Am I egocentric, money-grubbing, and classist?
BarcelonaSince some booksellers have been saying all sorts of things to me for the past couple of weeks, I'll take advantage of the privilege of having that platform to tell my story. This could be a declaration of love.
It all stems from one of the many things I said on the podcast. The fountain's after-dinner conversationIn a clip they posted, I argued that there are dynamics of the literary system that we must change because they make no sense, and I used book presentations as an example, just as I could have talked about overpublishing, the lack of readers, the blurbs on the cover sheets, or the meager fees of the juries for most awards. In the case of presentations, the argument is simple: promoting a book involves giving presentations (it's part of the job, so it's included in every contract). The problem is that most writers don't make a living writing. I, for example, am self-employed and my working hours are spent translating and juggling a thousand other odd jobs, like writing articles like this one. Therefore, going to a book presentation means taking about four hours off work (meaning work is the main paid job) (between the commute and the presentation). If I were paid a lot of money for writing, or if I were rich, I'd love to give hundreds of presentations. I wish I hadn't! But, as much as I love talking about my book (I swear I do) and having that precious direct contact with readers and booksellers (two links without which the entire publishing market collapses), it turns out that dedicating a presentation is equivalent to giving up four hours of work (in four hours I can translate 1,500 words).
If it takes you two or three years to write a book, it will rarely ever be a profitable activity in a small market like ours, but it's one thing for it not to be profitable and another for it to impoverish me. And I'm not asking publishers to pay more: they can't either; the margins are ridiculous for everyone; what I'm asking for is to rationalize the system. I don't know about you, but I'm short on cash; perhaps you think I'm shelling out for him to read my articles in newspapers (for which I charge between 80 and 150 euros gross apiece), because he sees me in interviews (I also put in hours, for which I obviously don't intend to charge), and so on. In the podcast I said that if an author dedicates these hours that they don't have to spare, and finds that there are four people in the bookstore, well, maybe they feel that the bookseller hasn't done their job. Don't get upset, please keep reading.
We have to differentiate between the presentations that the author requests (can I come present my book?) and the presentations that the bookstore requests (can you come present your book?). In the first case, the bookseller is not at fault, of course. In the second, perhaps a little, because if you don't see yourself capable of inviting ten people—note that I'm not talking about thirty or fifty, but about ten people—, then maybe it doesn't make sense to force an author to go to your bookstore. Being called a penny-pincher is really outrageous: I'm not complaining about giving a presentation to fifteen people and selling ten books in total, I already consider that a super success and that it was worth the presentation (although I remind you that if a book costs 18 euros, of the 180 euros from selling ten books to the author; I'm happy with 17 euros for four hours).
The problem isn't the booksellers
The insults also accused me of attacking small-town and independent bookstores. At no point did I say anything of that nature. I much prefer independent bookstores to those of the big groups, and small-town bookstores are an oasis. In fact, one of the few times I've found myself giving a presentation to four people was at the Abacus in Sant Cugat: which is neither independent nor small-town, and if there were four people there, I'd say it was clearly because someone hadn't done their due diligence, because Sant Cugat and Abacus have enough clout to attract ten people. This became especially evident to me when I went to promote my first novel in Galicia. Nobody knew me there, I don't write articles in any newspapers there, nor do I work as a literary translator there; I'm a nobody there (well, not here either, but at least I dream of something for four people). Well, in the two Galician bookstores, I met more than thirty people.
In any case, does thinking all this really make me, as I've been told these days, a bitter classist, an egomaniac, a money-grubber, a conceited, a mediocre, a deceptive person who deserves no one to buy or sell her any more books?
The problem isn't the booksellers, obviouslyThe problem is the perverse mechanisms that trap us all; even the bookseller, I know, faces a very difficult reality. The problem is that there are too many books and too few readers. The problem is that the Catalan market is small. What I wanted to say was that, if this is the reality we must work towards and that it won't improve in the short term, perhaps we could all make our lives a little easier. And yes, I love doing book presentations, just as I love organizing book clubs. Is a book that no one has read literature, or will it only become literature when it's read? There is no literature without readers, nor readers without booksellers. So: thank you.