First came CDs. Then came screens, social media, series, and video games. Now, artificial intelligence. The book has been accumulating competitors for years, yet the publishing business has not stopped growing. In 2025, the Spanish publishing market generated a turnover of 3.138 billion euros, 3.3% more than the previous year, marking twelve years of sustained growth. But this growth was not limited to turnover; it was also evident in sales and production: 196 million copies were sold, and over 89,000 titles were published.
This expanding publishing sector will find one of its greatest showcases at Liber. The professional fair for the publishing sector will hold its 44th edition in Barcelona, from 29 September to 1 October, with nearly 250 exhibitors from 19 countries. Over three days, publishers, agents, distributors, and booksellers will gather to showcase the sector's latest developments, seek out new markets, negotiate rights, and explore new pathways for books to reach other countries and formats. In total, the organisers expect to bring together some 9,000 professionals, almost 40% of whom will be international.
The exhibition will span the entire book chain, from large groups and independent imprints to specialised publishers and companies in production, distribution, and marketing, as well as professional associations and collective representations from various autonomous communities, from Andalusia to the Basque Country.
A publishing industry that crosses borders
Indeed, expansion beyond borders will be one of the central themes of this edition. Liber returns to Barcelona – after taking place last year in Madrid, as the fair is held alternately in both cities, promoted by the Spanish Federation of Publishers' Guilds (FGEE) – with a clear vocation: to build "a bridge between Europe and Latin America," as expressed by this edition's slogan.
An objective that will also materialise in the international dimension of this edition: Liber has invited more than 700 professionals from 70 countries, who will participate in a programme featuring over 4,000 professional meetings
However, these commercial opportunities will not only come from Latin America. "We have a robust publishing industry boasting a great asset: Spanish, a language spoken by nearly 600 million people worldwide," points out Manuel González, president of the Spanish Federation of Publishers' Guilds and of Liber.
A market of Spanish speakers that is no longer concentrated solely in Latin America, but has dispersed throughout the world. The United States will become, as González recalls, the country with the second-largest number of Spanish speakers in the world in the near future. But interest in Spanish books goes even further: reaching China, India, South Korea, Ukraine, Turkey, and Armenia, countries that will also be present at the trade fair with their own stands.
Exports from the Spanish publishing sector are nearing €400 million
With this sheer variety of countries, the Spanish Federation of Publishers' Guilds estimates that exports from the Spanish publishing sector are now approaching 400 million euros. A figure that is no longer solely explained by physical books crossing borders, but increasingly stems from the sale of rights: agreements to translate, publish, distribute, or adapt a work in other markets.
"The publishing industry has two main business models: the sale of physical books and the sale of licences for foreign publishers to release them," explains Fernando Benzo, secretary general of the FGEE. It is precisely this rights market that Liber aims to boost with the Rights Centre, a space that debuted in Madrid during its previous edition and now arrives in Barcelona.
This space connects Spanish publishers with agents, buyers, and professionals from other countries interested in acquiring translation, publishing, distribution, or adaptation rights. On this occasion, the fair has invited 120 specialists from 46 countries, and hundreds of professional meetings have already been scheduled.
The future of the book, on the table
The sale of copyright will not be the only topic of conversation at Liber. As a showcase for the industry, the fair will also bring to the table one of the changes generating the most questions in the sector: artificial intelligence. Its impact already spans practically the entire book chain, from translation and proofreading to editing, promotion, distribution, and data analysis. But it also opens up new debates regarding copyright and the use of works to train generative artificial intelligence models.
AI will share space with other changes and challenges already transforming the publishing industry. Audiobooks, new reading formats, sustainability, and accessibility will also feature among the topics in the professional programme, alongside matters more closely related to the publishing business, such as translation, data, internationalisation, and market perspectives leading up to 2030. In total, Liber's extensive programme will feature over 80 activities and around 150 speakers.
Liber's agenda will also be complemented by a more institutional event: the Gala Liber, which will be held on 30 September at the Museu Nacional d’Art de Catalunya (MNAC). During the evening, the Liber Awards, granted by the Spanish Federation of Publishers' Guilds in conjunction with the trade fair, will be presented. This year, the awards will recognise the Cuban writer Leonardo Padura, publisher Xosé Ballesteros, the Regional Library of Murcia, the cultural supplement ABC Cultural, the creators of the series Anatomía de un instante, and the Barcelona bookshop Casa Anita.
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