“Daniel Fernández, the President of the Federation of Spanish Publishing Guilds and Editorial Director of Edhasa, provides an overview of the general situation in the book sector and addresses a few recent controversies in an interview with La Vanguardia.

The book sector is much bigger than the film sector’

A little over a year ago, Daniel Fernández (Barcelona, 1961) became president of the Federation of Spanish Publishing Guilds.

How is the book world doing?

It has suffered from a perfect storm. In 2010, the sector earned 3.150 billion euros, although it has recovered slightly, especially in 2015.

Do you have the statistics?

They will probably show a recovery of between 4% and 5%, but we haven’t yet finished the research and we’ll have to wait for the definitive results. In terms of earnings, the market has only earned 2 billion, so, in bookshops, the market has shrunk by 40% in just 4 or 5 years.

What about pirated books?

There, we’re a world power, very much in contrast to our neighbours. The law of intellectual property is a priority for parties when they’re in the opposition, but ceases to be when they get into power.

I’ll be naive: why wouldn’t the government take action to stop it?

If you believed the conspiracy theories, you’d say that with during the biggest economic crisis since the Civil War, turning a blind eye to pirating is a way of keeping the people entertained. But there’s also an issue with resources, you need a lot of money to combat it properly.”

Translation by The Spanish Bookstage 

Read full interview here - La Vanguardia,  Xavi Ayén, March 12th