He is just 22 years old and has already published four books. His name is Gabriel Velásquez, a fifth-year student of the Bachelor of Journalism at the University of El Salvador, an innate artist and a promise for national literature.
Since he was little he discovered a very strong bond with books and at 18 he began to write professionally, although he had no rapprochement with this world. Therefore, he asked other veteran writers for support, but they never responded to his messages.
When he finished his book he inquired about the cost of printing, the reality was disappointing, a printing company offered to publish twenty of his copies for $ 600, something impossible for his pockets.
Then he met a man who had just installed his printing press, who gave him a different and more accessible offer.
“No publisher wants to work with you if you do not offer them money and they will not waste their time reading something of yours, it is a problem that young writers suffer,” he lamented.
“There is a huge gap in Salvadoran writing compared to other countries and it is something that we have tried to break, but how ten Salvadoran writers fight against the State”
Gabriel Velasquez, Writer
Her first book “Empty Stories” she published in 2019, and with the support of a friend she managed to raise the money to cancel the printing press. He presented it in a cafe in Santa Tecla, on May 10, he remembers that only six people attended and two books were sold, a hard blow for the young writer. “You hope to sell a lot,” he revealed.
However, he found an impulse to publicize his work on social networks, and thanks to these platforms he began to sell his books, the first 100 in a week. With the passage of time he managed to sell them in other countries such as Belgium, Mexico, the United States, Italy, among others.
The first book had done well and he could already afford the printing costs of the second, “The compilation of the unworthy” always in 2019. Before the end of the year he published his first novel “Cuestiones”.
He relates that 2019 allowed him to recover some expenses he had for the publication of his three books, however, 2020 was very different, “very beneficial to write but very difficult to deposit money”, due to the covid-19 pandemic.
“A month of confinement passed but the books were not selling, I had a savings of five months where my other books had sold quite well, to spend a few days quietly. Already in the pandemic the books were not sold in any way, and money was being very tight, “he said.
Gabriel took advantage of those days to read a lot and write his latest book “The Circus of Idiots” which required an exhaustive research work. In October 2020, with the covid-19 restrictions lifted, he published his second novel; the first of his books that had the support of a publishing house. He smiles when he remembers that the presentation was carried out successfully in a café in the Historic Center.
“The books were sold out that day, the problem is that before launching the new one, I had not sold any of the previous ones, I didn’t have a penny, I had no income, I had to go into debt to get the book out,” he said.
In addition, his novel was selling little. At that moment he felt the impact, he went from selling 100 books a week to selling six, but then the situation got worse and he sold two books a week, he even spent a couple of weeks without selling anything and was forced to lower prices.
“The book cost $ 12 and it went down to $ 6, I was only making $ 2 per book, but it was to try to sell it because people were no longer buying it, and everyone had a reduction in sales, not just the last one. Sometimes I made $ 40 a week and it is impossible to live with that amount, because I have no other income, “he explained to LA PRENSA GRÁFICA.
Velásquez relates that he practically began giving away his books at the events where he participated, selling two and giving away ten. In addition, it reduced the printing of them, because before the pandemic it printed 100 but they lasted a week, then, it barely managed to sell a pair.
The writer regrets that private and public institutions do not promote Salvadoran literature. And he considers that there is a lack of knowledge about the reality faced by emerging authors.
“I have a friend who, because he was a young writer, no publisher wanted to work with him, he sent his book to Spain, they charged him like a thousand dollars to work for him, and when he sold it he only got $ 200, he suffered a loss of $ 800, it’s not that it’s a bad thing writer, but getting a book out in the country is expensive, and that’s why you can’t sell it for a dollar, “he said.
Velásquez has triumphed in international competitions, and highlights the support of other countries and not the local one. He won in Mexico and was included in the “100 stories from all of Latin America during the quarantine”, and recently competed with more than 500 writers in the Manzana Dorada de Guatemala Contest, where he obtained third place.
“There is no dissemination of national literature, and if there is, it is very scarce. The Ministry of Culture opens a library and the massive purchase is of foreign books, not Salvadorans,” he said. “I have too many books in my house, that I hoped to sell and it has been complicated,” he concludes.
Gabriel Velásquez’s books are available at Librería UCA and La Ceiba.
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Who is it?
Name: Gabriel Velásquez
Age: 22 years
Series or movies: Series
Which one: Breaking Bad
Writer: Juan Carlos Onetti
Sport: Soccer
Reggaeton: Yes, Bad Bunny
National artist: Los Redd
Beverage: Café
K-pop: No
Favourite place: My house
A colour: Negro
Favorite person: My friends
A meal: Lasagna
Gabriel Velásquez, writer
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