Is the book fair good? Crisis and hope are visible a day before the inauguration

That, talking about the title: Is the girl beautiful? blond, They always ask that of those of us who, for one reason or another, work there year after year. Is she beautiful? What are the good books, what are the surprises, are you inundated with brochures, what are the discounts, can you talk to the authors? All this, which readers will see from this Thursday, when it opens to the public, can already be told by those who have been to the business conferences that started this Tuesday.

And when is the Buenos Aires Book Fair this year? there is no money, this year when the industry is talking about a 25 to 50 percent decline in sales, this year when tourists and book sellers from neighboring countries had less dollars to sell books? Is it worth noting blond, Let me say this quickly: Noteworthy, The crisis becomes noticeable as soon as someone walks through the door. And a little further, you get editors who talk about numbers, booksellers who talk about numbers, painters who are looking for work but also amazing books Even those of us who work with books all day don’t see this.

That’s right: those who enter through the most visible entrance, which is on Avenida Santa Fe, will enter the fair through the Okre Pavilion, which is usually occupied by the provinces and, more recently, , football teams, Well, perhaps this is the area where the crisis is most evident. The corridors look wider and although the bright provincial stands remain there, such as Córdoba, Corrientes or Santa Fe, San Juan and Mendoza are missing, the color that the different regions contributed is not there – Neuquén, Santa Cruz Chubut and Río Negro. were together as Ante Patagónico – and the corner of San Luis, where the guitars and dancing took place last year, is empty.

Also, due to availability of space, the fair extended its stand pride and Prejudicewhich is aimed at sexual diversity, and a stand can also be set up with books by independent authors, who will thus be able to access large audience Who usually goes to the fair and will he go this year?

Which is discussed everywhere. ,the entrance is expensiveTo 3500 pesos a week and 5000 Saturday and Sunday? Is it more expensive than a small coffee, where you pay 2400 pesosOr with a coffee with milk that reaches 2900, If a family of 4 is going is 5000 pesos too much money to enter? Many exhibitors, who want their efforts to be rewarded, believe this. Others shrug: The fair has its own numbers.

What is done during these days? before public entry, There are negotiations, there are meetings and of course, there are agreements and sales. In these, book sellers across the country have a discount of 50 percent. that’s why you see people with boxes And lines to pay.

“I bought less than half “Compared to last year,” says bookseller Laura Román, who has a business in the Chacarita neighborhood of Buenos Aires and pulls up a cart. Of course, this came because of the discount. He takes three boxes instead of 8 in 2022. And he says, as he goes along, his bookstore has new and used ones and what’s going on today is used (One advantage of books is that they are read thousands of times and are no worse than the first).

A boy who comes to shop for a bookstore on Corrientes Avenue will say something similar, which was once proudly called “the street that never sleeps” and “the street of bookstores.” What sells less, moves less, bets on everything that is expensive, on what is safe, like books Mariana Enriquez, He is standing in a long line.

It is rumored in the hallway, “Many booksellers from the inner area did not come because of travel costs.” “And for people coming from abroad, with such dollars, everything is very expensive.” Although that business appears to be blocked off, if you pass by the Eymic stand – nonfiction for children – you see a business meeting and hear some pronunciation that is not from here. “They are special books, philosophy for children, things that are not seen everywhere, they cost a little more but they still get them,” he says proudly but cautiously.

“Austere,” one editor told me, is what fair is like. However, do not believe that this is Franciscan poverty. There are positions like the publishing house Siglo XXI, which this year opened its children’s section and put up a panel that says “We chose democracy”, where there are people of all colors, a mother of the Plaza de Mayo, and two ovals for visitors to pose in photos. There are stands with magnificent books, large illustrated, hard covers, like from Edelweiss: they are books brought from Spain that cost between 25 and 48,000 pesos, with titles like Anne of Green Gables one of two little Women, but in versions that are one party. On professional days, this stand was full of booksellers doing research and… young people painters With their folders in their hands: They try to get a job.

