The Sharjah Booksellers Conference opened with an unambiguous message: the publishing industry is putting a strain on the planet and it cannot be ignored.
The issue of sustainability needs the immediate attention of industry professionals, Sheikha Bodour bint Sultan Al Qasimi, founder and chief executive of Kalimat Group and immediate past president of the International Publishers' Association, said in her keynote speech.
“The impact of the book industry on the environment is a profound risk to our industry, just as it is a risk to the planet’s ecosystem,” she said.
“While we don’t have all the answers right now, we must act fast. We must act together.”
She said the UAE had been collectively working on issues related to sustainability, leading several environmentally conscientious initiatives and programmes.
The country will also be hosting the UN Cop28 climate summitin November.
Sharjah’s Bookseller Conference will also have a part to play. Organised by the Sharjah Book Authority, the event may not be the most glamorous of the emirate’s rich literary calendar, but it also may be its most consequential.
The two-day conference is being held at the Expo Centre Sharjah until Tuesday. It brings together 400 booksellers from 69 countries, along with publishers and authors.
As 2023 has been dubbed the Year of Sustainability, the conference provides the opportunity to reflect on the environmental impact of the industry and to propose initiatives that, Sheikha Bodour said, “could radically change the way we produce and distribute books".
“No single publisher, bookseller or stakeholder from our ecosystem can face this challenge alone,” she said. “Collaboration is critical, now more than ever.”
Sheikha Bodour also touched on the advances that artificial intelligence is making in the literary realm.
While still in its early stages, she warned that the technology is growing at an incredible speed and will probably leave its mark in the literary world.
“Over 200 e-books have already been published with ChatGPT listed as their author,” she said. “It's like a scene from a sci-fi movie, but here we are, it’s reality.
“While it's difficult to predict exactly how generative AI will impact the book industry, it's clear that it has the potential to bring about radical changes in the way books are written and published.
"We need to stay ahead of the curve and find ways to strengthen our industry and our processes.”
Despite these issues, there is still much to celebrate. The industry, as a whole, is continuing to grow, Markus Dohle, former chief executive of Penguin Random House, said at the conference.
“This is the best time in publishing and books since Gutenberg invented the printing press some 600 years ago,” Mr Dohle said.
He also gave several reasons as to why there is still good news for publishing, despite the widespread belief that books are in decline.
“The size of the global revenue for books is growing every year,” Mr Dohle said. “That means that every year, consumers around the world spend more money on books than the year before.”
Stable business models for physical and digital distribution are also bolstering the industry’s growth.
“We have reached a healthy coexistence between the physical and digital formats of our industry. Almost 80 per cent of our sales is in physical format, of course varying across several territories.”
The fact that print has prevailed has been the “life insurance” for publishers and retailers alike, Mr Dohle said, while acknowledging that changes must be made to address the environmental effects of the industry.
The rising global population, as well as a sharp increase in literacy rates, are also contributing to the industry’s growth.
“The world population grows by three or fourth per cent every year,” he said. “But even more importantly, literacy rates are going through the roof.
"So each year, we have more people on the planet, of which many more people can read.”
An ever-more global supply chain, coupled with the growth of e-commerce, has made it possibly to distribute content like never before.
“We can reach audiences in three to four seconds digitally, and in three to four days physically,” Mr Dohle said.
He said the booming young adult and children’s books genres has helped the overall industry flourish.
Mr Dohle said it was the fastest-growing category in the past “25-plus years since Harry Potter was published".
Finally, audiobooks had also opened up new avenues, ones that allude back to oral traditions of storytelling.
“It goes back to the old campfire experience,” he said. “Listening to story is in our DNA, we come with it.
"Audiobooks give our readers for reading minutes, because we can do other things while listening to a good book.”
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