the fair, Daniel and Álvaro had the opportunity to meet in Mexico City with Claudia Bautista, President of the Network of Independent Bookshops of Mexico (RELI). Thanks to this meeting, they were able to get a glimpse of how the Mexican bookselling market functions, and also to visit some of Mexico City’s most fascinating bookshops, like the state-of-the-art building of Cafebrería El Péndulo, in the neighbourhood of San Ángel, or Coyoacán's bookshop U-Tópicas, a referent in the curation of feminist literature. 

utoppendulo


Already in Guadalajara, the agenda kicked off on Sunday 26th at the Librería Carlos Fuentes, co-organizer with the FIL of the International Booksellers Forum. There, Daniel took part in a panel discussion ‘Initiatives that have made a difference’, joined by Claudia Inés Cañas, President of the Association of Independent Colombian Booksellers (ACLI) and Isabelle Lemarchand, President of the International Association of Francophone Bookshops (AILF). Thanks to this panel, Daniel could offer an overview of the different projects that EIBF has implemented to protect and give impulse to the sector, such as EIBF’s Freedom of Expression Charter and the RISE Bookselling programme


Daniel FIL

From Monday, the programme moved entirely to the Guadalajara Expo, the main venue of the FIL and the backdrop of the rest of the fair. As part of the EU’s guest of honour strand of activities, the European Union Prize for Literature (EUPL), co-organized by EIBF and FEP (the Federation of European Publishers) contributed to the programme with several discussions with international authors awarded with the prize over the years. All these sessions reinforced the diversity of European voices that has defined the ethos of the award since its inception and were a great platform for the authors to have their work presented to a Spanish-speaking audience. 

EUPL FIL

All these discussions were moderated by the Spanish author Jacobo Bergareche, Special Mention in the 2022 EUPL, who was joined by the following authors: 

  • Monday 27 November: Tadhg Mac Dhonnagáin (Ireland, EUPL 2022), Stavros Christodoulou (Cyprus, EUPL 2020) 

  • Tuesday 28 November: Kallia Papadaki (Greece, EUPL 2017), Tatiana Țîbuleac (Romania, EUPL 2017), Jana Beňová (Slovakia, EUPL 2012) 

  • Wednesday 29 November: Carolina Schutti (Austria, EUPL 2015), Isabelle Wéry (Belgium, EUPL 2013), Nikos Chryssos (Greece, EUPL 2019), Haska Shyyan (Ukraine, EUPL 2019), Jacek Dukaj (Poland, EUPL 2009) 

To round up the participation in the International Booksellers Forum, Álvaro Martínez was part of a panel devoted to different bookselling networks and associations from around the world, joined by representatives from Colombia (ACLI), Mexico (RELI), Peru (APLI) and France (AILF). This session offered a very insightful dialogue, allowing to understand the challenges that booksellers in different regions face and paving the way for further cooperation between networks from all over the world towards the goal of bringing the sector forward. 

Alvaro FIL

All in all, this was a unique opportunity for EIBF, from which surely new routes of collaboration will stem.

EIBF at the 75th Frankfurt Book Fair

EIBF Annual Conference 2023

EIBF is back from another -the 75th!- edition of the Frankfurt Book Fair *FBF(. Keep reading to discover some of the highlights of our participation this year at the biggest book fair in the world. 

Opening ceremony 

The 2023 edition of the Frankfurt Book Fair kicked off, as every year, with an opening ceremony at the Congress Centre of the Frankfurter Messe. 

This year’s FBF marked a significant 75th anniversary of the world’s largest trade book fair, which was celebrated with an opening video that evoked some key moments in the history of this event. 

In front of a well-attended auditorium, the ceremony was joined by high-profile figures, including the German minister for Culture, Claudia Roth; the mayor of Frankfurt, Mike Josef; the director of the Frankfurter Buchmesse, Juergen Boos, and Karin Schmidt-Friderichs, Chairwoman of the German Publishers & Booksellers Association (Börsenverein). 

Slovenia, with its slogan ‘Honeycomb of words’, was the guest of honour country in the present edition of the fair, a role that was celebrated on stage by the President of Slovenia, Nataša Pirc Musar. Representing the country’s literary talent, the opening ceremony welcomed onstage the poet Miljana Cunta and the renowned Slovenian philosopher Slavoj Žižek. 

Following a controversial speech from Žižek that, primarily addressing the Israel-Hamas war, prompted interruptions from part of the audience, Mr. Boos went back onstage to point out the Book Fair’s function as a place where freedom and tolerance have a central role. After that, Ms. Schmidt-Friderichs declared the 75th-anniversary edition of Frankfurter Buchmesse open. 

 

 

Day 1 

 

The first day at the fair started for the EIBF team with an agenda full of meetings and events with various stakeholders. 

