Guest of Honour

It’s day three at the fair and time for business breakfast number three. This one is about the Argentinean publishing industry. I don’t want to sound jaded, but I’m growing tired of statistical overviews. I know this is a trade fair and that it’s only right that business comes first, but somehow the objectivity of numbers doesn’t satisfy me. Maybe because I hold some romantic notion that books and literature ought to amount to something more than commerce. I really hope they do. 

Constanza Brunet, Octavio Kulesz and Trini Vergara

I get that culture and commerce are intricately and inextricably linked. Conditions in Argentina are ripe for publishing, the country boasts a literacy rate of 93 percent and books are free of VAT and import duties. As Trini Vergara, director and co-founder of V & R Editoras, says, it’s a good place to be selling “cultural goods”. It’s also a good place to create them. The Argentinean publishing industry has a strong tradition and is self-sufficient – the entire chain of production from paper manufacture, writing, illustration, design, and printing can be taken care of domestically.

After Brazil, Argentina is the second largest producer of books in Latin America. It’s publishing industry produced 22 thousand new titles last year, and prints an average of 70 million copies a year (excluding books published by the government). A normal print run would be 3 to 4 thousand (the standard range in most developed countries) and a best seller would sell about 15 thousand copies. As of now the industry earns about 49 million USD from foreign trade.The top five countries exported to are Mexico, Chile, Peru, Uruguay, and Spain.

There is, at once, a concentration and diversity in Argentina’s publishing industry. The two largest publishing houses, Planeta (36 percent) and Grup Santilana (24 percent), control 60 percent of the market. Yet, 83 percent of the publishing houses are micro-houses that produce less than 10 titles a year.

The Spanish language book market is currently the fourth largest in the world and in about 15 years it’s expected to become the largest. How come? Well, all indications are that there are likely to be more native Spanish speakers by then than there will be native English speakers. Good for Argentinean publishers, who operate, as Trini puts it, “In a market, within a market, with a future.”

Argentinean publishing’s connection with the Iberian Peninsula can be traced back to the publishing houses that were founded following the Spanish Civil war. The 1940s, 50s and 60s was a golden period, with world renowned authors like Jorge Luis Borges and Adolfo Bioy Casares coming to the fore. It didn’t hurt, either, that during this time many publishers in Spain faced censorship and were exiled by the authoritarian regime of General Franco. In the 70s the tables turned, Argentina’s has it’s own military dictatorship and several publishers and writers are either silenced or forced to flee.

Fast forward to the late 1990s and the first two years of this century. Severe recession has paved the way for a flood of imported titles from Mexico and Spain. During this time Argentina’s GDP fell by 10 percent, liquidity dried up, and many publishing houses were compelled to downsize or went bankrupt. It was a period of acute economic and political instability in which the number of titles published fell by 23 percent. To top things off, a public uprising overthrew the government in 2002 and series of presidents followed each other in and out of office.

In 2003, however, things began to turn around. Octavio Kulesz of Editorial Teseo, the biggest digital academic publisher in Argentina, marks this as the moment when there was a “re-birth” of publishing in the country. Due to a much calmer social and political climate and a stablisation of foreign exchange rates, which caused an increase in exports and a decrease in imports. “At this point many new publishing houses were founded and traditional ones started expanding again,” says Octavio.

The picture hasn’t been all rosy for the industry in the last five years. A sharp increase in operating and production costs - the cost of paper, for example, is 5 times higher today than in 2001 while book prices haven’t gone up much – and the global economic crisis have hampered growth. Octavio says, “Paradoxically, the crisis represents an opportunity, because the decline in publishing in Spain will create more access to markets for us.” Talk about cashing in on others’ misery! Where Spain has a head start, though, is in the digital arena. Octavio hopes that Argentina’s strong entrepreneurial culture will give rise to a new and dynamic generation of digital publishers who will revitalize the publishing scene.

“It’s the right moment for Argentina to be the Guest of Honour at the Frankfurt Book Fair 2010,” affirms Constanza Brunet, director of Marea Editorial an independent publishing house founded five years ago. She believes that the time is nigh for Argentinean publishers to stretch their reach beyond the Spanish speaking world in a big way. “We’ve faced difficulties because of the scars of a public policy that hasn’t supported translation,” Constanza adds.

