REPORT BY MADRID BOOKSTORE ASSOCIATION: WITH NERVES AND PASSION; THIS IS HOW EIGHT MADRID BOOKSTORES PREPARE THEIR "FIRST TIME" AT THE MADRID BOOK FAIR

2024/05/23

Every year, new bookstores join the unique experience of participating in the Madrid Book Fair by sharing and celebrating their passion for books. It goes beyond the sale. It's a great opportunity to reach a wider audience. From the experience of other colleagues who share wise advice, they know that the Fair is a showcase to make themselves known and also connect with other agents in the book sector. But, until experiencing the meeting with the first readers who approach the booth, nerves and uncertainty prevail.

Olavide Bar de Libros, La Independiente, Vino a por letras (Getafe), Nocturna Libros (Alcorcón), La Anónima, Peripecias, Vualá and Los Pequenas Seres are the eight bookstores that, at this time of the year, cannot hide their excitement and nervousness about the new experience. A month from now, who more and who less will have already staged the first raising of the blinds in one of the 359 booths that will occupy the Paseo de Coches of El Retiro, from May 31 to June 16.

"Expectations? Many. Anxieties? Also," confesses Daniel Ulanosky, from Olavide Bar de Libros. This bookseller, who is about to celebrate the second anniversary of the opening of his business, in the heart of the Chamberí neighborhood, sets himself the challenge of providing answers to different audiences. "A bookseller—perhaps it is utopian, but we are not resigned—always wants to have what people are looking for," he says. Although this year it will debut as a fair, he already senses that "the Fair combines a bibliophile public with another that perceives it as an activity between the social and the cultural." And, above all, he doesn't want to let anyone down. For this reason, he will take special care when filling the boxes with books that he will transport to El Retiro, combining editorial news with more exclusive proposals. It seems to have an advantage by showing that it carries the lesson learned: "selection is key, but generating a one-on-one bond is also key."

Alana S. Portero, The Bad Habit

Blessed book mentorship

The positive energy and advice of other more veteran colleagues are being essential to face this enormous challenge with confidence, and so that, finally, the idea that "you survive, you enjoy and you learn a lot" takes hold when it comes to Fair.

The management of the Madrid Bookstore Association – the organizing entity of the Madrid Book Fair – usually calls on debut bookstores annually to resolve all types of doubts and thus reduce the logical doses of uncertainty. Apart from the eight bookstores that will meet readers for the first time in El Retiro on May 31, five other bookstores attended the event—Serendipias, Girasol, Pérgamo, La Imprenta and Dykinson—who acted as mentors. sharing your experience.

Thanks to the advice of Luis Tigeras, from Dykinson, none of the first-timers will forget a power strip to charge the staff's cell phones, after several hours serving in the booth, or the helpful plastic to cover the exposed books when the rain makes an appearance, any of the 17 days of the Fair. And you already know that not all shelves fit in a 4-meter-wide booth, as warned by Elena Martínez from Serendipias, a bookseller with four fairs already behind her, and who has discovered the beauty of bookstore networking thanks to them.

The experience of Laura Rodríguez Sayd, a bookseller at Girasol (Santo Domingo, Algete) is more recent. It premiered in the last edition; And, for the next time, he advises "to use your strength, to take good care of yourself, to try to be very organized and to take advantage of this opportunity to make yourself known."

Raque Arbeteta, Love and coexistence

FLMadrid, an ideal society in miniature

Miguel Ángel Vázquez, poet and bookseller at La Imprenta, speaks along the same lines: «the recommendation I would give to those who are starting out is that, beyond sales, they take advantage of the Fair to be the bookstore they would like to be; to send the message to the world that they would like to send from their bookstore space.

The balance of the meeting was very positive. In Ulanosky's words, “we were safer. As a more experienced classmate said: “Guys, don't be scared. It's possible"".

And it also served to demonstrate that in this profession, competition makes way for collaboration, and that helping adds value: “we are there to lend a hand. And, in that sense, everything that we were able to learn - because these things are learned by doing - it was wonderful to be able to share them with the rest of the bookstores," says Pablo Cerezo, from the Pérgamo Bookstore, who will also live his second experience this year. . Vázquez, for his part, refers to the Madrid Book Fair as "a kind of miniature ideal society in which bookstores and booksellers cooperate with each other, help each other, and where we can play on equal terms with other spaces." much larger than independent bookstores. But they also expect to have a good time. That was Cerezo's experience last year. Silvia López, from Vino a por letras, a bookstore based in Getafe, already imagines herself "sharing time and conversations with editors, authors and even other booksellers who will come to our booth from other parts of the country."

Cookie Mueller, Walking through crystal clear waters in a black painted pool

Facing the excitement of the new, bookstores participating for the first time in the Madrid Book Fair are prepared to immerse themselves in this unique experience. With the support of their most experienced colleagues, and the enthusiasm to connect with passionate readers, they are ready to leave their mark on one of the most anticipated literary cultural events in the world. And it happens in Madrid.