Publishers Without Borders (PWB), originally the brainchild of Simon de Jocas, president of Les 400 Coups in Montreal, was set up as an immediate response to the imminent lockdown threat posed by Covid in March 2020. “I was coming back from a work trip to Europe and was wondering what we were all going to do about Bologna,” says de Jocas. “Then I realized that I needed to get publishers together to talk to each other during this period, and decided to set up a group on Facebook.”
Admitting he is not “social media smart,” de Jocas launched something on Messenger before creating a proper Facebook group, at first called Editeurs sans Frontiers, and within an hour more than 100 people had signed up. “That was when I wondered, what on earth have I created?” he says. The possible scale of the new project meant that others were needed to help, and a team of administrators soon came on board, including: Emma House of Oreham House; Prashant Pathak of Wonder House Books in Delhi; Mauro Spagnol of Books Everywhere in London; and Fatimah Abbas, a publishing consultant based in Cairo. “And since then it has spiraled—it was an idea whose moment had really come,” says Spagnol.
Socialize and share information
The group’s raison d’etre is to provide a platform where publishers around the world can meet and socialize, providing support and information on book fairs and trade events to international colleagues. The basic rule of the group is that no member can post commercial messaging, marketing, or advertisements; if they do, they will be asked politely to take it down. But information of general interest to the world-wide publishing community is welcomed, and the original Facebook group has now extended to a LinkedIn group too, where commercial activity is allowed.
Members of Publishers Without Borders are mostly publishers—editors, rights, and sales people—with agents and some authors too. They have never advertised; new members generally find out about the organization through word-of-mouth, and there are now more than 5000 members in the Facebook group. As an extension, different WhatsApp groups are being set up to provide information about PWB activities at specific book fairs, offering support and networking opportunities as well as a hand of friendship for anyone who is attending that fair. “Going to a PBW event at a book fair you’ve not attended before is a really good way to meet people there,” says Spagnol, while House adds: “We organize a lot of meet-ups at these events, and there’s always lots of people there to hang out with.”
Book fair endorsements
Increasingly the book fair themselves are happy to endorse and collaborate with PWB, spotlighting their activities at each fair, while publisher associations around the world are also helping to spread the word to a wider audience. Activities at individual fairs may be sponsored by a trade association or organization keen to support PWB’s activities in providing an opportunity for members to talk, network, and socialize.
There are plans to extend the reach of PWB into new areas, for instance setting up virtual talks by key industry people that members can attend, as well as creating a PWB space or stand at each book fair where members can spend some time. “PWB is definitely a great way for people to meet each other,” concludes Pathak. For more information on the organisation and how to apply to join, see the Publishers Without Borders group on Facebook.
Publishers Without Borders will be organizing a get-together at the Hof tonight at 8.30 p.m., which both existing and potential new members are welcome to attend.
