The Alliance

Bibliodiversity is cultural diversity applied to the world of books. Echoing biodiversity, it refers to the critical diversity of products (books, scripts, eBooks, apps, and oral literature) made available to readers. Bibliodiversity is a complex, self-sustaining system of storytelling, writing, publishing, and other kinds of production of oral and written literature. The writers and producers are comparable to the inhabitants of an ecosystem. Bibliodiversity contributes to a thriving life of culture and a healthy eco-social system. While large publishers do contribute to publishing diversity through the quantitative importance of their production, it is not enough to guarantee bibliodiversity, which is not only measured by the number of titles available.
Independent publishers, even if they consider their publishing houses’ economic balance, are above all concerned with the content of published products. Independent publishers’ books bring a different outlook and voice, as opposed to the more standardised publications offered by major groups. Independent publishers’ books and other products and their preferred diffusion channels (independent booksellers, among others) are therefore essential to preserve and strengthen plurality and the diffusion of ideas. The word bibliodiversity was invented by Chilean publishers, during the creation of the “Editores independientes de Chile” collective in the late 1990s. The International Alliance of independent publishers significantly contributed to the diffusion and promotion of this notion in several languages, including through the Dakar Declaration (2003), Guadalajara Declaration (2005), Paris Declaration (2007), Cape Town Declaration (2014) and the Pamplona-Iruñea Declaration (2021). Since 2010, International Bibliodiversity Day is celebrated on 21 September.

See the article «Bibliodiversity» on Wikipedia.
The article also exists in French, Spanish and Portuguese.

The bibliodiversity, in pictures!

Container full of books inundating the market, books produced in another cultural setting given away free to readers or public libraries, the setup of local branches by publishing groups from abroad aiming to achieve monopoly conditions… Drawing on some examples of practices with damaging consequences to the publishing market in developing countries, Étienne Galliand (founder of the International Alliance of Independent Publishers) presents an overview of the predation to which emerging markets are subjected directly or indirectly. An edifying panorama.

As a complement to this article, you can consult the Guidelines for Fair Publishing Partnerships (in French).

The label “Fair Trade Book” is attributed by the International Alliance of independent publishers to works published in the context of international publishing agreements that respect each other’s particularities: fair co- publishing. These fair copublishings enable the sharing of costs linked to intellectual and physical production of books and therefore ensure an economy of scale; an exchange of professional know-how and a common experience, while respecting the publishers’ cultural contexts and identities; and a distribution of works on a broader scale by adjusting prices for each geographic zone.

The notion of fair speech expands the idea of ‘free speech’ to incorporate the concept of justice. Indeed, in a context of media concentration, dominant powers (whether political, economic, religious, ideological, etc.) are the most represented and heard (because they are powerful or loud). Fair speech fosters speech equity for other voices that are often marginalised and/or censored to be heard. Fair speech therefore promotes an equitable access to expression (for example for women, historically marginalised groups, etc.), enabling an authentic diversity of voices. This concept was created by Betty McLellan in Unspeakable (Spinifex Press, 2010, Australia) and promoted by Susan Hawthorne in Bibliodiversity: A Manifesto for Independent Publishing (Spinifex Press, 2014, Australia).

The Dakar Declaration (December 2003) is the foundational text of the Alliance and birth certificate of the association. The Guadalajara Declaration (October 2005) is the outcome of a meeting held in Mexico between independent publishers from the Latin world.
The International Declaration of independent publishers for the protection and promotion of bibliodiversity (July 2007) was drafted and signed by the 70 publishers participating to the International Assembly of independent publishers held in Paris in 2007.
These three texts, as well as the 2014 International Declaration of independent publishers, are milestones in the history of the Alliance – they are a reminder, and bear witness to the present bearing testimony to the commitment of independent publishers, and serve as their policy guidelines.

