The 22nd edition of the annual book fair, organised by the National Book Council, will kick off on Wednesday.
National Book Council chairman Gorg Mallia said the number of entries for the National Book Awards has doubled over last year. More than 160 entries will be battling it out in different categories.
The awards will be presented on Friday.
The council, which will finish its term next month, radically changed the competition, which previously dealt solely with literary works. A change in name, from Literary Prize, was also made. Dr Mallia said many works, including textbooks, were excluded from participating in the previous competition, something which the council sought to rectify.
"We want to attract all the works published in Malta," he said.
The council is also introducing a Lifetime Achievement Award.
Instead of giving a prize in money, the council will be buying copies of the winning books and donate them to the public library. A browse around the adult section of the library in Beltissebh shows that quite a few books have seen better days. The Libraries Department has signed cooperation agreements with 43 local councils, which donate books to the main library and the 58 regional and branch libraries.
The council itself donated a number of books.
The five-day book fair will be held at the Mediterranean Conference Centre, in Valletta, instead of the usual Trade Fair Grounds, Naxxar. Libraries director Philip Borg, who was also responsible for the organisation of the fair, said an agreement was reached with the Malta Transport Authority to have a bus leaving from City Gate every half an hour.
Entrance is free and each person who goes to the book fair will be given a ticket that would give him the chance of winning one of the books donated by the exhibitors.
Council secretary Joe Debattista said 21 publishers, authors and book importers will be taking part in the fair.
About 3,500 school children are expected to visit the fair on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday mornings. Children books author Annie Dalton will be at the fair on Sunday evening to discuss literature with the children, Mr Borg said.
Dr Mallia said the council is in the process of issuing a quality charter for publishing, drawn up after meetings with writers and publishers.
It is also in the process of setting up its website - www.ktieb.org.mt - that should be available temporarily in the coming days. The site will eventually provide a one-stop shop for people who want to find out something on Maltese authors, including a list of published books.
Dr Mallia said there were still too many misconceptions about Maltese books, with people not knowing about the existence of books for certain age groups.