Jamaica’s leading publishers and booksellers turned out in full force for the Kingston Book Fair – the highlight of the nine days of activities of the Kingston Book Festival. Among the sixty exhibitors was tech venture eBooksCaribbean, on hand to launch its downloadable ebook card – a marketing tool for publishers and authors.

eBooksCaribbean is a social commerce platform for Caribbean publishers and authors. The company offers publishers and authors a turnkey service for digitizing and selling ebooks in multiple formats through eight of the web’s largest ebook distributors. The company also creates online stores for authors and publishers who wish to sell ebooks through their own sites.  

The downloadable ebook card is an extension of the social commerce platform, allowing authors and publishers to sell their digital publications in brick and mortar retail points of presence. The cards can also be used in off-line marketing campaigns. Similar in size and format to pre-paid phone cards, the download cards carry the cover art of the book on the front, while the back has a PIN code that the reader uses to redeem and download the book from the author’s or publisher’s website or from the eBooksCaribbean site.

“The download card is a tangible representation of a digital product,” says eBooksCaribbean co-founder, Lloyd Laing. “It allows the publisher to have a physical product for customers to touch and feel. They can distribute the cards at book festivals and major events and it gives them a product to sell in real world bookstores. One of the challenges for authors with ebooks is getting attention for their books in the offline world. The card gives them a solution.

“It also gives traditional bookstores a way to participate in digital sales. For everybody in the industry it’s win win.”

The cards come in different grades of paper and plastic, to facilitate publishers who want to promote their cards as collectibles.

The cards were launched at the book fair with Pelican Publishers’ Caribbean Calorie Counter, which first appeared as a print book, is now available as an ebook and will soon be converted into an interactive app.

“We want to make this book available as widely as possible,” says Latoya West Blackwood, Senior Assistant Manager at Pelican. “But identity theft and credit card fraud are issues that Caribbean publishers trying to sell online have to deal with. The download cards allow us to reach the segment of the market that’s afraid to use credit cards online as well as  people who don’t have credit cards but have access to online books.”

For more information on the download cards, visit ebookscaribbean.com.

Cuba’s book market is very different from that of other Caribbean islands – the publishing houses are state-run and books are heavily subsidized, sold at rates far below the costs of production. Yet, the Havana Book Fair has many lessons for Caribbean publishers, booksellers and governments. Here’s our top 10.

1.     Make Books a National Priority
Every decision concerning the Havana Book Fair – from the programming to the funds committed – is based on the central belief that books and reading are critical to national development. “The mission of the Havana Book Fair is to give people access to books,” says Aida Bahr, Vice President of Cuba’s Instituto del Libro (Book Institute) and member of the Caribbean Literature Action Group. “[It is for] cultural purposes, not commercial purposes. It’s a cultural investment.” Cuba also sees the presentation of its books and authors on the international stage as a critical element of defining and extending its national identity and brand in the international arena. “The book is the main [channel] of communication and human knowledge,” says Edel Morales of El Instituto del Libro. “We must make sure that Cuban voices are heard.”

2.     Go Big (Or Your Audience May) Go Home

It’s been called a beast, a monster, a spectacle. By whatever name, the Havana Book Fair cannot be ignored. The sheer scale of the event is part of the secret of its success, making it a fixture both on the domestic cultural calendar and on the international publishing scene. Creating that kind of scale requires a delicate partnership between the public and private sector and local organizers, but the rewards in cultural and commercial terms are impressive.

3.     Plan Activities for Everyone

The Havana Book Fair’s programming isn’t just large. It’s diverse and deliberately so, designed to bring out a wide cross-section of the public. The mammoth schedule of 100+ activities per day includes talks, book launches, children’s events as well as conferences for writers, publishers, historians, social scientists, literature experts and other academics; and a staggering schedule of concerts and cultural events. Each year focuses on a guest country and two outstanding Cuban writers and the programme includes numerous panels and activities related to the literature and culture of the guest country and the work of each writer. The breadth of activities helps to ensure that Cubans of all kinds come out to the fair.

4.     Act in Unison

Every year, Cuban publishers plan their editorial calendars to release new titles at the fair. That collective effort drives anticipation for the fair, as the audience knows there will be many new books to look forward to. Bahr credits the anticipation and excitement for new books for the record turnouts to the fair each year.

5.     Offer Special Prices and Products to Drive Sales

Many of the participating international publishers at the Havana Book Fair use the event as an outlet for selling overflow stock. They come to the fair with steeply discounted prices designed to drive quick sales. They also bring the kinds of books they know will sell well in Cuba because they aren’t available in the local market, e.g. titles on American entertainment; hard cover or brightly illustrated children’s books, dictionaries and specialized books for professionals. Understanding what local buyers want and planning accordingly helps to ensure strong book sales.

