Piu Libri Piu Liberi Book Fair, Rome 2014
Yesterday I had an awesome morning at the Piu Libri Piu Liberi book fair here in Rome, Italy. Unfortunately I only managed to stay for a few hours as I'm not well at the moment but it was worth it. Now have loads of new ideas and feel motivated to get some work done (health allowing). Even got an offer from a publisher.
The big debate of this years event was over ebooks. The speeches given, and recent statistics, all show a huge increase in the use of tablets for reading here in Italy and a significant push in that direction. That said, I spoke to some small publishers who only publish in print and have no interest in embracing this "new" way of reading. Whilst I admire them for making a stand for their beliefs, I couldn't help but feel like they were shooting themselves in the foot. How can a publisher NOT do epublishing and still survive especially when they are a small press?
According to the stats, 1 in 3 families in Italy has a tablet and 82% of those are used by children. This takes me to the other big topic of the event... children's books. There was a clear increase in the number of stands offering children's books this year compared with last years event. During the speeches, several comments were made about the need and demand for more children's books. As a children's author, I was happy to see this growth within the Italian publishing industry and hope they continue to encourage young readers... whether by print or ebooks.
Here's a few photo's from the event:
 |
| Collecting my pass |
 |
| At the entrance |
 |
| With a copy of Jasmine at Work |
 |
| With a copy of Italian for Tourists |
 |
| With a copy of The Box |
 |
| Listening to the opening speeches |
 |
| During the opening speeches |
 |
| Fab abstract art displayed inside the venue |
 |
| My pass, program, and catalog |
 |
| Checking out some of the great children's books |
 |
During an interview for TV station Tele Ambiente
about using recycled paper to make books. |
 |
| Books, books, and more books :) |
 |
Christmas tree on the stand of publisher Book Salad
with mini book keyrings as decorations. |
 |
| More books. This stand had some great bilingual books for kids. |
 |
| At this stand they sold books by their weight. €5 per kg. |
 |
A small piece of the book fair can be seen behind me.
Also in this pic you'll see that I took my Italian for Tourists shopping bag
with me to carry all the handouts and do some subtle promoting ;) |
 |
| Script magnets! Love this. On my Christmas list. |
 |
| Literary mugs with quotes from books. |
 |
| Outside Palazzo Dei Congressi. |
.jpg)
