Between June 29th and July 2nd, 2022, the Professional Days of the São Paulo International Book Fair will take place. The third edition of the initiative is promoted by Brazilian Publishers — a partnership between the Brazilian Book Chamber (CBL) and the Brazilian Trade and Investment Promotion Agency (ApexBrasil).
This year, the event will be, like the Book Fair, in person. The program, in addition to organizing the visit of representatives of 20 foreign publishers to Brazil for matchmaking sessions, also promotes discussion tables about the publishing market.
Fernanda Dantas, CBL’s international relations manager and Brazilian Publishers manager, couldn’t be happier with the initiative: “Professional Days is an enriching project that promotes several business and networking opportunities among the participating publishers. The program makes it possible to strengthen relationships between professionals and publishing houses around the world and we are excited to carry it out once again in person”, she quotes with excitement. Fernanda adds that the estimate is that Brazilian publishers will make USD 400,000 in business over the next 12 months.
Vitor Tavares, president of CBL, comments on the participation of Portuguese publishing houses in the Professional Days: “We have separated 10 vacancies for publishers in Portugal. The idea is to give even more prestige to the country, which is the great honoree of this edition of the São Paulo International Book Fair. It will be an opportunity for us to extend this celebration between nations to the business world”.
Schedule
On Wednesday, June 29th, there will be the first panel of the program entitled “The Portuguese Language Market – challenges and opportunities: an overview of the book markets in Brazil, Portugal and Lusophone Africa”. The discussion will address a brief overview of internationalization, such as the main difficulties faced in the sale of rights in the three countries, the weaknesses for each one, and what would be the solutions found for these challenges. It will also discuss which translation support programs exist in each market and what they represent for international sales. The panel will also have the mediation of the literary agent, Juliana Faria, and the presence of Sandra Tamele, from Trinta Zero Nove, Mozambique, Graça Dimas, from Livros Horizonte, Portugal, and Gil Sales, from Editora do Brasil.
On Thursday, the 30th, the panel “International fellowship programs and their importance for business in the publishing market” will take place, which will discuss how international fellowship programs work, what opportunities they offer for the book market, why they are so important and how they can improve and serve more people.
The table will also bring three different experiences: the Istanbul fellowship, which since 2021 has taken place in a hybrid way, with the participation of Emre Can Petek, the Frankfurt Fair experience, with the Invitation Program and the presence of Marifé Boix, and the vision of Fundación del Libro, from Argentina, thanks to the arrival of Ezequiel Martínez.
The same day the keynote by the president of the International Publishers Association (IPA), Boudor Al Qasimi, will also be held. She will talk about the International Sustainable Publishing and Industry Resilience Plan (InSPIRe), an IPA initiative to improve cooperation across the publishing spectrum, from publishers, booksellers and libraries, to teachers, technology companies, regulators and everyone in between.
On Friday, July 1st, the international guests will visit the publishing house FTD Educação, which is part of Brazilian Publishers, and also visit the publisher’s graphic park. And finally, on July 2nd, there will be a visit to the fair with the participation in the Latin American Educational Publishers Forum (EPF Latam) in the morning. The fair’s official opening ceremony also takes place on the same day, starting at 5 pm.
Last edition
In 2020, the action took place 100% online. A total of 19 Brazilian publishers participated in the business roundtables during the 1st São Paulo Virtual International Book Fair, carrying out USD 133,000 deals. The negotiations are the result of 114 meetings held with 30 international houses, from countries such as the United States, Peru, the United Arab Emirates and France, which were present in the matchmaking.
Check below the complete schedule of the 3rd Professional Days and the international guests of the event:
Wednesday June 29th
08:30 am – 9 am Accreditation
9 am – 9:30 am Opening: Speeches by Vitor Tavares, president of CBL, and ApexBrasil’s representative
9:30 am – 10:30 am Table 1: The Portuguese Language Market – challenges and opportunities: an overview of the book markets in Brazil, Portugal and Lusophone Africa
10:30 am – 11 am Coffee Break
11 am – 12:30 am Matchmaking
12:30 am – 2 pm Lunch
2 pm – 6 pm Matchmaking
Thursday, June 30th
9 am – 10 am Table 2: International fellowship programs and their importance for business in the publishing market
10 am – 10:30 am Keynote Boudor Al Qasimi – Inspire
10:30 am – 11 am Coffee Break
11 am – 12:30 am Matchmaking
12:30 am – 2 pm Lunch
2 pm – 6 pm Matchmaking
Friday, 1st of July
10 am – 12:30 am Visit to the publisher
12:30 am – 2 pm Lunch
2 pm – 5 pm Visit to the distributor and bookstore
Saturday, July 2nd
10 am – 1 pm Visit to the EPF Latam fair (optional)
1 pm – 2:30 pm Lunch
5 pm – 9 pm Opening Ceremony
Confirmed international guests:
Ricardo Sánchez-Riancho | Textofilia Ediciones| Mexico
Fernando Rojas Acosta | Panamericana Editorial LTDA | Colombia
Mustafa Naci Turan | Damla Publishing | Turkey
Ranya Ismail Bakr | Al Arab Publishing and Distributing | Egypt
Cesar Alcides Ramos Sologaistoa | Editorial y Librerías Piedra Santa | Guatemala
Andrea López | El Hombre de la Mancha | Panama
Jenny Carolina Lizarraga | Cinco Books Corp | USA
Francisco Javier de la Rosa Falcon | La Letra y Actividades Culturales SL | Spain
Mary Goreth Mbabazi | Furaha Publishers | Rwanda
Sandra Marília Tamele | Trinta Zero Nove | Mozambique
Vasco Daniel Alves David Pereira | Assírio & Alvim | Portugal
Tânia Filipa Silvério Antunes Pinto Ribeiro | Imprensa Nacional | Portugal
Maria da Graça Barreiros Dimas Borges da Silva | Livros Horizonte | Portugal
Marcelo Ramires Araújo Teixeira | Parsifal | Portugal
Maria Clara Mira Captain | Penguin Random House Portugal | Portugal
Lúcia Lima de Pinho e Melo | Quetzal Editores | Portugal
André Morgado | A Seita | Portugal
Nuno André Proença Vaz Seabra Lopes | Zestbooks | Portugal
Leonard Porter Anderson III | Publishing Perspectives | United States
About Brazilian Publishers
Created in 2008, the Brazilian Publishers is an industry project for the promotion of Brazilian editorial content, the result of a partnership between the Brazilian Book Chamber (CBL) and the Brazilian Trade and Investment Promotion Agency (ApexBrasil). The initiative aims at promoting the Brazilian editorial industry in the global market in a guided and organized manner, supporting the operationalization of publishers.