The 44th Sharjah International Book Fair, which kicked off this weekend and runs through November 16, is welcoming 2,350 publishers and exhibitors from 118 countries to the UAE. This fair, which bears the theme "Between You, and a Book," is offering 1,200 events, including the International Library Conference and an edition of the International Thriller Festival.

Sharjah has made a name for itself as a follow-up event to the Frankfurt Book Fair, which took place last month, offering a unique opportunity for networking and dealmaking for publishers from Africa, Asia, India, and the Middle East.

The festival opened on November 1 with a Publishers' Training Program organized with New York University, which brought together 161 publishers, including 75 from Africa, with a focus on audio content strategies, scaling family-run businesses into global brands, and international sales and distribution approaches. Among the keynote speakers at the event was Marcus Dohle, former CEO of Penguin Random House, who offered a rousing defense of the industry, calling this "the best time ever for publishing."

Yesterday was the opening day of the Sharjah Publishers Conference, which concludes Tuesday. It has brought together some 1,300 publishing executives from 106 countries for rights trading, as well as a series of workshops and roundtable discussions led by industry leaders on topics from AI to leadership to marketing. HarperVia publisher Juan Milá led a session on how to sell books to the U.S. market, telling PW that Sharjah presents "an exciting opportunity to show publishers from around the world the wide range of work that we publish in translation."

For many Americans, networking is the key attraction of traveling to Sharjah. "You don't necessarily come [to Sharjah] expecting to land big business deals—you come here for the people," said Jonathan Merkh, president and CEO of Forefront Books. "It's much more intimate and easier to talk to and spend time with people in improvised conversations than something like Frankfurt."

That said, numerous publishers do a significant rights trade at Sharjah, which it itself supported by the fair's translation program. In one example, Santa Svaza of Zvaigzne ABC publishing house said that last year, her first at the fair she sold rights for three books to Arabic publishers and one each to a Serbian and Macedonian publishers. "I was both surprised and delighted," she said.

A trio of speakers opened the conference, including Gvantsa Jobava, president of the International Publishers Association, who acknowledged that AI and digital tools were making publishers more efficient and helping them "reduce waste," but also noted that there is still more fighting to come over AI companies' violations of copyright. "There's so much more to be done [in defense of copyright]," Jobava said.

Sheikha Bodour bint Sultan Al Qasimi, chairperson of Sharjah Book Authority, which runs the fair, emphasized the need for industry collaboration during periods of rapid change.

"We're privileged to be living through a time of historic transformation," she said. "Our work is enriched by voices from every corner, including Greece," she said, giving a shoutout to this year's guest of honor country.

She also noted that while some markets experiment with new tools and business models, others are just beginning to adapt. "If we want to truly grow, if we want to rise together, we must learn together. And that is the purpose of this gathering," she said, adding that "the future of publishing will not be written by technology alone. It will be written by the choices we make."

Finally, Madeline McIntosh, CEO of Authors Equity and former CEO of Penguin Random House, was interviewed by Jo Henry of BookBrunch about the rationale behind her young publishing company, Authors Equity, which offers a revenue-share model with its authors.

"The one factor that is the most important factor in deciding whether an individual book will be successful really comes down to the author," McIntosh said, noting that a happy author becomes a "referral network" for the publisher.

Authors Equity, which began publishing just over a year ago, generated $15 million in revenue in 2024, according to McIntosh. Its bestselling title has been Don't Believe Everything You Think by Joseph Nguyen, whose next book The Overthinker's Guide to Making Decisions: How to Make Decisions Without Losing Your Mind, is set for release on November 11. McIntosh also expressed excitement at the forthcoming publication of a collaboration with the New York Times' games department, Puzzle Mania!: Wordle, Connections, Spelling Bee, Minis and More!, edited by Joel Fagliano.

She said the company has a staff of 12 and relies on outsourced freelancers for skills that are not available in-house. She also said that the company is leveraging AI for marketing, strategic planning, and other tasks—all the while emphasizing that humans need to continually monitor and oversee any AI output. "AI as a strategic thinking partner, left to its own devices, would really have done some very stupid things," McIntosh said.