Booktailors
The company started out as a publishing consultant, but expanded its activity in the publishing business, always aiming at groundbreaking innovation.
We became a leader in every area of the Portuguese publishing business: consultancy, professional training, author representation and literary event production.
Consulting
In 2013, the company expanded its author representation and event production abroad.
We have visited many international book fairs and scouted markets such as Spain, Germany, United Kingdom, Sweden, Serbia, Poland, Italy, Mexico, Brazil and Colombia. In 2013 we produced in Colombia the event Portugal Guest of Honour at Bogotá Book Fair, the greatest cultural event in the country, which extends through three weeks, and has more than 900 reporters and half a million visitors. In 2016 Booktailors was the oficial consultant and produced the first rights fair in Bogotá Book Fair.
With a young team dedicated to each area (editorial, marketing, communication, author representation and production), Booktailors is aiming at least for the next ten years — it continues to show an annual growth in every competitiveness index: turnover, profitability, clients, human resources, suppliers and partners.
Consultancy — Elsinore | Teaser
Events
As leaders in literary event production in Portugal, in 2010 we came up with the idea of establishing a network of festivals in the country.
Our events have totalled more than 700 guests and a 100 round tables, dozens of exhibitions, movie shows, poetry readings, lectures, and many other literary and artistic interventions, always focused on books and reading.
Booktailors Events
LeV
Founded more than a decade ago, it is one of Portugal’s most important literary festivals. Focused on travel literature, it is a wide exploration of the notion of voyage and writing. It has had Pulitzer and Man Booker Prize winners as guests of honour.
Guests: Paul Theroux, Mia Couto, Howard Jacobson, David Mitchell, Claudio Magris, Frederico Lourenço, Hélia Correia, Rachel Cusk, Lídia Jorge.
Location: Matosinhos, Portugal
Date: May
Fronteira
Fronteira is the first literary festival aimed at children’s and YA literature. Set in Castelo Branco, it showcases school sessions aimed at all the children in the district, but also events for a general audience.
Guests: Mia Couto, Laborinho Lúcio, Pedro Mexia, Manuel Alegre, Inês Pedrosa, Ana Margarida Carvalho, Dulce Maria Cardoso, Afonso Cruz, Valter Hugo Mãe e José Eduardo Agualusa.
Location: Castelo Branco, Portugal
Date: April
Húmus
Set in Guimarães, Húmus was born out of the need to revive the forgotten Portuguese writer Raul Brandão, and to discuss the main topics of his work. It promotes school sessions, illustration exhibits and several interventions in the public space.
Guests: Isabel Pires de Lima, Dulce Maria Cardoso, Maria Antónia Palla, Lídia Jorge, João Tordo, Afonso Cruz, Catarina Wallenstein, Pedro Lamares, Luís Represas.
Location: Guimarães, Portugal
Date: March
Tinto no Branco
The Dão Wine Manor, in Viseu, brings together two of life’s greatest pleasures, literature and wine. Every year it showcases two events, Tinto no Branco and Vinhos D’Inverno, a marriage of the best grape varieties and the most outstanding writers.
Guests: Michael Palin, Ricardo Araújo Pereira, Pedro Mexia, Raquel Varela, Anselmo Borges, Daniel Oliveira, Karla Suárez, Leonor Pinhão, Inês Fonseca Santos, Frei Bento Domingues.
Location: Viseu, Portugal
Date: December
Morabeza
The greatest literary event in Portuguese-speaking countries, it is where European, African and American continents meet. Born in Praia, Morabeza travels throughout the islands of Cape Verde archipelago. It showcases workshops, school and university sessions and debates.
Guests: Lázaro Ramos, Miguel Sousa Tavares, Mia Couto, Carmen Posadas, Alexandra Lucas Coelho, Germano Almeida, Arménio Vieira, Júlio Magalhães, Dina Salústio, Vera Duarte.
Location: Cabo Verde
Date: October
Feira do Livro de Braga
One of the most important book fairs in Portugal, it has turned into an integral part of Braga’s downtown. It highlights a strong cultural programme which includes masterclasses, workshops, exhibitions and many open debates.
Guests: Helena Vasconcelos, Zita Martins, Lídia Jorge, Pedro Marques Lopes, Rui Tavares, Ana Maria Magalhães, João Luís Barreto Guimarães, João de Melo, Bruno Vieira Amaral.
Location: Braga, Portugal
Date: June/July
Feira do Livro de Aveiro
One of the oldest book fairs in Portugal, it is set in Manuel Firmino Market, in the town of Aveiro. Showcasing local booksellers, the Book Fair combines the informality of a market with the intensity of readings and round tables. Its lively programme includes feature interviews, debates and workshops for children.
