Publishers are all praise for the Sharjah book fair

Jamil Khan, Senior Reporter

Participating publishers around the world at the 43rd edition of the Sharjah International Book Fair (SIBF) express their delight to be part of the one of the biggest book fairs and aim to promote reading and appreciation among book lovers.

This year the SIBF is being held under the theme ‘It Starts with a Book’ at Expo Centre Sharjah and organised by the Sharjah Book Authority (SBA) till Nov. 17.

Talking to Gulf Today, Rashid Ali from Pakistani stall Al Madina Al Arabeya said, “We are here in SIBF for the last eight years and also participating in different regional book fairs in Muscat, Oman and Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.”

About his stall in SIBF, he said, “We have a wide range of books, mostly Islamic and translations of Holy Quran in different languages. We had a good experience in the past book fair held in Sharjah and are hoping to get a good response from the community, especially from Pakistan and India who love our books.”

He mentioned that their head office is in Karachi but also have a regional office in International City Dubai for the last 20 years. “Every year we sell a good number of books but also distribute hundreds of books among visiting students to promote the reading habit,” he added.

Discounts for books

Hussain Muhammad Thaj, sales executive from DC Books, remarked, “For the last many years especially after COVID-19, the reading habit among residents has increased and the government is also extending its support. We are participating in the SIBF for the last 10 years and presenting one of the largest collections of books covering a wide range of topics catering for every segment of the society. This year we have 31 stalls with over 10,000 titles and are one of the biggest participants. Our collection comprises fiction, non-fiction, children, motivational and many other regular topics,” he said.

He pointed that the focus of DC Books is to promote reading among the residents to provide books at discount rates as well. “We are thankful to the SIBF who awarded us with the Best Publisher category yesterday (Wednesday) at a reception organised by the Sharjah Book Authority,” he added.

Natasa Srdic, Director, Partizanska Knjiga, Serbia said, “This year five prominent publishers are participating for the first time in the Sharjah book fair along with books including fiction and non-fiction titles of prominent Serb writers. We are also presenting the translated literary works of 1961 Nobel Prize winner for Literature Ivo Andrić along with many classical titles from Serbia,” she added.

Personal development

The Serbian publishers also attended the 2-day Publishers Conference ahead of the book fair including Neva Cigoja Saravijo, Vana Dereta, Sofia Zivkovic and Geo Poetika.

Alexey Gribanov, Director of International Sales New Era Publication, Denmark, said the Sharjah book fair is one of the important fairs and they have been participating since 2009 and representing publishers of the New York Times and international bestselling author L. Ron Hubbard’s non-fiction and fiction works. “We are presenting English and Arabic translations of L. Ron Hubbard’s acclaimed books specialising in non-fiction personal development. Last year we sold hundreds of books as it is one of the popular subjects among all age groups. Personal development is a very popular topic specially today and trending all over the world,” he said.

Subramanian Gothandapani from Jashanmal averred that this year they are presenting over 6,000 titles covering a wide range of topics which would interest all age groups. “We have been participating in the SIBF for the last over 6 years and witnessed a huge demand for books especially for children,” he said.

“The stall has books starting from Dhs10 and we are also offering discounts on many books up to 25 per cent to attract visitors as every day we are expecting a huge number of schoolchildren who prefer comic and story books,” he added.

Khalid Muhammad, sales manager from UAE-based Pan World Education, said they have been participating for the last 11 years. “We are providing extensively the educational material from print and digital books to schools and other academic institutes around the UAE. As part of the 11-day book fair, we are presenting 45,000 units of 6,500 titles covering the range of all topics including syllabus books of all grades,” he said.