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.”

Is there a market for English language books in Cuba? The Caribbean Book Company says yes.

For 14 years, Peter J. Guttridge and his wife have built a business exclusively on the Havana Book Fair. The company sells English-language books at the fair, tapping into the growing interest in English language content. It now represents more than 120 publishers and imprints including all the major UK publishers. For many of these publishers, it’s a chance to sell into a market that they would otherwise not be able to reach.

“The Cuban market can be difficult,” says Guttridge, noting that as the reason for limited competition in English-language books to Cuba. The large audiences (20,000 per day on average over 10 days) make it possible to run a viable business based almost solely on sales at the fair.

“This isn’t a book fair anymore,” says Guttridge. “The Havana Book Fair is 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]. English is the second language here, so we have quite a following year after year. Especially those with children doing English language courses.”

In addition to its direct-to-consumer sales at the fair in February, the Caribbean Book Company sells English-language books in Cuba year-round through its arrangements with local importers, which in turn supply books to bookstores and specialty outlets. The company promotes its catalogs in Cuba and then takes orders.

 “There’s a thirst for books here,” says Guttridge. “After the basics of food, clothing and housing, books come pretty high up.” Guttridge cites the example of a dictionary that sold 5,000 copies in seven days. He notes that children’s books and specialty books on music, arts and the military have also done well.

To get into the Cuban market, Guttridge recommends that Caribbean publishers develop agreements with Cuban importers. 

“It’s not easy, but it’s an interesting market. People forget that this is the largest population in the Caribbean -- 11.2 million people. Plus there are 2.5 to 2.8 million tourists, which can only grow. A lot of them are English-language speakers. There is a huge tourist market that is completely untapped.”

What’s next for the Caribbean Book Company? Gutteredge is looking for an exit strategy. “This is a business we got into by accident,” he says.

“We’d love to find a buyer for it.”

Contact information for the Caribbean Book Company.

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.

Among the many publisher-to-publisher deals happening at the Havana Book Fair, Canada’s Fernwood Publishing was on hand to negotiate two way exchanges with Canadian publishers. When CaribLit caught up with Fernwood CEO, Errol Sharpe, he was in close discussions with Agencia Literatura – the agency responsible for negotiating Cuban rights sales and authors’ royalties. Fernwood is looking for Cuban books to publish in Canada as well as opportunities to get the books it has published about Cuba into the Cuban market. CaribLit asked Sharpe about the opportunities for Caribbean publishers to sell books in Canada.

 “Fernwood is one small company and one of very few publishing critical, and in some cases, revolutionary books,” says Sharpe. “The idea is to publish books that stimulate debate and discussion on critical social and political issues, like class and class analysis, criminology, development and international studies, race relations, social movements and politics.” The company also has a small fiction programme; all of the books deal with social issues.

In 2012, Fernwood published Jamaica in the Canadian Experience, an edited volume of essays by Jamaicans living and working in Canada, released to commemorate the island’s 50th anniversary of independence. The book was well received in the Canadian market. While the company has not published many titles from or about the English-speaking Caribbean, Sharpe notes that there’s strong interest in Caribbean content in Canada, particularly at universities with Caribbean studies programmes. The company is open to exploring co-publishing arrangements with Caribbean publishers, particularly for titles related to critical analysis of Caribbean politics. For example, Sharpe is interested in publishing a book on ALBA – the Bolivarian Alliance for the Peoples of Our Americas, the trading bloc launched by the governments of Cuba and Venezuela in 2004 in response to the Free Trade Area of the Americas. 

Authors who wish to propose book ideas to Fernwood can make submissions directly on the Fernwood website. 

For Caribbean publishers trying to sell books in Canada, Sharpe says that distribution and gaining retail presence can be a challenge. He estimates that 75% of the Canadian retail trade is dominated by one bookstore chain, Chapters. “It can be quite difficult for small publishers to get in.” He notes that electronic books are gaining ground but market penetration is still quite low, especially in the academic market. 

For authors and publishers interested in breaking into the Canadian market, Sharpe recommends studying the market closely. “Get online and look at the Canadian publishers. See what they publish. Find a publisher that’s working with material similar to yours. Many Canadian publishers are interested in Caribbean fiction.”  Sharpe also recommends that interested authors follow each publishing house’s submissions guidelines closely. “Be sure to give the publisher exactly what they ask for. For example, if the publisher requests a book proposal, don’t send a manuscript.”

To learn more about Fernwood Publishing, visit fernwoodpublishing.ca.