The IPA - International Publisher's Association has just signed an exclusive contract with Emirates Airline to become its Exclusive Global Transport Partner for its international programme of events such as the 33rd International Publishers Congress, which will be underway in Lillehammer, May 2020. 
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The 2020 FT Weekend Oxford Literary Festival will take place Friday 27th March to Sunday 5th of April in Oxford, United Kingdom.  The line up this year is massive and it is well worth your while making an effort to join in this annual event.  

Everything from creative writing courses that work through plot and character development, biography and memoir to discussions on Jewish and Hebrew literature.  

Best selling authors will be there to answer your questions, talk about their newly published works and to take you through an epic journey about what it's like to be an author.  Over the next few weeks, the line up of presenters will increase so keep an eye on the news.

​More than 80 events are scheduled and the festival is now open for bookings.   Of course, now is the time you'll need to start booking your accommodation for the event as hotels quickly fill up in the area.  

To book your tickets visit: oxfordliteraryfestival.org

Now Europe is a pretty big place and as of 2018, some 50 countries are considered part of that region.  However, it appears that only particular member states of the EU that continue to be the most productive countries on the book publishing map and they include: Russia, France, Spain, Germany, Italy and of Course the United Kingdom.  However, for the purpose of this article we will delete the UK and treat them as a separate entity, given their decision to leave the European Union.

According to Worldometers and UNESCO (United Nations Educational Science and Cultural Organization), each year the world produces 2,412,371 and counting.  This is a live figure, so even in the matter of minutes as I am write this article, it has increased to 2,412,379.  I'll update it again, at the end of this article if you are curious.

The numbers of titles for the above relevant countries produced books at rate other countries can only dream of.  Russia produced 123,336 in 2008; France produced a total of 67,278; while Spain managed 86,300 in 2008; Germany a staggering 93, 124 for 2009 and Italy closed 2005 with 59,743 books.  These figures are just some of the major book producers in the world.  Remember, these EU statistics are not 2018 figures, but are the most up to day figures presently available.  Either way, the numbers of books being produced, do not appear to be waning.

It goes without saying that the biggest producers and consumers of books still goes to China - 328,387 books in total for the 2010 period. A similar figure was documented for the United States - new titles and editions totalled 328,259,  in the same year.

(The live book total is now - 2,412,497)

Whether books are produced in hard copy or soft, physical or digital - the production of books is increasing at a phenomenal rate.  Just adding the above sets of figures for five of the stated European countries - that's 429,781 books alone, which out produces both China and the United States by more than 100,000 books. 

Europe looks set to boom and there are forty-five remaining countries in that region, I have not documented.  Go figure!

Here is the list on offer.

• Book Awards
• Book of the Year
• General Fiction Book of the Year
• General Non-fiction Book of the Year
• Literary Fiction Book of the year
• Illustrated Book of the Year
• Biography of the Year
• Picture Book of the Year (ages 0-6)
• Book of the Year for Younger Children (ages 7-12)
• Book of the Year for Older Children (ages 13+)
• The Matt Richell Award for New Writers of the Year
• Small Publishers' Children's Book of the Year
• International Book of the Year
• Audiobook Award