#Graciaslibro: Publishers Invite Social Networks To Celebrate The Company Of Books In This Time Of Confiment.

Since publishers are not able to be out on the street to celebrate International Book Day, they want to pay homage to books for being true companions in these difficult time of confinement, where reading is offering us the value of entertainment and training.  Books bring us voices, experiences, histories and lessons, fantasy and reality which can help us maintain a dialog an observe the world.  Today, when isolation has affected our lives, reading has proven to be an important and useful tool with which to cope with the wait and the uncertainty.  In a nutshell:  books and reading have not changed, just simply ratified their value.

The Federación de Gremios de Editores de España (FGEE), (Federation of Publishing Guilds), on the occasion of International Book Day, has started a campaign on social media named #GraciasLibro (#ThanksBook).  The objective is that thru this hashtag, publishers, writers, distributors, booksellers and readers in general, can celebrate books and thank them for becoming a companion that will never abandon us and is helping us cope with the crisis.

Through this initiative, they want to encourage readers to take a picture of the favorite reading nook in their homes and share it through Instagram and Twitter with the hashtags: #GracièsLlibre #Eskerrikaskoliburua #Grazaslibro, explaining how books are helping them cope with the crisis of the past weeks.  Parallel to that is #RetoLibro, in which they will upload their picture and challenge and encourage other users to do the same.  The final aim is to use the social networks as one big reading room in this very special day and under these very unique circumstances that we are going through.

During the last week, the Instagram profile @Federacioneditores and Twitter @FGEEenlinea have been publishing messages about the value of books during this time of confinement.

“We would love to have social networks full of people and people reading on this very special International Book Day.  We want books to have visibility on their day of celebration, and because of this, we have developed this initiative so that citizens can show their appreciation for this very special thing that will never be able to be replaced.  We would very much like to see the anonymous readers, but we also want to see the writers, illustrators, translators, designers, booksellers and distributors, our politicians, scholars and teachers, our journalists, our business people, our actors, artists, and athletes.  Everyone together because they are holding a book in their hands,” explains Miguel Barrero, President of FGEE.

Click here to view the original press release