Cuando sabemos que antaño existía en el Imperio del Medio un “Gran Augurio“, una especie de secretario de Estado oniromántico, situado a la cabeza de un “servicio de la adivinación”, y cuando leemos lo que aquí escribe Jin Siyan sobre la función del sueño en su propia vida, comprendemos que para los chinos el sueño es un asunto que se toman en serio. ¿Será que en contrapunto Maurice Bellet deplora la dificultad del hombre occidental – “este soñador que no se conoce a sí mismo” – para hacer lo mismo? No sólo eso. Filósofo, psicoanalista, cura y a veces novelista, Maurice Bellet conoce y ama el sueño por haberlo acompañado y trabajado en los demás y en él mismo, y por haber estudiado durante mucho tiempo su valor creativo. E incluso si, en su contribución a este libro, habla muy poco de él mismo, sus análisis y sus parábolas le revelan con profundidad, ya que están más cargadas de experiencia que de especulación abstracta.
Jin Siyan no se preocupa demasiado por la especulación liberada de la vida. Antiguo profesor en la Universidad de Pekín, Maestro de Conferencias en la ENA y profesor de civilización china y de literatura comparada en la Universidad de Artois, lo que quiere hacer aquí es ante todo narrar. Nos narra los sueños del día a día de su infancia rural y feliz, los de las leyendas y de los mitos de la China antigua, narra los fantasmas y lo que fue el sueño de épocas tan enturbiadas como la de la Revolución Cultural.
Por motivos muy diferentes, los dos autores evocan aquí el sueño como un mediador. Para el hombre occidental descrito por Maurice Bellet, construido a partir de escisiones - alma/cuerpo, sujeto/objeto – el sueño es una suerte de interfaz “en la unión del espíritu y del cuerpo”.
Para los chinos, quienes generalmente desconocen este tipo de oposiciones, el sueño es sin embargo, en este caso también, un paso. “Procede sin trabas, nos dice Jin Siyan, oscilando entre los mundos del ying y del yang“.

Fecha de publicación: 1999

Símbolo del progreso, del trabajo de la razón, que intenta explicar incansablemente lo real y el destino del universo, la ciencia es además un extraordinario lugar para el diálogo entre las culturas, por su vocación a tender hacia lo universal.

Astrofísico, Pierre LÉNA propone en primer lugar un “paseo por la ciencia”, evocando las cuestiones que cada uno se plantea. ¿No es la ciencia, acosada por lo invisible a través de la apariencia de lo visible, un asunto de especialistas? ¿Un paciente ejercicio de la prueba o una hermosa construcción matemática, e incluso la relación sutil entre la verdad y el cambio?

Especialista en el gen humano, YANG Huanming nos ofrece desde su punto de vista la percepción china de la ciencia, vinculada a la cosmología, a la sabiduría y a la visión del universo y de las fuerzas que la animan. Se plantea a su vez la pregunta de la dimensión ética a partir del genoma humano.

La geografía de los husos horarios nos enseña que cuando París duerme, Shangai se despierta. Pero pida a un escritor chino y a un escritor francés que le hablen de la noche, no le hablarán del sueño, o muy poco. Tang Ke Yang, joven especialista en literatura comparada, y Martine Laffon, filósofa, tienen demasiada fascinación por la riqueza multiforme de la noche para dejársela a los roncadores. Y el viaje que cada uno nos propone, en torno a la noche en sí – y a su civilización – es una invitación a ver, en la oscuridad, lo que no solemos ver, a contemplar la noche del otro para comprenderse mejor, para comprenderse a uno mismo mejor.
Y es que, según nos dicen, la noche ilumina. Una vez superado el miedo del niño perdido en la oscuridad, se produce una misteriosa alquimia, a través de la cual, la noche, como por sorpresa, nos revela algo del infinito. Tang Ke Yang y Martine Laffon han hecho de ella una experiencia personal, uno descubre en la noche este “espacio de indolencia en nuestra vida fustigada por la razón”, y el otro, para quien el tiempo nocturno da a “conocer lo que el ojo y el resto de sentidos no pueden distinguir, ya que éstos han olvidado lo que sabían tan bien a la luz del día”. Noches en blanco, noches pícaras muy francesas, noches antaño prohibidas en China, donde nadie podía deambular sin un permiso especial, noches de embriaguez y noches de clarividencia, noches de Pascal y de Descartes, durante las que creaban lo mejor de su pensamiento, noches interiores y noches trampas, noches de luminaria, farolillos rojos y farolillos chinos, noches festejadas de la tradición cristiana, noche de escritores y de poetas. De esta selección de evocaciones propuestas por nuestros dos autores podemos obtener un desmentido categórico ante la duda expresada en torno a una página por Martine Laffon: “¿Y si la noche sólo fuera la noche?“

