Press Release

June 16 2009

Cape Town Book Fair       

Final day sees packed fair

A city transformed by words

On the fourth and final day of the Cape Town Book Fair visitors continued to flock to the fair. A steady stream of people waiting to buy entrance tickets snaked around the ticket booths, with many making return visits to catch up on what they had missed on their first visit.

"It really was a case of a city being transformed by words," said Cape Town Book Fair Director Vanessa Badroodien, "we are very happy with the number of people who have been through the fair and with the discussions and talks that have taken place and have been packed to capacity."

The fair is both a trade event, with publishers and agents from around the world coming to do business, and a public event people have taken to their hearts, attending in their thousands.

At the fair, the Chairman of PASA, Dudley Schroeder, announced that South Africa has been chosen as the focus country for the London Book Fair in 2010. Speaking at an event on Monday night Schroeder said that the Publishers Association of South Africa was "very excited about the opportunity that this honour offered to South African publishers, writers, and those in the book trade to showcase the best of South African literature and publishing to the rest of the world. "Make sure you book your space early," said Schroeder, this is one event that you really don't want to miss out on."

"The important thing for us is that we have seen a definite increase in the value that both the public and exhibitors have told us they have experienced. We believe that we now have a sustainable number of visitors - too much growth in numbers has been shown internationally to be a recipe for exhibitions becoming unsustainable."

Publishers echoed Badroodien's sentiments; reporting that they had done a "roaring trade" at the fair.

For Christo Reitz of Briza Publications the fair exceeded his expectations. Briza Publishers had on their stand The Earth Book a massive tome that costs R50 000, "we have had approaches from people buying copies of the book," he said, "but more amazingly we sold out of the concise edition on the first day and have a long waiting list of orders for it".

Reitz has been present at all four book fairs and said that this year's fair had been "extremely busy. As a publisher our main aim in attending the fair is not to sell books, but rather the valuable exposure that we gain from people at the fair, the brand building we gain through being here and on the trade side making contacts and establishing relationships". Of courses selling out your stock is a welcome side effect.

One new exhibitor at the fair was Kerri Fox, a child therapist who has spent years collecting the things that children have said to her. "I wanted to give something back and I decided to ask six of South Africa's top photographers to help me put together a book that would illustrate the way in which children see the world, and what they have to tell us about it. Fox took a stand at the fair in order to gauge the interest in her book God Doesn't Care What Colour Your Bum Is. Fox said although she had had a small stand the response to the prototype of the book had been "amazing, so many people have come to look at it and talk about it, and I have three potential offers from publishers," she said.

Some of those who Fox talked to "and got fantastic ideas from" were participants of the Goethe Institute programme which saw 12 publishers from around Africa being invited to attend the fair.

Issued on behalf of the Cape Town Book Fair by HWB Communications

For more information contact:  Vanessa Badroodien, Managing Director, CTBF. Tel: 021 418 5493.

Email: vanessab@capetownbookfair.co.za.

Website: www.capetownbookfair.com

or Jennifer Crocker at HWB

Tel: 021 4620416

Email: Jennifer@hwb.co.za

Cell: 082 924 1095