Publisher, distributor, and online bookseller World Caribbean Books will host its inaugural Christmas Book Fair December 13-14 in Nassau, Bahamas, as part of an ambitious push to raise the profile of Caribbean publishing on the global stage. The fair marks the latest initiative from the Nassau-based company, which aims to unify Caribbean authors under one roof.
"We're trying to increase literacy throughout the entire Caribbean region," said Albert Cox, CEO of World Caribbean Books. "There's always a misunderstanding that in the Caribbean, it's only about sunshine and sea and the tourists. But there is more that happens here that affects the greater world."
World Caribbean Books also intends to develop the World Caribbean Encyclopedia, a comprehensive encyclopedia for the region covering Caribbean literature, history, and culture. The encyclopedia will be published in multiple languages including English, Spanish, and Portuguese.
"This is an untapped region that has never had the chance to tell the world what has happened here historically," Cox said. "We are liberating that history." He added that the company aims to cater to the approximately 45 million people living in the Caribbean, plus the large diaspora populations in the U.K. and U.S.
World Caribbean Books operates as a hybrid publisher and handles manufacturing, distribution, marketing, and sales for its authors, with plans to publish and distribute more than a million copies of books across all Caribbean countries over the next two years. Cox said the company currently focuses on English-language publishing but plans to expand into multiple languages for the encyclopedia project.
Cox, who has more than 20 years of experience in the publishing industry and is a published biographer, said Caribbean authors often lack recognition and organization. "The voices and authors throughout the Caribbean countries weren't necessarily being identified as being relevant," he said. "It needed to be organized in a way that it could get some kind of attention in the right way."
