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Home > Focus On
Books: a visiting card for Italian products
Rome - (Ign) - '' Italian publishing is the image of our country in the world. For this reason, the promotional plans of the Italian Institute for Foreign Trade include setting-up initiatives of international bookselling, which today accounts for 5% of our exports. It is important to underline that publishing is not the least important of our exports and, within a country system strategy, must become one of the supporting elements of a new conception of promotion, which unites culture and trade, creativity and production. In the future, books will be on sale alongside - and this is not a paradox - Parma ham and Grana Padano cheese, clothes by famous designers, or even a Ferrari. The book is a visiting card for Italian products, for our way of producing culture in the world ". This was the challenge launched two years ago by the Assistant Minister for Productive Activities, Adolfo Urso, on the occasion of the 55th edition of the Frankfurter Buchmesse, the largest fair in the world in the publishing sector. The Italian publishing industry (www.aie.it) rose to the challenge, both in terms of book exports and of granting and managing publishing rights.
The value of Italian exports has in fact remained stable in recent years, at over 5% of the overall turnover in the sector, and in 2004 accounted for almost €200 million out of a total of €4 billion. This helped achieve positive commercial results in the publishing sector, of around €30 million. This is particularly significant if we consider the structural weakness of a sector which publishes in a language with limited geographical diffusion, such as Italian. But when placed in the context of the growth in the International book trade, Italy still seems to be behind in developing its share of the international market, and it is in this direction that the commitment of the government and businesses in the sector is focused.
90% of Italian exports go to the European Union and North America, and there is growing interest in the new member countries of the European Union, the other areas of Central Eastern Europe, Asian markets and Latin America. In this scenario, the market of reference in terms of number of Italian titles sold is France (309 titles), followed by Spain (286 titles) and Poland, in third place with over 280 titles. It is therefore no coincidence that Poland is given particular attention, expressed in a large presence at the recent edition of the International Book Fair in Warsaw, where significant success was achieved, particularly for Italian publishing products dedicated to young people and for religious publishing.
In the wider publishing and multimedia sector, Italy perhaps displays its best qualities in terms of innovation and development. As far as regards religious publishing, and Christian publishing in particular, the presence of the Holy See in Italy clearly has a strong influence; nor should we forget that the exclusive rights on all of the recent works by John Paul II are held by one of the leading Italian publishers. On the other hand, the Italian presence in the sector of publishing for children and young adults has well established roots, so much so that the annual Children's Book Fair (www.bookfair.bolognafiere.it) in Bologna (in the photo, a stand from the 2005 edition), is the largest show in the sector in the Western world, with over 100,000 visitors from 60 countries.
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