The Book Fair… and its difficult sister, the Famous Book Fair

• Literature The poesa of the ‘like’
• book Fair those on the margins

End of May, Parque del Retiro, first Saturday of the Madrid Book Fair: 554 book signing sessions take place between 10:00 and 21:30. Rosa Montero, Baltasar Garzn, Miguel Ángel Revilla, Fernando Savater, María Dueas, Javier Cercas, Pedro J. Ramrez, El Hematocrito, Defreds, Irene X, Julia Navarro, Lady Desidia, Fernando Aramburu… Any reader might think of a robot portrait of the type of author that interests you, that someone would find in the Saturday program of the Fair.

The copy signatures they are the heart that pumps visitors at the Madrid Book Fair and encourages sales. But they are also your thrombus. During the last edition of the Fair, last September, held in a closed and reduced space and with complex health security measures, the signing sessions made booksellers and book lovers desperate. Who were those people who lined up to have their copy signed that youtuber poet? How to enjoy the walk among those crowds, how to find something interesting? How to get out of here?

“The feeling of chaos last year was so evident that this year an attempt has been made to rationalize the space a bit. Four booths have been installed that are in the central point of the Fair, at the height of the Eugenio Tras Library, but they have room to attract a lot of people without interrupting the ride. It is assumed that the massive signing sessions will be held there, which, deep down, we can all foresee what they are and that they depend on the large publishing groups,” explains Igor Muiz, Muga’s bookseller.

“I think that this year, with the venue open, we will once again have fluid traffic,” says Marina Sanmartn, from Cervantes y Compaa. “It’s true, last year there was a very specific audience that was left out by the entrance queues. A teenager who comes as a fan to a signing session has more stamina than a man who reads Banville. But the mass is also the essence of the Fair”.

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The critical woman is Feli Corvillo, a bookmaker for Polifemo, a five-decade veteran of the Feria del Libro. “The success of youtuberscooks of Masterchef and TV presenters last year reached a breaking point. We found ourselves in a system where a few benefited at the expense of the rest of us losing. If you had a massive signature at the next stall, you could already give up half an afternoon. It was impossible for people to see your place.”

“In reality, signatures are not something that always existed at the Book Fair,” continues Corvillo. “It started at a specific time, in the 70s, as an invention by Rubio, who was a bookseller who was on Calle Alcal, very close to El Corte Ingls de Goya.. It brought Fernando Vizcano Casas, writers like that… Later, the concept of best seller and the firm became the center of the business.

“When I started in this business, the firms were already very important, but everything has worsened in recent years. I would say that the change is that the long queue of readers who want his signature no longer makes sense to sell more books. No matter how many people there are, it is impossible to sell more than 100 books in one signing hour. Also, many of the guys who come to see a influencer They don’t buy, they come to see their idol and take a picture. What matters is the symbolic impact of the big tail. That’s a brutal image,” explains Muiz. “Recently, we scheduled a signing session at Muga with a politician that we anticipated would be well attended. We thought about setting up a reservation system for places, but at the publisher they said no, that what they wanted was for there to be a large crowd without being able to enter the bookstore.”

Editorial Planeta today has a category called “Celebrity Books” on its website. They fit in your shop window books on Lionel Messi, on Roger Federer and on Valentino Rossi, the memoirs of lvaro Urquijo, those of La Mala Rodrguez and those of Chenoaand a book called Uep and signed by Miquel Montoro, the farmer boy/youtuber Mallorcan who became famous for a video called Hstia, pilotes!. What to think?

“I think it would be a mistake to say that it is impossible to create good readers from books of this type. In general, we are all unaware of the world of youtubers. We are left with the most vulgar of them but there are also youtubers who talk about music and science. I already know that most of the kids who read celebrity books will be lost for the book before they read Abroadbut the few who follow that path are already important”, adds Marina Sanmartn.

“I know there is an old guard at the Book Fair that he sees these things with fear and that he stops going to the Fair because he is overwhelmed. But I do not think that this phenomenon should be expelled from the Retreat or from the world of books. The charm of the Book Fair is that it is a popular festival with a mass public. I think that the benefit of attracting all these people to the book is greater than the harm caused by the heaviness caused by the crowds,” concludes Muiz. Basically, on Fair Saturday, we are all book tourists.