The 24th Nairobi International Book Fair 2023 has provided an opportunity for publishers to engage in the business of buying and selling Intellectual Property Rights.
This announcement was made by the Bookfair Committee Chairperson Mary Maina, during the ongoing Bookfair event at Sarit Center Expo Hall Westlands Nairobi.
The event is hosted by the Kenya Publishers Association.
“For the first time ever, KPA, eKitabu and African Publishers Network will host the Rights Cafe, a pavilion where local and foreign publishers will be trading in Intellectual Property Rights,” Maina said.
“Specially appointed NIBF ambassadors drawn from different countries in Africa, Europe and the Americas, will be at hand to negotiate with local publishers and authors for the sale of their Rights,” she added.
KPA Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, East African Educational Publishers Kiarie Kamau said this is a way for the publishers to raise more revenues and expose the local publishers to the world.
“To promote collaborations and partnerships, publishers will have the opportunity to engage in the business of buying and selling of Intellectual Property Rights,” Kamau said.
Kamau said this trading of rights is a business opportunity that for many years has not been exploited on the continent.
“We are therefore giving an opportunity to publishers to expand their revenue streams by way of selling Rights for their general materials, which includes storybooks for children, novellas for young adults, full length novels, biographies among others,” he said.
Kamau said the exercise will also serve to expose locally published books and their authors, to the other parts of the world.
Additionally, Kamau said the Kenya Publishers Association is encouraging publishers to identify and buy rights for books from other parts of the world, in order to expand the variety that Kenyans read, hence broadening their worldview.
Ambassadors to Kenya present at the Bookfair include Gabriela Martinic (Argentine Republic) and the ambassador of the Islamic Republic of Iran to Kenya Dr Jafar Barmaki among others.
The Cabinet Secretary of Defence Aden Duale was also present among several books editors, readers, publishers and many others.
Mary Maina noted that the number of exhibitors this year were more than the previous years noting that publishers have now recovered from the devastating effects of COVID-19 which suspended the holding of Bookfairs.
“This year’s Fair has seen a steady increase in the number of exhibitors, 120 stands are fully taken, compared to less than 100, from last year’s event. Some of the foreign exhibitors coming to the NIBF include China, India, Abu Dhabi, Iran, South Africa, Uganda, Tanzania and Uganda,” she said.