A parterre de roi made up of the flower of national and international literature. Four hundred events in which to listen to authors, attend dialogues, debates and readings. Over 484 exhibitors who will present their novelties. For its first 20 years, the National Fair of Small and Medium Publishing ‘More books more free’, chaired by Annamaria Malato and directed by Fabio Del Giudice, offers a rich and varied program. A calendar of events, curated by Silvia Barbagallo, which ranges from the environment to current events and journalism, passing through shows, meetings for operators in the sector organized in the Professional Pole, the graphic novel and an ad hoc program for children and lads. All in the name of the main theme of the 2021 edition, ‘Freedom’.
Forced to stop in 2020, due to the health emergency, the Roman fair returns to the Nuvola di Fuksas from 4 to 8 December. Days full of events during which many voices of the literature of recent years will alternate, including that of the Nobel Prize winner Mario Vargas Llosa, that of Melania Mazzucco, Maurizio De Giovanni, Fernando Savater, Francesco Piccolo and Nadia Terranova. To celebrate the milestone of the twenty editions, all the guests who will alternate have been asked to donate a volume that in some way helped them to free themselves. Gifts, each with a particular dedication, which will be offered to the 17 Institutes for Juvenile Justice in the Community. Gemma Tuccillo, head of the Department of the Ministry of Justice, will take charge of them during a ceremony, moderated by the journalist Alessandra Sardoni, which will be attended by the writer Gianrico Carofiglio.
“More books More free – said the president of the AIE, Ricardo Franco Levi during today’s presentation at the Temple of Hadrian in Rome – is the Fair of the Italian Publishers Association. Indeed, it is the only Fair owned and organized by 20 years of the AIE because small and medium publishing is an essential component of the world of books “. Levi then donated his book to the Fair, the one he read “first to my grandchildren, long before they learned to read. There are few things more exciting, engaging and beautiful than accompanying a child in the discovery of reading. The volume. it’s called ‘Tararì Tararera’ “.
“The Fair – underlined the director general of the Italian Publishers Association, Fabio Del Giudice – has become a fantastic cultural platform, not virtual but physical based on contents. For five days we will talk about culture in an extended sense at 360 degrees, or rather about humanistic and scientific culture, culture for children, sociology and national and international political culture. Today independent publishing is worth about 50% of the market “, added Del Giudice.
And precisely in terms of numbers, it should be remembered that the sphere of small and medium-sized publishers records growth in terms of market shares, although publishers have decreased. In 2020 there were 4,748 down by 2.2% compared to 2019 and publishers, 116, who published between 61 and 100 titles per year, decreased by 14.7%. However, the market share continues to increase: sales at the cover price of small and medium publishing in the trade channels amounted to 42%, a slow but steady increase compared to 39.8% in 2017.
Not only that: small and medium publishing in Italy employs 8,590 people (excluding collaborators and consultants) and the value of sales at cover prices in the trade channels exceeded 600 million for the first time in 2020 (600.6, in growth of 0.9% compared to 2019). To return to the initiatives of the Fair, another novelty awaits the readers who will flock to the Cloud of Eur: for the first time the Auditorium will open to the public, an evocative space in the heart of the building designed by Fuksas, which will host a series of special events.
In collaboration with ‘More books more free’, Eur Spa will present, within its cultural and artistic season Eur Culture for Rome, ‘Mamma Carissima – Unpublished letters from the Camilleri archive’, the latest unpublished work by the writer from Porto Empedocle , in a reading by Luca Zingaretti who will also sign the direction. The correspondence of the young Camilleri with his parents Giuseppe and Carmela Fragapane, which constitutes a unique and unpublished source on the writer’s life, will close the Fair and will be opened by Maurizio de Giovanni with a memory of the Sicilian narrator.
The Lazio Region is also supporting the Fair, represented at Hadrian’s Temple by the Councilor for Economic Development Paolo Orneli who confirmed support for independent bookshops and small publishing houses for 2022 as well. It is, he explained, “500 thousand euros that we willingly invest because this means multiplying the small but precious initiatives that these extraordinary places, not only from an economic point of view, represent for our cities. We are also working on the second edition of the call to support green and digital investments by bookstores, cinemas and theaters by investing again 3 million euros. We will restore the fund to finance the translations of literary works to provide a concrete tool for small publishing houses to internationalize “.
Finally, among the scheduled appointments, worthy of mention is the tribute to Pier Paolo Pasolini, whose centenary will be celebrated in a few months, and which will see Ascanio Celestini as the protagonist in dialogue with the new Councilor for Culture of Rome Miguel Gotor. The professional meetings will instead be opened by the presentation of the survey ‘Small and medium publishing between 2019 and 2020. Is it enough to say indie?’.