That’s what they came to Lola Fair (on Instagram) lollipop), amparo (ampivillavicencioart) and Vicente (vicen10_art, Some have already worked, others are looking for work for the first time. Do they see their folders? And no, they’re all very busy, but they left little cards with hope.

how is it Book fair,

The spaces the company had paid for disappeared. NationThen the huge space they had in the Blue Pavilion was vacated and taken over – this is politics – by Buenos Aires ProvinceWith its publications, editorials that are in its territory and even on its radio.

The Banco Nación stand, which was so well located and so active until now, is not presented this time either. In its place are tables, chairs…a small branch of a coffee chain. We already said: the book fair is more than a place where books are sold, it is a mirror and actor of Argentine reality. It is logical that some of what’s happening Looked in those corridors.

And there is also “some” book ministry, the announcement that appeared on the network, which for a moment was considered official and then it turned out that it was not so: they are independent publishers who have decided to propose policies in the sector. That’s why there are stands like Typio – a group of those publishers – with the Ministry’s logo everywhere and as they enter, a young editor announces: “The minister is busy, he can’t take your service now, The official opening of the “Ministry” will take place this Friday at 6pm at Stand 1321 in the Green Pavilion. there he will speak matias reikThe “minister” who is, in fact, responsible for the publishing house Milena Casarola.

This is all a game but the policies we talk about are not a joke, they are a demand. The first – which would be supported by the entire sector – is to reduce the price of paper when it is used to make books. This is a topic that has been hot for a long time.

is she beautiful blond,

Yes, she is beautiful.

she’s lovely together Love Editorial after editorial from the people who made it. Mate everywhere with thermoses. With the most excellent titles –gallery of printsBy plastic artist Leticia Obeid, Conversation between Jesus, Jehovah and HitlerBy artist Leon Ferrari, Badenheim 1939The book by Aharon Appelfeld begins with a vacation of rich Jews, rumors of a train that will take them to Poland and a comment that causes a shudder: “It seems that this year will be very happy.”

This is a fair. Thus, along with those who make books for schools, the state has been affected by the suspension of procurement. “We lost 1.5 lakh books”, says one. He, helplessly, tries to show the transparency of the process: “All the publishers who create texts for schools, of which there are 16, were sold out, not a single one was selected,” he says. And he says that while the Ministry of Culture had confirmed the purchase, “they only told me that it had been delayed.” He was the only municipality that purchased La Matanza. And It’s impossible for a family Make the kids pay for those books. For example, the one in Language and Literature costs 18,750 pesos for the public. And the state bought it for Rs 5,500.

How is the fair? ,thrifty”This editor says.

Of course, there is no shortage of big publishers. Penguin Random House also has, among many books, libraries where the names of claudia pineiro And Eduardo Saccheri, its two best-selling authors. There are also some French books david fonkinos -One of the few foreign celebrities this year- and another from Chile roberto ampuer Displayed with greater visibility.

A pile of copies at the Planeta publishing house waiting for the best seller florence bonelli And writers like Almudena Grandes, Aurora Venturini and Leopoldo Marechal roam the screen.

There is something that catches the attention among the exhibitors of the publishing house publishing the latest publication of Xavier Miley. Just like it says “police”, “youth” or “Argentine literature”, here it says “you saw it on TikTok”. The social network of young people is the logic of sales of books by Gabriel Rolon and young Alice Kellen and Colleen Hoover. who are they talking to? For the many teenagers who have occupied the fair for years, filling the rooms, filling the stands where the sagas and the books that follow are sold. Future readers? Well, for now, these exist as another edition of the Buenos Aires Book Fair is about to begin.

Is she beautiful? If you like the smell of books, if you’re interested in being surprised by titles you haven’t seen, if you’re interested in finding things you weren’t looking for… yes, it’s beautiful. Not indifferent: it is the fair of the country where it is. So we go.

(Photos: Maximiliano Luna)