Guests: Valter Hugo Mãe, Gonçalo M Tavares, Frei Bento Domingues, Raquel Varela, Isabel Stillwell, Capicua, Maria João Lopo de Carvalho, Luís Costa Ribas, Rogério Samora, Ana Cristina Silva.
Location: Aveiro, Portugal
Date: May/June
FilBo Bogotá
In 2013 Portugal was guest of honour of the second largest book fair in Latin America. Its participation was considered the best in the history of FILBo, with a quality delegation showcasing different generations of writers and various genres of writing in Portuguese and Portuguese-speaking literature, and an ability to build bridges between these cultures and Colombian readers.
Guests: Vasco Graça Moura, Mia Couto, Dulce Maria Cardoso, José Eduardo Agualusa, Nuno Júdice, Fernando Pinto do Amaral, Ana Moura, Mísia, Afonso Cruz, Teolinda Gersão, Ana Luísa Amaral, André Letria.
Location: Bogota, Colombia
Date: April/May
FIL Guadalajara
Guadalajara Book Fair, set in Mexico, is the second largest book fair in the world, coming right after Frankfurt. In 2018, Portugal was guest of honour. Its participation included concerts, plays, dance shows, art exhibitions and many debates and talks. For 10 days, Guadalajara was immerse in Portuguese culture.
Guests: António Lobo Antunes, Hélia Correia, Ana Margarida Carvalho, Dulce Maria Cardoso, Teolinda Gersão, Margarida Vale de Gato, Ana Luísa Amaral, Gonçalo M Tavares, Afonso Cruz, João Tordo, Manuel Alegre.
Location: Guadalajara, Mexico
Date: November/December
Festival literário da Madeira
Madeira Literary Festival was born in a hotel auditorium, but it quickly took over Funchal’s Baltazar Dias Theatre. Throughout its various editions, it has asserted itself thanks to the quality of its national and international guests of honour.
Guests: Mick Hume, Ricardo Araújo Pereira, Benjamim Moser, Clara Ferreira Alves, Cândida Pinto, Eleanor Catton, Javier Cercas, Sofi Oksanen, Adam Johnson, Tatiana Salem Levy.
Location: Funchal, Portugal
Date: March
LEuL
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Literary Europe Live (LEuL) was a Literature Across Frontiers (LAF) project, with the support of the European Union Creative Europe programme.
The network comprised 16 literary festivals and promoters who reflected on the richness and diversity of European literary landscape. It included Hay Festival, an organisation which has been promoting seminal authors for almost 30 years; Oslo Poesifilm; the Barcelona Contemporary Culture Centre; the Croatian Writers’ Society; Diyarbakır Art Centre, in Turkey; and Booktailors, among many others throughout European Union.
This action also fostered translation programs adapted to both digital and traditional audiences, nurturing quality writers and promoting them in their home country and abroad.
Mobility programs aimed at writers and translators were created throughout Europe, with the goal of spurring literary writing in every genre.
It intended to break the language barrier among European Union countries and to build a common ground, where those who dedicated their life to writing were challenged. It also reinforced LAF’s ongoing efforts to expand readership, especially in Europe. Sharing their ideas and experiences, members and participants built and collaborated in each other’s work and bonded with European institutions working in literary culture promotion.
Booktailors aimed at promoting and representing Portuguese literary landscape before its partners.
Its action programme was also centered around European rural areas, trying to find the means to promote culture and build bridges with their inhabitants. Besides contributing with digital content, Booktailors lead the production in Portugal of two events on European literature.
Cela
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In June 2017 talent development programme CELA (Connecting Emerging Literary Artists) founded a two-year writing and translation programme.
CELA united 6 countries (Belgium, Italy, Portugal, Spain, Netherlands and Romania) and 7 partners (Booktailors, Escuela de Escritores, GAV/Cinepub, Huis deBuren, Passa Porta, Pisa Book Festival and Wintertuin).
Its goal: develop a new generation of literary creators to work together for an European audience.
CELA selected 18 emerging authors, 24 emerging translators, 6 professionals and 7 organizations who got training, tools and were able to network. They learned how to combine an international career with a professional pratice.
During the first year seven organisations together chose and guided authors, translators and professionals, and offered them a transnational training programme which prepared them to work for an international audience in the European market. Hence the programme provided skills, an international network and tools used during the second year, when the new voices were presented at an European level.
In 2018 and 2019 the participants were promoted through international marketing and advertising campaigns, a six-festival tour in Europe, and contacts with well-known writers and organisations.
Those taking part were able to contact with many professionals of the publishing business. Since 2014 seven organisations and many professionals from six European nationsjoined forces to establish CELA.
Partners had a common need to build a sustainable foundation to nurture talents, as means of ensuring diversity in European literature and boosting a successful career. Focused around developing writers’ cross-border skills, CELA merged digital opportunities for literature, new ways of revenue and employability.