Fecha de publicación: 1999

African literature in French is today better represented and better known in Europe than in Africa, where its distribution remains hampered by many obstacles. However, there are solutions, which require the mobilisation of various stakeholders in the book industry. One solution is co-publishing, based on a joint trade agreement. The publication of «L’Ombre d’Imana» by Véronique TADJO, a groundbreaking example of pan-African co-publishing, proves that it is possible, through joint action, to create the conditions necessary for a (re)appropriation by Africa of its literature. To make this possible, the Alliance is appealing to everyone, authors, publishers and institutions alike, to join forces and promote the bibliodiversity at the heart of the francophone spirit. This appeal is endorsed by many authors and book industry professionals.

This meeting, organized by Cerlalc, the Colombian Department of Education, the Book Chamber of Colombia and the Cultural affairs of the city of Bogotá, was special in that it enabled the exchange of experiences between independent publishers from Colombia, from the Alliance (Germán Coronado (Ediciones Peisa, Peru), Pablo Harari (Trilce, Uruguay), Ivana Jinkings (Boitempo, Brazil), Anne Marie Métailié (Editions Métailié, France), Paulo Slachevsky (Lom Ediciones, Chile), Marcelo Uribe (Ediciones Era, Mexico), Thierry Quinqueton, Chairman of the Alliance, and other professionals of the book sector.

An emphasis was put on the theme of new technologies (on-demand printing, Google books search, ebooks) and on their impact on the very know-how of publishers.

Two major aspects of this meeting were the formal creation of REIC (Red de Editoriales Independientes de Colombia) through the signature of its by-laws and the drafting of the Bogota Declaration (see below).

Read: The ninth issue of Bibliodiversity, the newsletter of the Alliance of independent publishers, has just come out!

10 publishing houses from 10 different countries were indeed represented in an especially fit out 60 m² space. Five publishers were present and stayed for 6 days in tune with the fair: Russel Clarke (Jacana Media, South Africa), Béatrice Lalinon Gbado (éditions Ruisseaux d’Afrique, Benin), Marianna Warth (Pallas Editora, Brazil), Marie-Michèle Razafinstalama (éditions Prediff, Madagascar) and Paulin Assem (éditions Graines de pensées, Togo) thus participated both in setting up the stand as well as in managing it.

Read: The eighth issue of Bibliodiversity, the newsletter of the Alliance of independent publishers, has just come out!

The Peruvian publishers that were present at the International Assembly in Paris last July (Germán Coronado, Ediciones PEISA and Álvaro Lasso, Estruendomudo), have participated in founding the Alianza Peruana de Editores in Lima in September. The creation of this Alliance, which gathers about twenty independent, academic and autonomous publishers, is perfectly in line with the appeal launched by signatory publishers in International Declaration of Independent Publishers for the protection and promotion of bibliodiversity (Paris, July 2007): «we call upon independent publishers everywhere in the world to join forces –whether at the national, regional, or international level– creating associations and other collective bodies which will permit us to better defend our rights, and to make our voices heard.»
According to Germán Coronado : “Esta nueva entidad gremial nace como un reflejo de lo que aconteció en París en julio pasado.” (“This new collective entity is born as a reflection of what happened in Paris last July").
The statutes of this Peruvian Alliance are available on the following link: http://alpe.wordpress.com

We wish this national association of independent publishers success in protecting and fostering bibliodiversity as well as its Latin American counterparts (AEMI in Mexico, EDINAR in Argentina, LIBRE in Brazil).

