Dear CTBF Exhibitors and Partners

With just over a month to go before the Cape Town Book Fair opens its doors it is shaping up to be an exciting event. As the biggest book fair in sub-Saharan Africa we have been working hard to make sure that all stakeholders are catered for. With the introduction of the first ever Trade Day at the fair on 30 July and its extensive programme this will be a fair "Where books mean business ...". The programme for the Trade Day includes sessions on Expanding Your Business by Buying and Selling Rights, seminars for Librarians and Booksellers, Publishing in Africa, Going Digital in Publishing, Matchmaking for buyers and sellers, and an Update on Recent Developments in the Google Settlement. Visitors to the Cape Town Book Fair can expect a feast of reading and an exciting programme of lectures and seminars for the public. The Cape Town Book Fair is a successful public event and we look forward to opening the doors to its fans from 31 July to 2 August. This year, in co-operation with the Frankfurt Book Fair Literacy Campaign (LitCam) we will also be opening Reading Rooms in disadvantaged areas, a project that will continue as a legacy project of the Cape Town Book Fair.

Warm regards
Claudia Kaiser
Director Cape Town Book Fair

Exhibitors are invited to attend the latest update on the 2010 Cape Town Book Fair. At the briefings the Cape Town Book Fair team will be on hand to answer all questions and to give you information on the technical aspects of the fair and programme information. The briefings are structured to make sure that you know everything you need to know in order to make the fair a success. In Johannesburg the briefing was held on 30 June at the Goethe-Institut, 119 Jan Smuts Avenue, Parkwood, from 12 to 2pm. In Cape Town the briefing takes place at the Cape Town Convention Centre on 2 July from 12 to 2pm. After both sessions you are invited to join the CTBF team for snacks and drinks. Please RSVP to Sadika Ahmed ahmeds@captownbookfair.com or +27 (0)21 418 5493.

Programme details from exhibitors need to be sent to Juliet van Niekerk urgently, if you haven't sent yours in yet, please do so: This includes items for the Children's Zone. If you have any specific orders for the Cape Town Convention Centre these forms need to be completed along with service forms detailing furniture, fascia names and structural details. Please also check your catalogue entries. For those who have booked custom design stands designs and order forms should be sent in immediately. Contact Juliet at juliet@capetownbookfair.co.za and Sadika at ahmed@capetownbookfair.co.za or give us a call +27 (0)21 418 5493

On the 30 July the first Trade Day will be held at the Cape Town Book Fair. It will be packed with opportunities to network with trade, publishers, book buyers, librarians, teachers, school principals and others in the book profession from around the world. The programme has been crafted so that there is something for everyone. Go to http://www.capetownbookfair.com/programme to register from 29 June 2010 and to see the full programme.

The impact of the digital world is enormous and it poses challenges to publishers who need to make strategic, speedy and careful decisions in many areas of their business. The Frankfurt Book Fair and the Publishers Association of South Africa are offering a one day interactive seminar on this topic which will give delegates information about latest trends, best practises in digital publishing, guidelines for developing a digital strategy and workflow solutions. Bold new ideas will be on the table with benefits for companies who decide to surf the digital tide. If you're in publishing you'll want to be part of this seminar. The presenters are Carsten Schwab, Production Manager, S. Fischer Publishing Houses, Frankfurt and Arthur Attwell, Managing Director of Electric Book Works, Cape Town. Pre-registration is essential.

Date: Saturday July 31, 2010-06-22
Time: 9am to 5pm
Venue: Cape Town International Convention Centre
Fee: R250 (Vat included). The workshop fee covers all materials, coffee-breaks and lunch and will be invoiced to participants prior to the workshop.

For questions relating to the workshop contact Ms Marion Boltman on marion@publishsa.co.za

The Pick n Pay Chef's Theatre is going to delight the taste buds and inspire your inner cook. With Chefs demonstrating their favourite recipes you'll be able to experience the tastes of the world at one fair, from Chinese cuisine to South African dishes. Among the Chefs at the fair are Pieter Dirk Uys (Evita Bezuidenhout), Reuben Riffle, Phillipa Cheifitz, Tina Bester, Bernadette le Roux, Emma Chen, Marlene van der Westhuizen, Tammy Ann Fortuin, Martie Brink, and Carmen Niehaus. The reservations have been made and the kitchen is ready, all we need is recipes from participating publishers, send them to juliet@capetownbookfair.co.za. Pick n Pay is sponsoring the kitchen with appliances sponsored by Smeg.

The Facebook Cape Town Book Fair Group has more than 600 members and is growing fast. Join it and take part in a story that is being written sentence by sentence by members of the group. It began with "Where the story begins ..." and is taking some interesting twists and turns. Click here to join our Facebook Group.

Author quote: "Literature is mostly about having sex and not much about having children. Life is the other way round." – David Lodge

In a few years' time, South African schoolchildren will be able to download their textbooks on to their cell phones, which will have become sophisticated enough for easy reading on screen.

The average reader will be downloading books on to his or her phone or computer instead of buying hard copies, saving large amounts of cash - and paper.

This is the dream of Arthur Attwell, founder of Electric Book Works, who is on a mission to "democratise the world of books" by getting as many e-books published as possible in South Africa. Read more