Torino Book Fair Draws 231K Visitors, Sales Surge Reported

Italy’s biggest publishing fair ends with 231K visitors, 2,500+ events, and double-digit sales growth for top publishers at Salone del Libro Torino.

on May 20, 2025

Torino Book Fair Draws 231K Visitors, Sales Surge Reported

Italy's Piedmont, the 37th Salone Internazionale del Libro di Torino wrapped up today (May 19) with a 231,000 reported visitors. That's 9,000 more visitors than last year's event, and a likely reason why organizers claim the Torino show is "Italy's largest publishing event."
The public-facing fair's programming today was said to comprise more than 2,500 events at the site, 800 events in other sections of the famously colonnaded city, all making up the use of some 70 venues.

The book fair site itself had 172,480 seats with an average occupancy of 75 percent. There were 315 sell-out events in total. Author events, including both Italian authors and foreign authors, attracted 129,360 visitors.

A “Romance Pop Up,” divided into 11 venues in a cinema space, used a “meet-and-greet” formula to lave 3,600 authors meet with 52 authors who reportedly signed some 50,000 books.

This was Annalena Benini’s second year of editorial direction.

Key Exhibitors’ Numbers
With its focus on book sales—at a time when those concerned about falling sales numbers are numerous in Italy—some of the large publishers have told the fair's organizers this year they enjoyed strong gains in sales.

The GeMS Group of publishers headed by Stefano Mauri said its sales this year at the Torino fair rose by 35 percent, reaching a peak on Thursday (May 15);
Edizioni registered a 30 percent sales advance;
Iperborea registered a 28 percent jump in sales;
Neri Pozza registered 25 percent more sales this year;
The Mondadori Group, by the administration of the fair, registered 15 percent more compared to 2024's figure;
The Feltrinelli group registered 10 percent more sales; and
Rizzoli registered 15 percent more sales than it did last year.

The Netherlands' Guest of Honor Program
Titled "The Discovery of Holland," the guest of honor program of the Netherlands came in with 19 writers who were involved in over 50 events—presentations, workshops, meetings, conducted on the Netherlands' stand as well as in other areas of the fair.

A workshop by Gert Jan Pos got into high gear with participants creating some 100 delft tiles an hour—1,800 throughout the course of the show—" adorning them with book quotes, blending tradition and creativity."

The 2025 Aficionado Award Nominees
As readers of Publishing Perspectives will be aware, the Aficionado Award, established "to appreciate and honor the individuals, businesses, and projects that innovate and impress in innovative collaboration"—is a collaboration between the Torino fair and Frankfurter Buchmesse (October 15 to 19).

Every year the three shortlisted candidates for the award, given at Frankfurt, are announced at the Salone Internazionale del Libro di Torino.

The nominees this time, it was discovered at Torino, are:

The independent publishing company Seagull Books (Calcutta);
La disparition (Marseille), an epistolary vehicle on things that are vanishing; and
The network of literature professionals zoraLIT (Berlin).
The three shortlisted nominees were selected by the initial jury consisting of Laurence Laluyaux (RCW Literary Agency); Peter van der Zwaag (Bezige Bij); and Camilla Cottafavi (Feltrinelli).