The lobbying of the two main industry associations, Camara Argentina del Libro and the Camara Argentina de Publicaciones, have been highly influential in changing this. There are now a few grants that subsidise translation costs. One such programme is SUR, which began this year and will continue for at least another year. Through this programme the government aids foreign publishers who want to publish books by Argentinean publishers. So far 124 books have been supported, each being given 3200 USD as a grant.

Between 2002 and 2008, Argentinean publishers sold foreign language rights to about 700 titles, most of them to French and German publishers. The most popular titles are works by Nobel laureates like Borges and on historical figures like Che Guevara. Trini is quick to assert that the industry has a much broader variety than the image that Argentina enjoys abroad, as a country that only produces exceptional fiction and non-fiction. Expect this to change in the wake of Argentina’s appearance in Frankfurt as Guest of Honour next year.

Juergen Boos, in his welcoming speech, reminds us that what we see at first isn’t necessarily the whole picture.  There is often more to see behind the first impression, just like in Antonioni’s cult film ‘Blow Up’ when a photographer realises he’s unwittingly captured the scene of a murder when innocently taking a picture of a couple in the park.  And so it is the case with Argentina.  At first glance Argentina may appear to be all about what’s on the surface - but there’s more to it once you start to dig a little deeper. 

For those of you who may have forgotten, the literature of Latin America was first Guest of Honour in 1976, and indeed Mexico was honoured in 1992 and Brazil in 1994 - so the ground has been well prepared for Argentina in a way.  Violence, reminiscences and myths, as well as humour, are the themes offered by Argentina in 2009, breaking ground for its appearance in 2010.  With over 300 publising houses and around 22,000 new publications every year, there will be many opportunities in the Argentinian book market.

2010 marks the bicentenary of Argentina’s independence, Victorio Taccetti reminds us.  What i hadn’t realised was that by the middle of the 20th century, as a result of education becoming a real focus in the country, Argentina boasted the largest publishing industry in the Spanish-speaking world.  Another impressive statistic is that the production of books has risen from 50 million copies in 1990 to over 82 million in 2008.  Average growth in the publishing sector has also risen to 8.5% since 2003.   It has to be said, not many other countries around the world can boast these figures nowadays.  In addition, if you add in imports and take away exports, Argentina is today a market that consumes 147 million books.  So that’s a huge market to tap into if you are not already doing business in that area.

Next to the stage is Magdalena Faillace, President of the Orgnaizing Committee for Argentina’s appearance in 2010.  She starts by asking the question: how much does Argentina belong to Latin America?  It’s not all about geopolitical aspects of course - they also have a shared history.  One of Argentina’s aims, she explains, is to open up to the world and to be a place where education and culture can be accessed by the masses, not just by the priviledged few.  Their aim, as Guest of Honour, is to show off the diversity of their country - not only the traditional side but the lesser-known one as well.  She also points out that the country is keen to show that they are not all about Borges, Maradonna, and tango!  There is so much more to offer now - the modern Argentina is also a producer of food and technology, and a place where a wide range of literature can be found.  It’s not about the past now - it’s about the future too.  Already in the build up to the Guest of Honour appearance, many bridges are already being built between Argentina and Germany.  And not just on the subject of immigration - there’s also the influence of German Expressionism which we already see in the tareas of theatre and art.  She finishes by announcing that Martin Fierro will be the cornerstone in next year’s exhibition and that the books and authors in the pavilion will be presided over by Jorge Louis Borges and Julio Cortazar, two of the most internationally well-known authors.  There follows a history of the Argentinian publishing industry and what they represent by Gloria Lopez Llovet de Rodrigue, representing the Argentine Chamber of Publications.  In the early 20th century publishing houses such as Abeledo Perrot, El Ateneo, Tor and Claridad were established.  There were also representatives from Spanish publishers too.  But it was during the Spanish Civil War that the greatest change took place when the offices established in Argentina went from being mere distributors to actual publishing houses because, due to the war taking place - and it should be noted as a result of heavy censorship - their parent companies found themselves unable to publish in Spain itself.  As a direct consequence many intellectuals made their way to Argentina and many ended up founding publishing houses themselves.  Nowadays there are many independent publishing houses, of all different sizes, in Argentina as well as a strong representation of the main Spanish, Mexican and Colombian firms which have now become well-established.