75 independent publishers from more than 45 countries – including members of associations representing over 380 publishing houses – gathered in Paris in the French National Library from July 1-4, 2007 for an International Assembly on Independent Publishing. In the International Declaration of Independent Publishers, they reaffirm their intention to resist and to act with a common purpose.

Nathalie COOREN (French-Spanish)

Nathalie Cooren has a background in law (Master of Laws with a specialisation in European and international law) and in social sciences (Master in sociology of conflicts). After working several years in the field of international relations, where translation was an integral part of her daily life, she decided to make it her full-time job.
Several years spent abroad, particularly in Latin America, also made her aware of the importance of languages and the diversity of cultures. She translates from Spanish and English into French, for documents in the legal, institutional, political, environmental, tourism, marketing, and publishing fields, as well as books (see in particular "Guide du municipalisme : pour une ville citoyenne apaisée, ouverte”).

Danielle CHARONNET (French-Spanish)

Rachel MATTEAU MATSHA (French-English)

Rachel Matteau Matsha is senior lecturer at the Durban University of Technology (South Africa). Her research interests include book history, sociology of literature, Indian Ocean studies, and postcolonial studies. Born in Québec (Canada), she holds a BA in Literary Studies from the Université du Québec à Montréal, and a MA and PhD in African Literature from the University of the Witwatersrand in Johannesburg (South Africa). She is the author of Real and Imagined Readers. Reading, publishing and censorship under apartheid (UKZN Press, forthcoming 2018). She is collaborating with the International Alliance of independent publishers since 2013.

Volunteers come from time to time to support the permanent team of the Alliance for the implementation of the action plan of the association: we thank them very much for their involvement and their commitment!

Céline ANFOSSI
Céline Anfossi is specialised in project management and consultancy. She has worked in the book sector, mainly in coaching professionals (International Alliance of independent publishers, Fill-Interregional Federation of Books and Reading). She explores these issues through different projects and audiences (women seeking employment, students) and is particularly interested in the topic of professional integration.

Djamilatou DIALLO

Born in Tahiti, of Franco-Guinean parents, Djamilatou continued her studies in Paris in Lettres et Histoire (MA dissertation on Ancient History: “Patrons of cities in Roman Africa from the third to the fifth century: an epigraphic study”).
In the long term, Jamilatou would like to specialise in the protection and enhancement of heritage by working with different cultural organisations here or elsewhere.
Following a five-month internship at the Alliance (development of the 2018 WomenList and the HotList presented at the Frankfurt Book Fair, and the study on the textbook market in French-speaking Africa), Djamilatou is now a volunteer of the Association.

The ICIP includes the coordinators of the Alliance’s language networks; they are nominated by the members of the networks. Since 2011, the ICIP has been an essential part of governing the Alliance, representing the voice of the publishers. The ICIP meets once a year in the presence of the Board and the team of the Alliance. The agenda is based on the aspirations and objectives of the Alliance, considering above all the needs and expectations of the members.

Composition of the ICIP:

• Coordinator of the Arabic-language network: Samar Haddad, Syria (Atlas Publishing)

• Coordinators of the English-language network: Ronny Agustinus, Indonesia (Marjin Kiri) and Colleen Higgs, South Africa (Modjaji Books)

• Coordinators of the French-language network: Yasmin Issaka-Coubageat, Togo (Graines de Pensées); Dieulermesson Petit Frère, Haiti (LEGS ÉDITION) and Marie Michèle Razafintsalama, Madagascar (Jeunes malgaches)

• Coordinator of the Persian-language network: Azadeh Parsapour, UK/Iran (Nogaam)

• Coordinators of the Portuguese-language network: Carla Oliveira, Portugal (Orfeu Negro) and Sandra Tamele, Mozambique (Trinta Zero Nove)

• Coordinator of the Spanish-language network: Francisca Muñoz Méndez, Chile (Editoriales de Chile)

Click here to see the list of Alliance member publishers.