The week that editors replace beers with coffees

BarcelonaWe are still digesting the excitement of the best Catalan Book Week in history and it is already time to turn the page. If at the Lluís Companys promenade there was partying, camaraderie, public and Catalan, at the international Liber fair there is business, meetings, international agents, Spanish and English. Coffee replaces beer, I guess. This week it is taking place in L'Hospitalet de Llobregat, at the Fair, the main meeting point for the country's publishing industry, which the Federation of Publishers' Guilds of Spain holds one year here and the next in Madrid. It is where the people with the money are.

In September, publishing houses and literary agencies live their own particular Cup-League-Champions, which will end next week at the Frankfurt Book Fair. Liber is a preview of it and complements the German maelstrom. I am told that there are 250 exhibitors selling their wares and about 9,000 professionals are expected, 40% of them foreigners. The goal is to sell books with a very specific focus, which is the fair's motto: to be a bridge between the countries of Europe and Latin America.

I cross all the stalls and head towards the rights hall, which Liber is setting up for just the second year. At aligned tables, publishers or agents from the State meet every half hour with their foreign counterparts. They put faces to names, establish a certain familiarity, and trade in catalogs. "Revenue from the sale of rights has been stagnant for seven years at between 70 and 75 million [peanuts if we consider that the book sector in the State invoiced 3.138 billion in 2024, more than 50% in Catalonia]. Since Spanish is a language with global presence, perhaps publishers have not needed to sell rights in other languages because they already had the business covered –confirms to ARA José Manuel Anta, manager of the Federation of Guilds of Publishers of Spain–. But the quality of books and authors we have shows us that we are a powerhouse and we believe it makes sense to exploit this aspect".

Clara Rosell, from the Pontas Agency, is pushing two Catalan authors who have already opened the international path, Laura Gost and Laura Autonell. "We have many languages left to sell the rights to, and there are really people here from all over the world. For us, fairs are always a good opportunity to meet new editors," she states. The first day she met with a Brazilian editor, one from Ukraine, and one from Azerbaijan, and so on all day. However, here contracts are watered, but closed via email. Natàlia Berenguer, from Asterisc Agents, brings authors like Carlota Gurt, Joan-Lluís Lluís, and Joan Carreras to Liber. "The European market knows that Catalan has its own literature. The Anglo-Saxons do too, and they know that it can be translated from Catalan to English, without going through Spanish. We always provide the books in the original version, and in the language the editor can read. The Llull has done a fantastic job," she assures, before leaving busily to the next point.

A couple of tables away I meet Pilar Lafuente, who is explaining the Planeta catalogue to Carmen Giménez from the publishing house Graywolf Press, a label based in Minneapolis. They are the publishers of Irene Solà's three books in English, which she says are selling very well: "I love the intimacy of her writing". "There is interest in the Spanish language, not so much in the Spanish market –explains Lafuente, citing the pull that authors of the new Argentine narrative have, such as Mariana Enríquez, Samanta Schweblin [Aena Prize, remember?] and María Gainza–. If you are a woman, young and Latin American, you have more points than if you are a Spanish author, of a certain age and cisgender, so to speak. In this job, you always have to grind".

And that is without counting the impact of AI, which is currently being debated in talks on the upper floors of the Fair. "Will the world of publishing be the kingdom of slop? [low-quality content created massively by AI] Will we adapt to it and will it not be necessary to exclude Goncourt authors for having worked with AI? Or will we look for more authenticity?", asks Isabel Fernández, from The Futures Factory. And she makes a bet: "You cannot go against AI. How could you want to renounce the best library in the world? But you will have to be transparent about how the work was produced to avoid a feeling of deception". She is clear that AI has entered the publishing sector to revolutionize it from top to bottom, but not to replace the author. "If you are not mortal, and your life is not at stake, you cannot make art".