Fair of the book 2019: The illusion of saving the year in …

The chronicle of an announced impoverishment is getting worse and worse. Although the book is a staple for an intense minority of readers, economic policy, the explosive combo of the recession, soaring inflation and the rising dollar make it an inaccessible item. How many can buy a book a month – if that was a reasonable, moderate and even "optimistic" figure – with crushed wages and no prospect of recovery? Very little, less and less. There are no "considerate prices" or "essential prices" of the state for books. The opening of the 45th International Book Fair in Buenos Aires, which begins today in the countryside with a long wait for the inaugural address of the feminist anthropologist Rita Segato and which will make Barcelona a guest city (see boxes), The industry players, authors, publishers, translators, booksellers and printmakers are dismayed by the crisis that is growing. The figures from the report prepared by the Argentine Chamber of Books (CAL) produce tachycardia. In 2018, 43 million copies were printed, a decrease of 48% over 2015 (83 million copies), the year the beginning of the downtrend.

The same CAL report included a sales survey among the entity's partners, which brought together over 500 representatives of small and medium-sized publishing houses. The 65 percent of the 51 participating companies – 62 percent of this universe have up to 10 employees and 57 percent charge less than 9 million per year – have experienced negative variations in their profitability. In 33% of cases, this decrease was equal to or greater than 20 points. "Sales are falling, but so as to give tachycardia," says writer Damian Tabarovsky, editor of Mardulce, who exhibits his catalog in the seven logos (booth 1920, yellow flag), alongside Adriana Hidalgo and Caja. , Eternal Cadence, Creature, Katz and Beatriz Viterbo. "There are very bad months, because it was February -30 percent lower than February 2018 and sometimes, without knowing why, they bounce back, but the general trend is down sales and the Costs, especially paper, are as important as the drop in sales.The two variables, together, form an explosive combo. "The writer and publisher of Mardulce says they are run with a official dollar of 45 pesos. "The rise of the dollar has not changed much in relation to exports, it is still difficult and difficult to export.In the opposite, the paper being a commodity, quoted at the price of the day, the rise of the dollar immediately involved an increase in the value of the paper. "

Last year, the fair started with a dollar between 20 and 21 pesos and went down to 28 dollars. The devaluation continued in August, exceeding 40 pesos. It closed yesterday at nearly 45 pesos, more than double what the government reported. dollar end of April 2018. Nobody is immune to the crisis. Publishers with the largest volume of edited books have more return. All are victims of an economic policy that is deteriorating more and more the dynamics of publishing in Argentina. Gastón Etchegaray, President of Grupo Planeta, Southern Cone Region, explains that "2018 was a year in which we were able to increase by 3% in volume, in number of copies sold, but we do not have the same number. we could not absorb inflation by 47% .In this sense, we were below. "The contrast deepens the abyss that hovers over the publishing industry. "If we compare the beginning of 2019 to 2018, we have a worse first quarter than in the previous year, remember it was before the devaluation and the market was still not beaten," he said. Etchegaray.

"The devaluation has a lot of impact," says the president of Página12, president of Grupo Planeta. Do not forget that the cost of the paper is indicated in dollars, which has a considerable impact on the final cost of the book. On the other hand, the devaluation plus inflation is a deadly combination for our industry because we can not transfer everything to the price. This also has a significant impact on the payment of rights in dollars or euros to foreign authors and makes it almost impossible to amortize certain contracts concluded and signed in these currencies. We stopped importing long-distance books that we brought in small quantities because we can not transfer everything at one price – these are off-market prices – and we do not know what the dollar's cap is on a market with a lot of uncertainty. The only positive aspect is the possibility of exporting more, but it has also affected the export tax, which leaves us less competitive compared to other markets. "

Leonora Djament, editor-in-chief of Eterna Cadencia, shares the diagnoses and questions the apathy of the state. "Since paper is quoted in dollars, even for local use, the price of paper is increasing every time the dollar goes up, paper and cards have increased from 65% to 100% in the last year, many more than inflation, so it's very difficult to keep book prices in a declining market for at least three consecutive years, with damaged libraries and extremely fragile payment chains, warns Djament. the state's absolute lack of interest in culture in general and in the book sector in particular.There is no policy of any kind: neither to promote reading nor to encourage SMEs in publishing, nor to help libraries or bookstores.It is clear, however, that the situation of the sector does not escape the general context of the country: we can not think of measures for it. book industry sa Think about articulated measures for the whole of society. The crisis we are going through is general and not peculiar to the book. By disinterest or deliberately, it is the chronicle of an announced impoverishment. "

With what expectations does the 45th Book Fair begin? Will this type of "bubble" usually prevail, or will the strong impact of declining consumption on books be felt more in this edition than in previous ones? "As always, we are preparing with great enthusiasm for the Fair and this year will not be an exception," said Etchegaray. Besides what the Fair implies for us, this year Barcelona is the guest city and we welcome many visitors – we are the most important Spanish language publisher and the ultimate Barcelona publishing house – , in addition to what Planeta always offers. in group at the fair: many local authors gave lectures, presented books and signed copies on our two stands, Paidós and Planeta. We have new books by Luciana Peker, Rosa Montero, Darío Sztajnszrajber; signatures and presentations by iconic authors such as Gabriel Rolón, Felipe Pigna, Viviana Rivero, Alejandro Dolina; In short, we bet strongly on the Fair, a central place for us. I hope that the public will be with us this year and that the impact of the crisis will be felt less, something difficult because the decline in consumption hits our industry very hard, and to the extent that the book market is not to recover it, we should ask ourselves if the format of the Fair – as we know it well – should change or at least adapt to the new reality of the sector in the coming years, a sector which, I insist, is very damaged "

Tabarovsky does not know what will happen in this edition. "Last year, we went with the hope of not being horrible and having done very well, but I know that some editorials went awry." I come back with the expectations that this is not extraordinary.We will see … ", adds the editor of Mardulce. "Beyond the specific problems of the publishing sector, I think it's a situation that far exceeds our expectations.For the last three years, we have been the victims of a policy that discourages consumption. of publishing without a dynamic middle clbad, with a capacity of consumption at least acceptable, is unachievable here or elsewhere.The first variable obviously exists: there is a public very interested in the books.This is to reactivate consumption, let's think about who we voted in October, "concludes Tabarovsky.