6.     Take the Books to the People
The Havana Book Fair takes place at the Cabaña fortress as well as eleven other sites around Havana and then tours throughout the rest of the country for two weeks – a deliberate, though exhausting effort to make sure that activities are held in every single province of the country. The result: national awareness and participation and a month-long focus on books that has a spill-over effect for the rest of the year. “It’s the only cultural event that gets to everywhere and is respected by everyone,” says Bahr.

7.     Use Books to Drive Tourism
The diverse programming of the Havana Book Fair also helps to attract visitors to Cuba. This year, the visiting country focus on Angola brought more than 100 representatives from that country to the island; hundreds of other international publishing representatives come to the fair to participate in the many events or to exhibit and vend their books. It’s a chance for Cuba to attract new visitors, many of whom may end up returning for future visits.

8.     Think Regionally
Organizers of the Havana Book Fair coordinate closely with their Latin American counterparts to ensure that the schedules of their book fairs do not conflict with each other, allowing them to promote all the fairs at each event, increasing momentum and opportunities for regional networking. Their regional coordination also allows them to share best practices and market knowledge, helping them to raise book sales and reading levels across the region.

9.     Market Collectively
Cuba’s Cámara del Libro (Chamber of Books) takes the lead role in organizing the fair as well as a year round calendar of local book promotion activities. But it doesn’t stop there. The Chamber also plans Cuba’s participation in international book fairs, marketing the island’s authors in groups related to the genres in which they write and the interests of the target publishers and markets. Sure, that’s easy to do when the publishing houses are all state-run. But the collective efforts yield economies in research, event participation fees and marketing that Caribbean publishers can emulate.

10.  Have Fun!
The first thing you notice at the Havana Book Fair is that everyone seems to be having a good time. As Peter Gutteredge of the Caribbean Book Company puts it, “This isn’t a book fair anymore. [It’s] the largest Cuban social event of the year – with a book fair inside. It’s a fantastic setting where Cuban families come and [enjoy themselves].” That vibe is key for creating a generation of readers who associate books with fun and pleasure. 

“Some of the best parts of the book fair are the things we don’t plan,” says Jésus David Curbelo, another of the organizers. “They happen naturally when you put good books in front of people.”

One of the highlights of this year’s Havana Book Fair was Lecturas en La Red (books on the network): an impressive digital collection of electronic books available for reading and download at the fair.

Organized by Cuba Literaria, Cuba’s digital publishing house, the collection boasted 1,500 titles available online for the duration of the fair. Visitors to the fair were able to download as many books as they liked to their jump drives or portable devices. The collection covers a broad range of disciplines including fiction, children’s books, science, arts, the social sciences, essays and journals as well as visual and audio projects. The works are classics from the public domain and original titles from contemporary authors who have made their work available for free. Some of the ebooks are also made available for sale through ruthtienda.com, a Cuban and Belgian company that serves as a partner to Cuba Literaria.

“Cuba’s participation in the world of new technologies is very recent, especially for writers,” says Paola Rigal Collado, Director of Cuba Literaria. “[ebooks] are a way for writers to promote their work.” The partnership with ruthtienda.com also gives Cuban writers a rare chance to promote their books in foreign markets. Thus far, Cuba Literaria has published 22 ebooks. Other Cuban publishing houses, including Letras Cubanas, have also begun to release digital titles.  According to Collado, Cuban publishers are increasingly embracing ebooks because they cost less to produce and have a lower impact on the environment.

The response from the Cuban public has been strong. “The general public is always happy with free access [to books],” says Collado. “People here are always willing to read.”

While private internet access is not common in Cuba, electronic books have long been popular. Cubans are able to access ebooks through the many computing clubs across the island.

Cuba Literaria also operates the website cubaliteraria.cu, a portal for Cuban Literature. Its goal is to promote the collective work of the island’s authors and to report on the most important happenings in the literary word at the national and international level.

Cuba Literaria plans to expand into the production of multimedia products, animation, audiobooks and educational video games – all subsidized by the state. The agency is also interested in bilingual books and products to meet the growing interest in English language content.

For more information on Cuba Literaria, visit cubaliteraria.cu.

The organizers may not be focused on making a profit, but lots of business still gets done at the Havana Book Fair. Many international publishers come to the fair looking to acquire foreign rights to Cuban titles and/or to publish Cuban authors. Bahr estimates that about two thirds of the participating international publishers are selling heavily discounted stock into the Cuban market, while the others are looking for publishing deals and contracts. Here’s what Caribbean publishers need to know:

1.     Interest in Caribbean Culture
In 2012, the Havana Book Fair recognized “the Caribbean” as the country of honour; a generous conceptual definition of the region that swept from Louisiana in the North to Bahia in the South. “Cuba is a Caribbean country, but many of our readers are not familiar with the non-Spanish speaking Caribbean,” says Jesus David Curbelo. “For many of our readers, it was a whole discovery.” Many Caribbean titles were republished for the Cuban market, representing, for many, their first Spanish translations.


