The International Book Fair that was held in Bogotá between April and May of this year exceeded all expectations. For the first time in 35 years, the editorial meeting had a massive participation of more than 600,000 people, a figure that, according to Emiro Aristizábal, president of the Colombian Book Chamber, set a record.
“It was a fair that was up to the task,” Aristizábal told EL NUEVO SIGLO, while revealing that work is already underway on the next edition and announced that there are three countries interested in being guests of honor at the Book Fair. of 2024.
“I would like to mention that the presence of Mexico had a great literary presentation, not only in its bookstores, but also a good academic, artistic, gastronomic, and musical agenda. All these aspects are very important within the fair and in this line of work we are looking at the options, the bets for next year”, highlighted the representative of the Chamber.
EL NUEVO SIGLO: What are Colombians reading, what books sold the most at FILBo?
EMIRO ARISTIZABAL: We have to look very carefully, because when you say the best-selling books, you have to break that down, because there were many readers of children’s, youth, fiction, and nonfiction literature, so I think there’s a mix of everything, but definitely a genre that Self-help is selling a lot and it’s not something new, because last year they were reported as the best sellers and yet everything was sold at this fair, literature, poetry, essays, children’s. Visitors took advantage and bought of all genres.
ENS: Does that mean that consumption is being done more in printed copies than in digital?
EA: People are definitely more interested in reading on paper. In most book fairs, sales statistics indicate that the consumption of digital books only reaches 7% and the remaining 93% is of printed interest, which means that the physical book continues to be the leader in sales. Many years ago Mr. Bill Gates predicted the death of printing, but it is in perfect health and people still prefer it.
ENS: How many books on average does a Colombian read in a year?
EA: The latest statistics are from 2017, when DANE, which is the body in charge of the national reading survey, reported that the number of books read per person was 2.7 per year, but we believe that these figures have increased, we do not know how much exactly, but we consider that people read on average about five books a year. We are waiting for DANE to do the study again. Last year we asked you to take the National Reading survey, which is very important because it is there where the effectiveness of public policies to promote books and reading can be evaluated.
ENS: Does that mean that this year the reading habit increased in the country?
EA: When the Book Law was created in Colombia, half a book per year was read per person. Now it has gone up to more than three books a year per person, which means that over time people fall more in love with reading. We are currently waiting for DANE to carry out a new study, which is done every five years, and we believe that the figures will be positive. However, we still lack it, because in other countries, more than 10 books are read in a year. This tells us that we need to give more incentives to the book culture, stimulate its production and writing, the opening of new libraries, boost the publishing chain in Colombia.
ENS: What strategies are being implemented by the Chamber to give regional publishers greater visibility and projection?
EA: Regional publishers had a good presence in the Colombia pavilion at the last Book Fair. Representations came from all the departments of the country. In turn, we have the National Network of Book Fairs, which are more or less 21 fairs and in each one of them the publishers present their publications. Likewise, the Chamber has a portal called “Colombia Lee”, where you can find the catalog with all the books that are published in Colombia and there are also the texts of all Colombian publishers, including their authors, and that It gives very good visibility to Colombian editorial production, especially to the regions.
ENS: What are the advances made by the “Reading Colombia” program?
EA: With this program, in alliance with the Ministry of Culture, it has been possible to promote literary production abroad, through the scholarships that are awarded for book translations. For example, last year the translation grants were awarded and this year the call for proposals was reopened so that publishers can have access to these grants and so that their works can be translated.
ENS: What is being done from the Chamber to promote the reading habit?
EA: For the Chamber it is very important to feed the habit of buying books, we are always looking for ways to encourage reading. That is why we created Fundalectura, an entity dedicated to promoting books and reading. From the chamber we carry out campaigns, especially for the purchase of books. We have the “Give a book at Christmas” campaign, with very good results, in which it has been shown that among the gifts that are given at that Christmas time, people can also give books as gifts. Additionally, we participate in all activities carried out by the national, district and municipal governments. In addition, in all book fairs strategies are drawn up that motivate reading, for example, in this last fair we had in the Colombia pavilion, which was the great novelty of this year, a whole special decoration, a bookstore specialized in Colombian books, where we had very good results in sales and a large number of visitors.
ENS: Who read the most, children, youth or adults?
EA: According to the latest studies, Young people are the ones who are reading the most, because reading campaigns have been carried out focused on promoting reading in children. During the governments of Juan Manuel Santos and Iván Duque there was a program called “Leer es mi cuento” and it was very helpful for the child population to resort more to books. Now, it has also been shown that women read more than men, this is something that has been seen within the statistics.