Author Mempo Giardinelli then gives us his views on Argentinian literature.  Romanticism is something that he talks about a lot, as is the importance of Buenos Aires as a city.  He also points out that topics such as history, immigration, politics, military rule, violence and exile are all things that bind Argentina’s literature together.  He then highlights some of the characteristics of Argentinian literature today: the predominant role of women; the country’s national history; immigration flows; how Argentina managed to shun the Magic Realism of the 60s and the so-called Boom; human rights and military rule; literature coming from areas in Argentina other than Buenos Aires; the powerful tradition of the short story; poetry; the essay; and finally, the bizarrely ‘exclusive’ list of authors currently being promoted by the literary establishment. 

Music from Argentina

Last to address the conference is Daniel Divinsky, who has been an independent publisher since 1967 at the publishing house Ediciones, and who is today representating the Argentina Chamber of Books.  He begins by telling the gathered press attendees that in 1977 he and his wife were sent to prison for four months as a result of publishing a children’s book, the copyright to which they had bought at the Frankfurt Book Fair.  He went on to explain that at the time it seems thousands of books were being burned by order of the government and people were getting rid of any titles that might be found to be compromising.   The story had a happy ending because the Frankfurt Book Fair came to their rescue.  Not only did they send a message of solidarity and support (thus protecting them from any further serious consequences) but they also extended a special invitaiton to the couple inviting them to that year’s Fair, including as they did so the vital air tickets which enabled them to get out of the country on their release!  A presentation of Argentina’s Guest of Honour logo wraps up the conference, followed by a musical interlude outside provided by a rather good Argentinian trio on piano, double-bass and accordian….

I often feel as if I have parallel professional lives: 360 days of the years there is the regular world, and 5 days of the year there is Frankfurt. So Frankfurt 2009 begins, effectively, the day after Frankfurt 2008!

There is, to be sure, a “plus ca change” quality to Frankfurt. After all, it began in part to try to create a sense of cultural continuity after the cataclysm of World War Two. My first Frankfurt was 2001, four weeks after 9/11, an edgyness very much in evidence, long lines in front of Hall 8.0 for checking bags, a moment of silence on the one month anniversary, 11 October. (On my flight to Frankfurt, the plane was so empty the passengers were outnumbered by the flight attendants.)

Yet, upon successive trips, I’ve learned to memorize booth locations, escalator shortcuts, S-bahn schedules, all unchanging form year to year, and derived comfort from it, comfort which gives you the freedom to do what is most important, which is to connect with your international partners-in-crime. Frankfurt is the perfect suit—you can focus on the meeting because you don’t have to worry about how you look.

Yet, as I mentioned above, Frankfurt in its modern incarnation grew out of the ashes of World War Two, has withstood the airplane hijackings of 1970’s and the terrorism of the 9/11 era, had witnessed the corporate consolidation of the publishing industry, and is now toiling with the radical changes in all media engendered by technological change, and throughout it all Frankfurt has not sought to deny these realities but instead has incorporated them into itself—Ehrengast controversies and all! So in 2001 there were bomb-sniffing dogs and in 2009 there is the Tools of Change Frankfurt preview conference. Frankfurt has represented continuity amidst change and its genius, to me, is that it does not pretend that change is not happening.

So while I am still here, in the regular world, I’m poised on its edge, ready to make the switch, and anticipating that giddy thrill of re-entering Frankfurt. I’m looking forward, both to the familiarity and to the new, strange yet critical ideas Frankfurt will present in this coming week.

The first thing to say right off is that this is my first Frankfurt Book Fair.  I’ve worked in publishing for over 20 years but as someone who works in publicity - touring primarily with authors on publication - i’ve never had any call to be here before.  It’s all very new to me, if not a little daunting, merely because of the sheer scale of it all!

There were definite themes to all the presentations this morning at the opening press conference: China as Guest of Honour (should they be invited?), freedom of press, digitisation and paid for content, the future of the physical printed book and the role of publishers.  There has been a certain amount of controversy surrounding China’s invitation this year and it seems this issue is not going to go away this week.  Attendees were keen to hear what the Fair’s stand was in terms of censorship, freedom of speech, the right to be heard etc.  Director of the Fair, Juergen Boos, was at pains to point out that whatever your view, you can’t ‘ignore’ China and i think this is the key issue here.  China is an absolutely key market and we, as publishers in the West, cannot AFFORD to ignore this.

