November the 8th, 2022 - Interliber 2022 is hoping to realise a certain level of profit, putting more emphasis on it than ever before as spiralling inflation continues to force the cost of just about everything up.

As Poslovni Dnevnik/Josipa Ban writes, publishers have high expectations from Interliber 2022 in Zagreb, famous for being the largest book fair in the country. They have calculated that they will finally get closer to their pre-pandemic figures and one of the best years of the fair which took place back in 2019, when almost 150,000 people visited Interliber.

Interliber 2022 is the first "normal" year for Interliber, after it failed to be held back in 2020 due to the coronavirus pandemic, and last year it was held with the obligation of covid certificates, with only 55 thousand people visiting it. This year is naturally of great importance to publishers as this large book fair brings them from 5 to 25 percent of their annual income.

"Last year, sales were at the level of cost coverage. We expect this year to be at least 50 percent better. On top of that, we expect the results to rise and approach those from back in 2019. This edition should be dynamic, both economically and promotionally,'' pointed out Slavko Kozina, president of the Association of Publishers and Booksellers of the Croatian Chamber of Commerce (HGK). The participation announcements this year are also significantly higher than they were last year, with as many as 66 publishers set to participate in the fair, more than last year. More precisely, 296 of them from an impressive 15 countries.

Among them is the Mate publishing house, which specialises in business literature and high school textbooks. They didn't participate last year, because due to epidemiological measures and the limitation of the number of people at the fair, they estimated that it simply wasn't worth it, according to Sanda Tomljenovic Polic, the editor and sales coordinator at Mate. They will be present at Interliber 2022, however, where they achieve a monthly turnover in just six days. However, Interliber 2022 isn't important to them solely because of traffic, but also because it allows them contact with their customers.

"We sell through the web or via distributors, so this is a great opportunity for us to socialise with people and hear their comments for ourselves," stated Tomljenovic Polic, announcing attractive discounts of 15 to 80 percent.

In addition, at Interliber 2022, Bernard Marr's book "Artificial Intelligence in Practice" will be presented, in which the author provides detailed research on 50 companies that have successfully integrated AI into their business practices.

From Fraktura, which annually publishes about a hundred new titles, they have prepared 15 of them for Interliber 2022 alone. "I believe that the fair will be crowded this year," Seid Serdarevic, editor-in-chief of Fraktura, is convinced.

"It's a great source of income for everyone, and this will be especially important this year due to the increase in the prices of raw materials", warned Serdarevic, pointing out that the price of printing is 40 to 60 percent higher this year compared to last year, while the price of paper has also shot up significantly.

"The jump in costs was caused by the global coronavirus pandemic, the Russia-Ukraine war and inflation, and all of this creates pressure on the final price of the product, i.e. the book,'' said Serdarevic, adding that there has been a certain increase in the price of books in general, but that publishers are trying to minimise it so that physical books will continue to be affordable and available to Croatian buyers.

Although researches show that Croats don't read all that much anymore, the fact remains that of all the creative industries, this publishing industry is the toughest. In the last five years, the Croatian publishing scene has gone through three major crises, the failure of Algoritm, then the 2017 Agrokor crisis, and recently the coronavirus crisis, and in the end they successfully overcame it all.

As far as sales are concerned, this year things were solid with a slight increase compared to last year. Slavko Kozina pointed out that the latest figures for the business year of 2021 showed an increase in income of five to seven percent compared to pandemic-dominated 2020. It is the industry that, according to him, employs about 3,200 people and annually generates a massive one billion kuna in revenue.

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November the 5th, 2021 - The much loved Interliber, which has always been traditionally held at the Zagreb Fair (Zagrebacki Velesajam), is finally back after being banned under coronavirus-induced epidemiological measures. The Zagreb Fair also played and still plays host to those coming to be vaccinated against the novel virus. What does Interliber 2021 have in store?

As Poslovni Dnevnik writes, this year's 43rd International Book Fair, Interliber 2021, will be held from November the 9th to 14th at the Zagreb Fair, as was announced on Wednesday by the president of the Association of Publishers and Bookstores (ZNK), Slavko Kozina.

The three pavilions will be filled by about 230 exhibitors from 14 countries for Interliber 2021, to which many book worms are looking forward. Kozina pointed out that two years without the fair would have set the entire book and publishing industry backwards, and he assessed that the current situation is significantly better than it was four years ago, when there was a big problem with the collapse of the Croatian publishing and bookstore network.

He also mentioned that the number of points where you can buy books has been reduced at Interliber 2021, as a small number of publishers gave up on the idea of showing up physically.

Assistant Director of the Zagreb Fair, Zoran Usuric, emphasised that admission to the fair for Interliber 2021 will be free of charge and possible only upon presentation of a valid Covid certificate proving the holder's vaccination status, recovery, or a valid negative PCR test result (no older than 72 hours), or a negative rapid antigen test result (no older than 48 hours).

