Last days. A walker who wonders what sector he still has to cover, an editor who calculates how much he sold, a reader who chooses the books according to his budget, an exhibitor who wipes his forehead with the back of his hand and says: “latest days”. The 48th edition of the Buenos Aires International Book Fair, which began on April 23 and brought together talks, presentations, book signings, debate tables and an immeasurable number of titles and copies, concludes this Monday. And what balance can be made? Let’s start the tour with Guillermo Martínez, Paula Brecciaroli, Juan Manuel Pampín and Santiago Kahn.
“It is a really very particular fair because we arrived knowing that the current economic crisis was going to affect sales. What we didn’t know was to what extent,” he says. Santiago Kahn, editor of La Parte Maldita, who exhibits his books at the Reunión collective stand in the Yellow Pavilion. “We are reaching the end with a drop in sales that is difficult to measure because for each publisher it is different: between 30 and 50%. In our case it was around 30,” he adds. For its part, Juan Manuel Pampínpresident of the Argentine Chamber of Books, states: “We knew that the Fair was going to be tough and, indeed, it is a very tough Fair.”
“It started out a little cold,” he continues, “because it was the end of the month, then it started to take on color and heat, and luckily it started to fill up with people. Unfortunately the Fair is not an island and the sales did not match the level of public that there was. In addition, there is a question of social humor, of the possibility of spending: if the food went up, if the services went up, it is difficult for people to think about perhaps a third or even fourth order expense. From what we were talking to colleagues, we are all around a 35% drop compared to what it was the previous year. It is also a reflection of what is happening in bookstores and in the market.”
For the president of the CAL and editor of the Corregidor imprint, there is a scene in the purchase of books that illustrates everything: “The one who usually came to buy five or six books is taking two, the one who came to buy two is taking one and whoever wears one thinks about it ten times.” And he adds: “A lot of people walking and little shopping.” The writer Paula Brecciarolieditor of the Conejos label who is daily in the Yellow Pavilion, serving at the La Coop collective stand, emphasizes the same: “The worst thing about this edition of the Fair is the sales, which are very low, 40% lower than the last year”.
“What was more crowded than ever was the opening ceremony,” highlights the writer. Guillermo Martinez. This year had a historical peculiarity: no one from the government attended, not even the Secretary of Culture. Leonardo Cifelli. The attention was drawn to the speech of Alejandro Vaccaropresident of the El Libro Foundation, and Liliana Heker. “I think there was a lot of desire to listen to Liliana Heker, because of what she is as a writer and teacher of writers and also because it was known that she would address the current situation in the country and the attacks on everything related to science and culture carried out by this government,” adds the author.
Indeed, the writer gave a powerful and to the point speech. “Does it make sense to celebrate this new issue of the Book Fair in a country where every day poverty and indigence grow“There are thousands of unfounded layoffs, health and public education are in emergency, public works were canceled, our universities are defunded?” he began by asking himself. He also said that “the book takes on a very special significance at this time” and that “despite the government’s efforts, it has not been possible to achieve, until now, a new and complete generation of ignorant people.”
Not only the absence at the opening, there was also a presentation hyped and finally cancelled. Javier Milei he was going to present his book Capitalism, socialism and the neoliberal trap at the Fair and to do so he chose the central court of La Rural, outside the Fair. After a back and forth with the El Libro Foundation that supposedly included the request for 5,000 free tickets, the president decided to cancel it and opt for another place, Luna Park, and spoke of “Kirchnerist-style hostility.” “For me it was yet another contempt from the President towards culture in general and the Book Fair in particular,” says Pampín.
“When he was not president he was received here many times. The problem really wasn’t the Fair. The Fair has a very important plurality. The Fair does not censor. The absence of the president at the Fair is as incomprehensible as the court’s request to present the book,” she adds.
The government’s chainsaw with its imprint of austerity also passed through Conabip, which was clearly seen at the Book Fair. “Something that seems very serious to me is that 800 fewer popular libraries came than last year,” says Santiago Kahn. Within the Book Fair, and for 19 years now, the organization that he today directs Raul Escandar works with the Libro% Program where popular libraries have the possibility of buying books at half price. This is a public policy that benefits both libraries and publishers, since the other 50% of the book is set aside by the State.
A few days ago, the editor Martin Gremmelspacher I told him to Infobae Culture that “with Conabip the drop in sales at the Fair was greater: 40 and 45% more or less.” Brian Urban from the Sarmiento de Tandil Library told in the newspaper The Echo who bought between 50 and 60 titles, “less than half of last year, when 122 could be purchased.” About this, Kahn says: “We are a country that has a very active sector in the reading community, which is popular libraries. This year fewer came, among other things due to budget cuts. And those who came, came with very little money to buy.”
“That is a very strong blow, not only for book sales, but also for bibliodiversity. Because this program means that libraries throughout the country are made up not only of the catalogs of large multinationals. In that sense, something to take into consideration at some point is that, in addition to encouraging the library to buy material, they were allowed, for example, to buy at different stands and not concentrate everything on the sale of large multinationals. Today everything is released, with all that that implies,” adds the Argentine editor.
Previous years, many maintain, there were more important international guests. It is not only about the great figures, but also about international participation in general. “This year many fewer bookstores came from Latin America, fewer bookstores came from the interior of the country and even fewer agents came and fewer people who came to do business at the Fair,” he says. Santiago Kahnwhile Pampín explains that it is due to “our lack of competitiveness”, since “Argentina is once again becoming expensive in dollars, Argentina in general terms is expensive, and the Fair is not an island.”
With the aura of Saramago and Pessoa, a small Lisbon was set up at the Book Fair. It is a program that has been in practice for some time: this year, the Portuguese capital — “airy in its meanderings,” wrote the Catalan Enrique Vila-Matas— was the “guest city” of the Fair. “Something to highlight in this edition,” Brecciaroli now says, “is that the guest city had many activities. “Lisbon attracted a lot of attention with a very good offer of writers in Portuguese and Spanish.” In this way, it was configured as a post through which everyone who entered La Rural had to pass.
Faced with this notable drop in sales and the smaller number of people compared to last year, the Book Fair authorities pulled a letter out of their sleeve: from 8 p.m. to 10 p.m., Monday to Thursday, admission is free. “It was a success,” says Pampín. “There were actually more people, it really helped people extend the hours. In fact, those who cannot visit the Fair in a single visit, because those who do not know it believe they will be able to do so, can return with free admission. Because the truth is that even coming at two in the afternoon you cannot cover the Fair in a single day.”
On this point, Santiago Kahn He drops a nuance: that the strategy was not enough. “The number of people was much smaller because the entrance to the Fair was not so accessible.” [$3500 en la semana; $5000 sábados, domingo y feriados], although measures were taken along the way to make it easier to enter. In any case, there are many people who go to the Book Fair for talks, activities, training, workshops, there are a lot of very interesting meetings, but perhaps they don’t go to buy as much as at other times, which makes the impact very noticeable. in the economic situation that the book industry is suffering,” he explains.
“That the Fair opened on weekdays from 8 pm to 10 pm freely was an intelligent decision. Maybe it lacked a little dissemination to make it more successful,” he says. Paula Brecciaroli.
Despite everything, says Kahn, “the Fair must not cease to be a meeting place with booksellers, librarians, authors, and editors. In that sense, all things considered, the best thing about the Fair remains that it is the meeting point for the book industry. But also, and this is the best thing about the Fair, is that it offers the possibility for people from the different provinces and the entire Latin American region to participate.”