In the morning, we had the opportunity to attend a presentation on the European book market statistics of 2022, an event from our colleagues at the Federation of European Publishers (FEP). 

Ricardo Franco Levi, FEP President, and Enrico Turin, FEP Deputy Director and Economist, announced that total turnover for the analysed markets in 2022 experienced a +1.3% from 2021. The data also presented a rebound in sales from bookshops, which grew their share as the main distribution channel for book sales. 

The morning continued with several meetings and events, including the opening of the Bulgarian stand at the fair. 

On Wednesday afternoon, EIBF's Policy Advisor Daniel Martín Brennan, joined a panel discussion at the International Publishers Association (IPA)'s 3rd Sustainability Summit. Daniel went through some initiatives from the RISE Bookselling project, explaining how sustainability is at their very core and a cross-cutting priority (the “S” stands for Sustainability after all!). For instance, the Industry Insights on Book Returns is a unique resource that sheds light on the returns dynamics across different book markets, exploring what works, what doesn’t, how sustainable these practices actually are and how we can make the process more efficient and with a lower environmental impact. 

At the same time, the Frankfurt Studio was home to an event with winners of the European Union Prize for Literature (EUPL), where Jasmin B. Frelih, 2016 winner from Slovenia, and the 2022 winner, Georgian author Iva Pezuashvili, sat down and discussed with Martina Vidaić, the winner of the present edition of the EUPL. 

Later that day, we listened in to the event “From Inclusion to Innovation: How Accessibility is Transforming the Book Value Chain” to get up to date with initiatives within the book sector and upcoming European legislation on accessibility. Most highlighted was the European Accessibility Act, an EU Directive coming to force in June 2025, obliging products and services to be accessible to people with various forms of disabilities. In the book world, this directive will apply primarily to e-books and retailers’ websites. 

To complete this eventful first day, EIBF celebrated the traditional dinner with members, ahead of the Annual Conference. This evening was an occasion to celebrate a year especially significant for EIBF, as it saw the 1st RISE Bookselling Conference, held in Prague last March. 

 

Day 2 

 

The second day at the Frankfurt Book Fair started with the 2023 EIBF Annual Conference, gathering most of our members, as well as new partners, booksellers and representatives of the book industry from across the world. 

 

The programme kicked off with a keynote speech by bookseller and EIBF’s Executive Committee member Iris Hunscheid, who shared the innovative contributions of MVB’s Lesemotive, an AI tool that helps booksellers arrange their store based on customers’ reading rationales. 

On behalf of the guest of honour country, Slovenian literary agent Zala Zagorsek Golob, member of the independent publishing house VigeVageKnjige, offered a fascinating take on the book market in her country. 

The audience was also able to listen to a panel session on the topic of banned books in the US, in which booksellers Kate Layte (Papercuts Bookshop, Boston, MA) and Cheryl Lee (44th & 3rd Bookseller in Atlanta, GA) sat down with EIBF’s Policy Advisor, Daniel Martín Brennan, to exchange views on this urgent issue that underscores big concerns about freedom of expression in the country. 

After a short break, the conference welcomed onstage Georg Haeusler, Director of Culture, Creativity and Sport at DG EAC, European Commission, who delivered an address to the book sector, praising its role as an essential contributor to the sharing of knowledge and culture across countries. 

Hazel Kenyon, Director of Book Research at NielsenIQ, was in charge of offering an exhaustive analysis of the book trends that are currently gaining traction around the world, paying particular attention to the direction in which these trends might indicate the market is heading. 

Finally, the EIBF conference also gave space to this year’s Frankfurt Book Fair International Translators Programme, with a panel session that explores the often overlooked role that translators play in bringing literature closer to other cultures. This panel was moderated by John Mutter, editor-in-chief at Shelf Awareness, and featured Sulagna Mukhopadhyay, a translator and teacher from India, and Tiya Hapitiawati, translator and acquisition editor at the publisher Moooi Pustaka, in Indonesia. 

Next up was the EIBF’s General Assembly, where we presented an overview of EIBF’s policy and communications activities over the past year. The GA also served as an opportunity to present the different calls to action from RISE Bookselling’s campaign on ‘Reviving the high street’. 

In parallel to this, EIBF also facilitated a meeting with different bookselling schools from around Europe. Representatives from L’École de la Librairie (France), Scuola Librai Italiani (Italy), Fundación Germán Sánchez Ruiperez (Spain) and MediaCampus Frankfurt (Germany), exchanged views on how the bookselling profession is formally trained in their respective countries, and laid the groundworks for a more regular collaboration, aimed at sharing information and best practices with each other to improve the professionalization of the next generation of booksellers.  

After these two days of relentless meetings and events, that was another edition of the Frankfurt Book Fair under the belt of the EIBF team. Back in Brussels, it’s time to take stock of the key learnings of this experience and employ them to the best advantage in our future activities!