I thought it was also interesting to hear Professor Honnefelder’s view of where we are right now.  2009 is a year of change in many respects but maybe most importantly, he said, it appears people’s motivation to read is changing.  It seems almost a third of all Germans says they couldn’t get by without the internet but only 18% say the same about the book.  That sounds like a worrying trend to me and one that needs to be addressed right away.

More food for thought from Jesus Badenes who asked about the role of Europe nowadays and the future for publishers.  He called on the publishing industry to show teamwork at a time when we are faced with new technologies all vying for the consumer’s attention.  

So lots to look forward to at this year’s fair.  Attendance at the LitAg up 2% according to latest official stats and there is a definite buzz building already today.  Plenty of questions from the press after the conference.  I even got a taste of being one of the paparazzi when trying to get close to take photos afterwards - it was definitely a case of using your elbows as camera crews pushed their way forward!  No time for being British and polite here…

Catalan Culture was last year’s Guest of Honor at the Fair, and put on a huge display of Catalan culture, and producing a number of slick publications and presentations to help make people aware of their rich literary tradition. (It’s sad, but I think a lot of Americans–and possibly others–think that Catalan is a Spanish dialect rather than recognizing that it’s a unique language. Again, Horace Engdahl, lack of literature in translation, America isolationism, etc., etc., etc.) Based on the sheer number of people visiting their booth and attending their fabulous parties, it seemed pretty successful, and based on my conversation with Carles Torner of the Ramon Llull Insitut, this positive effect has carried over quite well.

“Being the Guest of Honor at the Frankfurt Book Fair was very important to us,” Torner said. “By the end of this year there will have been as many translations of Catalan books into other languages as there was in 2007.” Which sounds sort of static, but is actually a huge gain considering that 53 titles (including a lot of multi-volume titles) were published in German in preparation for the Frankfurt Book Fair.

(I’m going to digress for a moment here: as I typed that it occured to me just how special it is to be the Guest of Honor. And just how civil, bookish, and outward looking the German publishing scene is. There’s a better chance of the Cubs winning the World Series than American publishers getting together and publishing a shitload of books in translation in preparation for BookExpo America. Dead horse, beating it, I know, I know, but for all doubters of Engdahl’s statments, here’s another instance pointing to just how right he is.) 

(Another digression: the press I run is publishing three Catalan works over the next eighteen-months thanks to last year’s FBF and an amazing visit to Barcelona.)

Carles’s feeling is that the publication of Catalan literature–classic, modern, and contemporary–by German publishers sent a message to the rest of the publishing world. Jaume Cabre is a perfect example. After being published by Surhkamp for the Fair, his latest novel Les veus del Pamano was picked up by Dutch, Italian, French, and even Romanian publishers. That’s how the network of publishers I’ve mentioned before functions: if a couple well-respected presses publish a book, it sends a message to everyone else that they should pay attention. (Well–again with the horse–except maybe in the case of Le Clezio. He’s published by Hanser in Germany and many other fantastic presses, but Simon & Schuster doesn’t seem to be rushing his books back into print . . .)

In terms of numbers, over 80 translations of Catalan books came out last year around the world (or at least were subsidized by the Ramon Llull Institut) and that number will likely be broken this year.

Carles also mentioned that another great effect of being the Guest of Honor is the fact that they no longer have to spend time explaining what Catalonia is–something that used to be a huge problem. But now there are other problems. Similar to the situation with Dutch and China (see my earlier post), some Greek publishers became very interested in acquiring Catalan works last year, but at the time there were no Catalan to Greek literary translators . . . So the Ramon Llull Insitut organized a special seminar, helped get some translators up to speed, and now eight books are under contract with Greek publishers.

Since last year’s Fair, the Ramon Llull Institut has continued to expand its activities, hosting a number of events at this year’s PEN World Voices Festival (including one to celebrate the Review of Contemporary Fiction’s New Catalan Writing issue), planning a seminar in New York in November 2009 to bring together translators, critics, and publishers interested in Catalan culture, and opening an office in New York next year.

Next year’s Guest of Honour is China, and preparations are already well under way for China’s ‘coming out’ on the world publishing stage.