Entrance to Interliber 2021 at the Zagreb Fair will be possible at the box office at the South Entrance with the presentation of the aforementioned Covid certificate, and visitors will receive a disposable bracelet and a ticket with which they'll pass through mechanical barriers and enter the space itself.

The wearing of masks and maintaining social distancing will be mandatory on the premises for the duration of the fair.

For more on events in Zagreb and across the rest of the country, check out our lifestyle section.

ZAGREB, 8 March, 2021 - The Interliber international book fair, which was to take place from 23 to 28 March, has been postponed until the autumn because of the coronavirus pandemic, Zagreb Trade Fair (ZV) announced on Monday.

ZV said the decision was made in consultation with the Association of Book Publishers and Booksellers and in compliance with the government measures, which do not allow the holding of fairs during the COVID-19 pandemic.

The new date for Interliber is 28 September to 3 October. Whether or not the book fair will be held solely depends on developments surrounding the COVID-19 pandemic and decisions by the national COVID-19 response team, ZV said.

ZAGREB, November 15, 2020 - The 43rd international book fair Interliber, postponed this month due to coronavirus, will be held on 23-28 March 2021, Zagreb Fair has announced.

The new dates have been agreed with Croatia's leading publishers and booksellers.

In order to protect all participants in the event, Zagreb Fair says it will ensure all safety measures for the March dates in line with guidelines issued by the national and Zagreb civil protection authorities and the Croatian Institute of Public Health.

The 43rd Interliber was to have taken place on November 10-15. All the cancelled activities are being held online and in libraries across Croatia as part of the "A book to everyone and everywhere" project, while authors are being presented on Croatian Television's Channel 3 and on the YouTube channel of the Croatian Chamber of Commerce association of publishers and libraries.

ZAGREB, Nov 4, 2020 - During the Advent season, Zagreb will be decorated and illuminated for Christmas and the New Year, however, there will be no traditional format of the Advent in Zagreb event due to the epidemiological circumstances.

Mayor Milan Bandic said on Wednesday that some cultural events would be scheduled, Advent and Christmas decorations would be set up and several stands would also be installed for local service businesses in the city center.

However, there would be no traditional format of the Advent in Zagreb, he told local radio.

The epidemic of coronavirus also forced the city authorities to cancel the Interliber book fair. The fair will be organized online, and the mayor promised financial support to the publishers and bookshops.

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November 2, 2020 – Due to the worsening of the epidemiological situation in Zagreb and all of Croatia, the biggest book fair in Croatia won't be held this year. The organisers announced that Interliber Zagreb is canceled, but publishers and booksellers have responded with an online project.

For the first time in 43 years, the well-known Zagreb book fair, Interliber, will not gather book lovers at the Zagreb Fair (Zagrebački Velesajam). The fair was supposed to be held in accordance with the COVID-19 measures, but organisers announced on Monday, November 2, 2020, that the entire fair was being canceled. So far, the fair has not been in question, and the organisers recently announced that they would still hold it in compliance with all epidemiological measures, which they have planned in detail and published on their website. However, the situation with the coronavirus pandemic has worsened in Zagreb, but also in all of Croatia, which is why they decided, at least for now, to cancel the fair.

"Due to the [worsening of the] epidemiological situation, and following the recommendations of the National Civil Protection Headquarters and the Civil Protection Headquarters of the City of Zagreb, Interliber, the 43rd International Book Fair, which was supposed to take place from 10 to 15 November 2020, is unfortunately postponed. The new date will be set in accordance with the calming of the epidemiological situation, and we ask esteemed exhibitors and citizens for understanding. Let's stay responsible," reads the statement on their Facebook event.

As Hina reports, in an official letter to the publishers, it is pointed out that the new situation will be analysed this week with the representatives of the Association of Publishers and Bookstores at the Croatian Chamber of Commerce (ZNK), and several term options will be jointly considered in order to hold the fair as soon as possible, in accordance with the calming of the epidemiological situation, as well as the health risk for exhibitors and visitors.

Anticipating the possibility of such a situation, and in order to at least partially reduce the loss of income due to the non-maintenance of Interliber, the ZNK has been working for two months on preparations for the "A book for Everyone and Everywhere" project, which, as the ZNK President Slavko Kozina explains, will transfer Interliber's activities to online platforms, bookstores, and HRT3.

"Expecting problems, we were preparing alternatives in parallel that were epidemiologically and economically responsible," Kozina told Hina. He explained that this is a platform called "A book for everyone and everywhere", and includes a common website, where online shopping will be done, and includes popular fair prices in all bookstores throughout the Republic of Croatia (therefore, over 100 bookstores), and the "Premium program" run by Croatian editors, which includes the organisation of a "Promoter with a writer" meeting to present new books.