2.     Growing English Language Market
Cuba has 20+ universities with a large market for instructional materials. Regulatory changes now permit the licensing of private English-language tutors, also expanding the market for English materials.

3.     Demand in key areas
According to Bahr, there’s strong demand for titles in areas Cuban publishers don’t handle. (It’s worth noting that all of Cuba’s 172 publishing houses are state-run. That places certain limitations on the kinds of books published, which creates opportunities for external publishers to meet.

Bahr says that entertainment books, highly illustrated children’ s books, enhanced books (with CDs, sounds, puppets etc.) tend to do well. Dictionaries and specialized instructional books for professionals are also recommended. Sports books, especially football books, are also popular.


4.     Opportunity for South-South collaboration
The Havana Book Fair is a great place for making contacts both with the Cuban literary and publishing community and the large numbers of international visitors. Havana attracts large representation from South and Central America as well as Africa. Publishers seeking co-publishing arrangements that can’t make the hike to London or Frankfurt can take advantage of the networking possibilities in Havana.

 5.     Price sensitive market
While Cuba’s population of 11 million and its 100% literacy rate might make it attractive, the market is extremely price-sensitive. Local books are heavily subsidized and are deliberately offered to the public at well below the price of printing them. Bahr says it’s not unusual to see kids’ books on sale for less than 0.5 CUC (Cuban convertibles. The exchange rate is 1 CUC: 0.87USD). Foreign publishers are advised to offer deals, as in the example of the kids’ books, three for 5 CUC. Bahr notes that specialized titles can fetch higher prices.

6.     Prize available
The Alba Narrativa Literary Awards is now in its fourth year. The Awards honour works in English and republishes the winning book in Cuba. The Award has been undersubscribed each year. For more information, visit www.cubaliteraria.com.

What does it take to pull off a month-long marathon of book-related events? In Cuba’s case, the answer is a web of state agencies dedicated to the development, promotion and distribution of Cuban books. Key among these is the Instituto Cubano del Libro (Cuban Book Institute), the Cámara del Libro (Chamber of Books) and the Agencia Literaria Latinoamericana (Latin American Literary Agency ).

Edel Morales, poet, novelist and Vice President of el Instituto Cubano del Libro and one of the key players on the organizing committee of the Havana Book Fair explains that the purpose of the Book Institute is to organize and implement Cuba’s publishing and literary policies. The Institute organizes weekly book events and runs eight publishing houses that release more than 300 titles per year. The Institute also arranges the distribution of several million titles around the country, through a network of more than 300 bookstores. It promotes Cuban books and authors internationally through the Cuban Chamber of Books and the Latin American Literary Agency. Cuba participates annually in about 30 international fairs mainly in Latin America, but also in Europe, Asia and Africa.

“It’s part of our book policy,” explains Morales. “It seems natural that the book should move around the country, around our linguistic community and then, through translations, [throughout the world.] The book is the main [channel] of communication and human knowledge, so it is important for the country to participate and promote our books and authors in the international arena. We have an important presence in Latin America, a relatively important presence in Spain, and in other parts of the world we try to be present.”

Maintaining a dominant presence in their linguistic community is a key part of the Cuban government’s focus. The Havana Book Fair is one of the main fairs in the Spanish speaking community. As part of the Centro Regional para el Fomento del Libro en America Latina y el Caribe (Regional Centre for Book Promotion in Latin America and the Caribbean -- CERLALC), it participates in a network of Latin American book fair organizers.  CERLALC is an inter-governmental agency under the auspices of UNESCO, headquartered in Columbia. It coordinates state policies on the promotion of books and reading. Through their participation in CERLALC, the fairs throughout Latin America are planned in succession, creating a circuit of events in which all countries can participate and reducing the transportation and coordination expenses of moving books, authors and publishing representatives around the region.

Morales notes that the fairs throughout Latin America are organized in many different ways. For example, the Havana Book Fair is run by the Instituto del Libro, a state organization, whereas the Guadalajara Book Fair in Mexico is organized by the University of Guadalajara. The Buenos Aires Book Fair in Argentina is organized by La Fundación del Libro, a private institution.  Morales notes that in all cases, there is a mix of private and state entities and that strong communication exists between the organizing entities throughout Latin America.

