In the days leading up to Sant Jordi, all publishers and bookstores post their authors' programs and, if you look closely and think a little about logistics, it doesn't take long to see the problem. How is it possible that the same person is summoned from 11:00 to 12:00 in Plaza Catalunya and immediately from 12:00 to 13:00 in Diagonal? How is she going to get from one point to another on a day when the city is collapsed? The only clear answer to that question is: accompanied, he will arrive accompanied.
Next to each author who moves around Catalonia and, specifically, Barcelona, signing books, there is another person, who belongs to his publishing house and is generally his press officer but also his editor, the marketing manager or any other staff member of the seal – that day reinforcements are needed and everyone rolls up their sleeves – which is dedicated to shepherding it. And it is they, the shepherds of authors, who make Sant Jordi possible, who make sure that an author is at the CCCB's Drac festival on Friday, at the Continuarà and La Vanguardia celebrations on Saturday, and at the Sunday lunch at Planet, that you reach all your signatures, have breakfast with the mayor, take selfies with your readers, and have cocktails with your peers at the end of the day.
"Rafael Reig, one of the first authors that I accompanied in my working life, coined the verb 'pastorear' to define the work of the press officer and it seems to me that the term acquires its fullest meaning in Sant Jordi", says Lídia Lahuerta , who now shares communication tasks with Maria Teresa Slanzi at Anagrama. “You must have the route memorized and ensure that your author arrives on time at each of the signatures, avoiding any possible crowding and being responsible for covering their basic needs throughout the day, which includes hydration, technical stops to go to the bathroom and lively conversation to lift your spirits if you are not one of those who sign the most, which is the most common”.
Those are the two main flanks that author shepherds have to cover: make sure they get from one point to another and pamper them when they are not swelling to sign and have an author who is sweeping by their side. With the first point, everyone has experienced adventures of all kinds. Núria Alemany, current communication director of Periscopi, worked many years before in Grup 62 and there she was also in charge of the pre Sant Jordi, that is to say, shepherding authors throughout the Catalan regions on the weekends before the big party.
“Once I had to take them all in an automatic van that I didn't know how to drive. I had to take them to Girona and Granollers. On the way out, Pau Vidal – the author of books such as Nivell Ç and Correctir mata – volunteered to drive, and on the way back, Ferran Rañé”. The other van of the publishing house, by the way, was driven by Guillem Gisbert, the singer of Manel (and jury of the Llibres Anagrama award) who for many years also shepherded authors. Yesterday, Alemany walked for the first time, and with extra pampering, a pregnant writer, Helena Guilera, author of L'escuma. “I would ask Ada Colau for a special lane for authors and their walkers on Sant Jordi day in the Superilla de Sant Jordi because if it is not impossible, you are accumulating delays”, she says. Taxis are in short supply and trotting the writer from appointment to appointment is not always an option. Alba Fité, who is in charge of communication at Destino, once put Alfredo Bryce Echenique on a crowded TMB bus to go up Passeig de Gràcia and many people remember, almost as if they had dreamed it, that Sílvia Sesé, the current editor of Anagrama, he took Ana María Matute up in a horse-drawn carriage. But that, Sesé clarifies, did not happen in Sant Jordi.
“The strangest thing that happened to us was when Christopher Paolini – the author of Eragon – asked us for a bodyguard during his stay,” recalls Andrea Tommasini, from Roca Editorial. For a moment, we considered that someone from the editorial would dress up. In the end we did hire one, which was completely unnecessary. In general, foreign authors hallucinate, although we explain well that it is a very special day. When they see it, they love it, but they don't understand the phenomenon, and sometimes they don't understand either that they're not as famous here as in their country."
This is another experience that all author pastors have in common, that of acting as a "shoulder to cry on" and "manager of egos", as Vanessa Moreno, from L'Altra Editorial, says, when an author does not sign as much as his neighbor. . “Since we don't have super media writers, it happens to us often. They eat some incredible tails from the media, while they do not sign. What we do is make them dizzy with other things, make them talk, and always keep them very hydrated”, she confirms. In L'Altra, in addition, they all share out to act as shepherds and booksellers in the booth. Yesterday so many people gathered that they put "boyfriends, relatives and lovers" to sell books.
Surveying relative novices and veterans, it's curious to see how they reach very similar conclusions: it's the best day of the year, it's the worst day of the year. With emphasis on the first. Alba Fité, who previously worked at Planeta, has been shepherding authors for more than 20 years and everything has happened to her. Even a marriage request, which a reader wanted to do through a dedication by Dolores Redondo in 2021. “It's like Groundhog Day. On the 23rd you get up early, plug in and in the end everything works out ”, she sums up.
Patrizia di Filippo, on the other hand, is only going for her second Sant Jordi at Blackie Books. “I made my debut through the front door, with the apocalyptic Sant Jordi last year, nightmarish, of the seven meteorological plagues. Now nothing scares me anymore. It was a difficult day but as a drifter, rowing all together, saving the books, serving the readers, taking care of your companions. I think that in general that is the spirit of Sant Jordi. In this sector we are all so caught up that that day, paradoxically the most chaotic, also serves to stop and reflect: oh, we are making books! We have paralyzed the city because of this absurd business of ours, all this work for people to take away a book home and likes it. I find it incredible."
By the way, for two years, Dolores Redondo has lived with the question of whether the woman, a fan of hers, to whom she recommended in the title page of her book to "listen to her heart" -who knows if the suitor was trustworthy- finally he accepted the request and if there was a wedding between those two readers who love the Navarrese thriller. The pages of La Vanguardia are open to them if they want to clarify it.
