There was an international theme to this year’s BookExpo Canada Friday conference, dubbed “Another Country: Creative Borders, Globalism and the Age of Collaboration.” The morning panel featured publishers from Ireland and the Netherlands, as well as American writer and consultant Ben Vershlow. But while the passports may have been different, the worries expressed were familiar: overpowering international competition and dwindling demand for books in the digital age.

For Irish publisher Tony Farmar, the problem is the struggle against the influx of Britsh product. “Our problem now is to move [Irish publishers' market share] from 15% to 50%,” he said, conceding almost immediately that reaching that goal is unlikely. Competition for authors is another key battleground — for Irish publishers, matching the clout and prestige of their British counterparts is a tall order (which will sound familiar to Canadian presses competing with domestic offices of multinational firms). Jacqueline Smit, the former publisher with Dutch firm Uitgeverij Sirene, has similar worries, with the added wrinkle of language issues. Smit told the crowd that 70% of books in the Dutch market are translated from other languages, and 80% of those are translated from English. “Globalism is a very English-language concept.”

Afternoon workshop sessions focused on familiar subjects, from youth marketing to social networking to a breakdown of the opportunities posed by print-on-demand technology. Overall, Friday’s programming was mild in tone, with little of the debate that marked last year’s “Devices and Desires” conference. (It started with a speech by author and “creative class” guru Richard Florida, which was billed in advance as offering “strategies for finding, communicating and selling to this growing segment of potential readers,” but turned out to be a genial recap of Florida’s academic and publishing career.)

However, like last year’s conference, this one also heralded a transforming technical change – and not necessarily in reassuring terms. “It does not look like a very viable business or profession,” said Ben Vershlow. “And I’m sorry to say that, because I love books.”

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