That communication allows organizers to learn best practices in book fair hosting from each other as well as to learn the policies and practices that affect book marketing, distribution and sales in each country, such as customs policies, tariffs and taxation. “The ultimate goal”, says Morales, “is to have higher levels of reading across Latin America. It’s both a cultural interest and a commercial interest.”

 Edel Morales’ top three tips for hosting a successful book fair:
1.     Focus on the readers. The goal is to have a vivid, dynamic book fair, with intelligent dialogue between authors and readers. Morales notes that Cuba’s highly educated population gives it a distinct advantage in programming book-related events.


2.     Focus on the books. Morales underscores that content is what matters. Publishers should focus on creating books that transmit knowledge, culture and pleasure.

3.     Focus on the writers. The writer should feel that the fair is their space, says Morales. They should be happy to participate. These are the main pillars on which the fair is built. Morales notes that buy-in must be sought from the government and private companies, but in all cases, they should understand that the main pillars are the readers, the writers and the culture.

Translation by Vladimir Dominguez.

Major Latin American Book Fairs

Bógota International Book Fair
Bógota, Colombia
April 18 – May 1, 2013

Buenos Aires Book Fair
Buenos Aires, Argentina
April 25 – May 13, 2013

Sao Paolo International Book Biennial
Sao Paolo, Brazil
August 9 - 19, 2013

Guadalajara Book Fair
Guadalajara, Mexico
November 30 – December 8, 2013

Havana Book Fair
Havana, Cuba
February 2014

Passion meets prose at the Havana International Book Fair – the largest in the Caribbean

The numbers alone are staggering: 140+ exhibits; 100+ events per day; 400 foreign delegates from 40 countries; 11 days of book launches, readings and performances; 12 venues across the city, including the sprawling Cabaña Fortress – a massive 25-acre historic site that serves as the Fair’s hub; on average, more than 20,000 visitors per day.

And that’s just the warm-up. 

When the curtain comes down in Havana on February 24, 11 days of non-stop activity after its Valentine’s Day start, the Fair repeats its combination of book sales and supporting events on a tour through all 14 of Cuba’s provinces, culminating in Santiago de Cuba.

By the time the fair ends in Santiago de Cuba – after 30 days in total -- more than 140,000 books will have been sold and more than 1,000,000 Cubans will have come out for the event.

But the numbers don’t tell the whole story. The Havana Book Fair is a cultural phenomenon. Since its start in the 80s as a biennial book fair, it’s grown into a massive event – annual since 2000 – the largest on the Cuban calendar.

“Everybody [looks forward to] the book fair,” says Aida Bahr of the Instituto del Libro (Cuban Book Institute), the state agency responsible for coordinating the fair. “It’s the cultural event that gets to everyone, everywhere. Most of our books are launched at this time of year for the fair, so it’s a great opportunity to buy new books.

“It’s not just book launches and sales, but a very wide programme of activities: conferences, meetings of librarians and historians, literature and social science conferences. There are meetings with publishers to discuss important issues [as well as] meetings with foreign publishers.”

Every year the fair honours one country and two outstanding Cuban writers – a fiction writer and a social scientist.  The selections influence much of the programming. This year’s honoured country, Angola, brought a delegation of more than 100 writers, performers, academics and cultural representatives to the Fair, to showcase Angolan culture in all its forms and Cuban publishers released 18 new editions of Angolan books for the local market.

It’s the combination of new Cuban books, the opportunity to learn about other cultures and the sheer magnitude of the spectacle that draws the Cuban audience year after year for an event that feels more celebratory than cerebral. 
That’s what the Instituto del Libro and its partner planning agency the Camara del Libro (Chamber of Books) are banking on. (Yes, Cuba has a Chamber of Books, like a Chamber of Commerce; a state run agency to tend to the business of its books.  The Chamber runs logistics for the fair as well as a summer slate of book related activities during the summer holidays and manages Cuba’s participation in international book fairs.) 

“The mission of the Havana Book Fair is to give the people access to books,” explains Bahr. Jesus David Curbelo who coordinates the fair’s mammoth schedule of literary, academic and professional events notes that the mission isn’t necessarily to get people to buy books during the fair. “A lot of people come just to have fun… It’s part of our cultural tradition and [it has made] people very  interested in reading.”

The human and financial resources invested are signfificant -- the organizing committee has more than forty members and  with the staff of the Instituto del Libro and the Camara del Libro, the full team numbers into the hundreds. The budget for domestic expenses alone; i.e. salaries and things that do not have to be imported, run into the millions. But the fair isn’t expected to make a profit.  As with all books published in Cuba, the book fair itself is subsidized by the government, with the long term goal of promoting reading and strengthening Cuban culture. 

“The point of it is to make a cultural investment,” says Bahr. 

“It’s an investment in the people.”