Everything will be streamed on the ZNK website, that is, on the third program of Croatian Radio Television (HRT3).

"In other words, we will have Interliber dislocated to the online world, to bookstores, and to HRT3," Kozina said.

The entire project is organised by ZNK HGK (Croatian Chamber of Commerce) and in co-organisation with the Ministry of Culture and the City of Zagreb, and the public will be informed about the details of the project at a press conference to be held by the end of this week.

"Publishers and booksellers are communicating with each other and everything will be published soon. We're sorry because we supported this project until the last minute, and we want to transfer at least a little of that 'crowd', where 120,000 people came to Interliber every year, into this story. What's good is that this time people in Metkovićcwill be able to buy books at good prices, hear new things from writers and I think that with this, we'll respond in the best possible way to the non-maintenance of Interliber," said Kozina.

October 23, 2020 – The Zagreb Book Fair Interliber will continue its tradition and be held from November 10 to November 15, 2020, at the Zagreb Fair (Zagrebački velesajam).

For the 43rd year in a row, Zagreb will host the well-known international Interliber book fair. As announced by the organizers, during the six days, the Interliber book fair will be a hot spot for all lovers of books and the written word.

However, due to the current situation with the coronavirus pandemic, for this often crowded event, all security measures have been prepared to stay safe in this realm of books.

Namely, the passages between the exhibition spaces will be widened to four meters and the number of pavilions in which the fair will be held will be increased. A larger number of entrances and exits will be provided for each pavilion, and visitors' body temperature will be measured without contact at each entrance.

Due to the maintenance of the safe flow of people, the number of visitors will be measured at the entrance and it will be limited. Also, visitors are recommended to move in one direction. Of course, wearing a mask is mandatory for all visitors, and disinfectants will be provided in all pavilions.

Interliber is the largest literary event in Croatia and a platform for the promotion of books, writers, reading, science, and knowledge that brings together the most important publishers and bookstores with a rich book offer of current titles.

Despite the uncertain situation with the pandemic, Interliber's 43-year-long tradition will continue, and all the book lovers will be able to find a long-desired book at an affordable price or get all the necessary literature for school.

The fair will be open for visitors from 10 am to 9 pm every day, and during the weekend until 10 pm. The entrance to the fair is free.

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As reported by tportal.hr, the Zagrebački velesajam in Zagreb is once again the place to be this November. INTERLIBER, the Zagreb International Book Fair, and the most beloved fair for all generations, will be held to the delight of all book lovers from the 12-17 of November.

INTERLIBER is the largest literary event in Croatia and a platform for promoting books, writers, reading, science and knowledge and brings together the most important publishers and bookstores.

More Than 330 Exhibitors

More than 330 exhibitors will fill three pavilions of the Zagrebački velesajam with books from various genres. The vast selection of books will be complemented by interesting and varied content for all ages: from presenting new books, opportunities to socialize and speak with writers and meeting publishers, bookstores and librarians. The fair will also offer literary reading rooms and workshops, round tables, quizzes, literary prizes, and auctions of old and rare books.

Numerous titles by world-renowned bestsellers and well-known writers are just a "little slice of paradise" which will be offered at the best book fair in the region, and will be visited by children, businesspeople and retirees.

The Premium program will also host well-known writers and will be led by respected editors of the Croatian literary scene. A notable addition to the Premium program will be an auditorium for audiobooks. An exhibition space about the Russian Federation will also be included this year and will offer a wide range of modern Russian literature for the Croatian audience: from poetry to historical works and translations and will offer interesting promotions and lectures.

This year, INTERLIBER will also sponsor Bookbinder, a charity event which will donate books to school libraries within the Croatian Association of School Librarians. The book assortment of a selected school library is filled every year with the goal of raising awareness of importance of books in building a knowledgeable society.

Luka Modrić Appearing on Sunday

Luka Modrić, the celebrated Croatian football player, will appear on the Main Stage of Pavilion 6 on Sunday, November 17, from 2:30 pm to 3:30 pm.

He and his Co-author Robert Matteoni will be discussing his co-published autobiography, “Moja igra” (My Game). A twenty-minute discussion will be followed by a book signing, and readers will be able to buy their copies in advance at the Znanje and 24sata booths. More information about the event can be found here.

Another highlight of this year's INTERLIBER is a presentation on “Knowledge and learning”, which will occur on Friday and Saturday (November 15 and 16).

The fair is held under the auspices of the Ministry of Culture of the Republic of Croatia and the Mayor of the City of Zagreb. More information about the fair and a schedule of events can be found on the Zagrebački velesajem website or on the official Facebook page, which regularly updates all news related to INTERLIBER.

Admission to INTERLIBER is free.

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Happy book-hunting!