The Liber fair, which annually brings together professionals from the world of books, yesterday closed the doors of its 40th edition at the l'Hospitalet de Llobregat fairgrounds, with a feeling of optimism and of having recovered its pre-pandemic levels. The presence of buyers from other countries has doubled, reaching 40% of the total of 8,500 people.
The guest program – which helps pay for trips from other countries, especially from Latin America – has gone from 250 people to 480.
Although it is still too early to know the economic figures, there were 300 exhibitors, more than 5,000 business meetings and the organizers hope to reach 150 million euros in linked billing – which is channeled through the book camera.
Daniel Fernández, president of the Federation of Publishers Guilds, highlights the "strong presence of buyers from the US -among them, a large representation of librarians-, as well as that of countries that had been closed for a long time with bookstores due to the pandemic, like Mexico, Peru, Ecuador or our guest this year, Colombia, and people from exotic or unusual places, like New Zealand or India. Many more people have come than we thought.”
"Where there are fewer bookstores, there is more far-right voting, they have detected it in Germany and the same thing happens in Spain," said Xosé Ballesteros, bookseller and editor of Kalandraka, who defended independent platforms at one of the morning tables. that compete with Amazon in online sales (Todostuslibros.com, Libelista.com, Buscalibre.com), because "no steps are skipped, buying there continues to benefit the entire chain."
A self-publishing meeting established an acceptable average price of 1,728 euros to publish a 240-page book, in physical and electronic format, and with proofreading, layout, printing and distribution services.
Catalina Bohórquez warned of the dangers of self-publishing without hiring those services. She also highlighted that artificial intelligence already allows audiobooks to be produced for free, choosing the Spanish accent, "although the voice is a bit mechanical."
