“We create stories. We create history” was the motto of the 50th Book Fair in Sofia, Bulgaria. More than 170 publishing houses participated offering more than 100 000 different titles for both adults and children.
The first international book fair in the country was held in 1968 aiming to expand the contacts between readers and publishers. Thus, Sofia became the fifth European city to host a book forum at an international level after Leipzig, Warsaw, Frankfurt and Belgrade. Almost half of the current Fair attendants (47%) buy books at least once a month, 30% - once a quarter, 13% - once every six months, and 4% - once a year, the research has shown.
“New life” Adventist Publishing House participates in the Fair since 2015. There are many interesting meetings during the Fair – both with readers and other publishers.
“I am pleasantly surprised by the colleagues from other publishing houses - those with whom we are in contact. For example, we have wonderful relations with our neighbors in the booth-stand. We exchange books, we talk about covers, about translators, about authors, about printing houses... Some of them express interest in our publications. One of the Publishing Houses’ managers already has an extensive collection of our books,” says Viriginia Chirpanlieva, General Manager of “New life” Adventist Publishing House.
There were may volunteers at New Life booth-stand – helping, sharing the Truth, making friends with the attendants. All volunteers were happy to participate at the events and they just kept coming day after day after day.
Partaking in the Book Fair is a great way to get out of our circle, out of our familiar readers, to learn new things - from arranging shop windows to communicating with printing houses. It's a wonderful way to share our Adventist faith and to make new friends. The challenges are many as most of the people are not receptive to Christian literature. Some customers are genuinely shocked by the availability of so many Christian books and Bibles. Others enjoy visiting New Life’s booth-stand and happily buy from our products. Many Adventists just came to visit the booth, most of them bought a lot of books to support the Publishing House, took pictures together in front of the booth, talked, wanted to replace the PH staff at the booth, brough water and food…
The most pleasant experience? When God sends people with questions about our books. This means great conversations and purchase of a lot of our products!
The balance at the end of the Fair is 435 books & 100 titles sold. And we are sure God has more blessings for us in store! Books sold, people reached, eternal destinies changed…