Yesterday, Frankfurt’s assembled media was briefed on what to expect in 2009 and, notably, the big news was that China will be inviting publishers from Taiwan to participate, as well as those from Hong Kong and Macao, according to Li Dongdong, Vice Minister of China’s General Administration of Press and Publication (GAPP) (pictured here with Frankfurt Book Fair Director Juergen Boos).

The number of officially-recognised publishing houses grew from 105 in 1978 to 573 in 2006, and the number of titles published annually in China has grown from 15,000 - described by Ms Dongdong as a ‘book famine’ - to 230,000 over the same period.

The Vice Minister was keen to point out that China was a massive market for books:

‘More than 100 million people in China received the education of secondary technical school or above, constituting a huge group demanding books.’

She expressed the hope that the opening up of the Chinese book market would enable Chinese publishers to learn from international publishers, particularly in the area of management and market operation. Addressing concerns about China’s respect for copyright, she told journalists that ‘the Chinese Government is set to further clamp down on piracy to effectively guarantee intellectual property rights.’

Chen Yinming, Director of the organising committee for China’s Guest of Honour program, outlined the main components of the 2009 program at what he adroitly dubbed the ‘Olympics for world publishers.’ These include:

• writer and scholar exchanges
• several forums and symposia on copyright and cultural exchange
• a series of culture and art exhibitions
• cultural performances
• a 2500-square metre Chinese pavilion at next year’s fair
• a 1000-square metre book exhibition

As with all Guests of Honour, a funding program for the translation of Chinese works into foreign languages will be part of the program. The Chinese translation initiative will be coordinated by GAPP, which has allocated about 500,00 euros to encourage overseas publishers to buy Chinese rights. Interestingly, GAPP has elected to follow a similar policy to 2005 Guest of Honour Korea, by pre-selecting 81 books or sets of books that will be eligible for translation grants. You may have to be quick if you want to take advantage of this scheme: from my reading of the detail, GAPP wants the books translated and published by the end of July 2009!

This past spring I was fortunate enough to be able to participate in a Editors’ Week in Buenos Aires. It was an amazing experience, solidifying my lifelong interest in Argentine literature, and giving me a once-in-a-lifetime chance to visit the place where many of my favorite books are set. I also met a lot great people, and found out about a lot great authors. So personally, I’m very excited to see what Argentina does when it’s the Guest of Honor at the Frankfurt Book Fair 2010, which, in a way, the events taking place this year are building up to.

Fundacion TyPA (the same organization that sponsors the editorial trips) are putting on two key events this week, both entitled “Argentinean Publishing Inside-Out.” The first took place this afternoon, featuring European publishers talking about Argentinean books. And on Friday, the counterpart panel takes place with Argentinean publishers talking about the contemporary scene.

Geoff Mulligan, Dominique Bourgois, and Michi Strausfeld, were there today to talk about Argentinean translations they’d published. Geoff emphasized the need to find a great translator (editing a bad translation consumes more time than any of us have), while Dominique had a fantastic quote about how “publishing is a network of writers and a network of friends”.

She said that in relation to a question about how to find Argentinean authors, a question that allowed Gabriela Adamo from TyPA to present their new (first?) catalog of “30 Great Authors from Argentina.” This booklet - actually, it’s a set of 30 envelope-sized cards with info about each author in Spanish and English collected into a cardboard slipcover - is incredibly appealing and very informative. Rather than highlight the Cortazars and Borges and Macedonios of Argentine lit, none of the 30 authors included have been translated into English. Some of the authors are very young, some more established, all very interesting. You can pick up a copy of this catalog at Hall 5.1 E 955.

This year’s Guest of Honour at Frankfurt is, of course, Turkey. With the exception of the Nobel Prize winner Orhan Pamuk, Turkey may not be on your radar, but the country is one of the world’s fastest-growing economies, and has a vibrant publishing culture on display at the fair this year.

The best way to receive a discover more about this already significant book market is to visit the Turkish Collective Stand in Hall 5.1. C 976 (and the exhibit in the Forum Level 1). Here you’ll find a lot of helpful material, including a directory of Turkish publishers, a CD-ROM about Turkish writers and information on the TEDA Project. 

Established in 2005, TEDA is designed to encourage the translation and publication of Turkish writing around the world through the provision of generous subsidies.

By far the largest number of TEDA-funded projects - 110 so far - have come from Germany, followed by Bulgaria (44), Iran (33) and the USA (23).