What would happen if one morning you decided to change the course of your day? If, for once, you put aside all the plans you had been meticulously crafting in your head. If you set out to escape hyperconnectivity, haste, and tasks, and simply decided to take a walk through Barcelona. A walk to silence the noise and connect with the present. This is how Hoy (Today) unfolds, the illustrated novel by Agustina Guerrero —an Argentine author based in Barcelona since 2003— which has already captivated more than 200,000 readers. Guerrero transforms a simple journey through the city into a celebration of life, reclaiming the art of stopping and adding another work to the long list of literary successes born in Barcelona.
Barcelona these days enhances its narrative as an artistic hub, cradle of great writers and publishing houses, and engine of a book industry that projects its influence to the world. This week it is the guest city at the Guadalajara International Book Fair (FIL), in Mexico, an event that coincides with the tenth anniversary of its designation as a UNESCO City of Literature. Milestones that, together with a vibrant and dynamic literary ecosystem, consolidate Barcelona as the main publishing epicenter of Southern Europe and a benchmark with international projection.
Catalonia, in fact, concentrates a third of Spain's publishing houses and exceeds the European average of imprints per population. According to the Federation of Guilds of Publishers of Spain, 31% of the country's publishing fabric is located in Catalonia: 268 imprints out of a total of 860. Only Madrid surpasses it, with 38%.
"The Catalan publishing industry is experiencing a very sweet moment and shows great dynamism," reflects Patrici Tixis, corporate communications director of Grupo Planeta, and president of the Gremi d'Editors de Catalunya. In the last 4-5 years, he recalls, the number of publishing houses has grown by 20%, a sign that we are "at a moment when the publishing industry sees the future very clearly," especially driven by two genres: "fiction and young adult literature." Núria Cabutí, CEO of Penguin Random House, highlights romantasy, the new genre that is triumphing among young people, thanks to the loudspeaker of social media.
These genres are reaching unprecedented levels. "Ten years ago we thought young people didn't read, but surveys say the opposite. They are reading ten points above the sector average," Tixis points out.
The data corroborates it: the percentage of readers over 14 years old grows year after year —today it is already 70.3%— and the age group that reads the most is 14 to 24 years old (75.5%), followed by adults aged 55 to 64 (73%). Those who read the least are adults between 25 and 44 years old, who do not exceed 68%.
In terms of turnover, growth has been sustained since 2013. In 2024, the sector reached 3,037.51 million euros, 6.3% more than the previous year. And in the sector, two main giants stand out: Penguin Random House, which had a turnover of 410 million in 2024, and Grupo Planeta, which had a turnover of about 500 million in its editorial business (and 2,000 million in total as a group).
The Federation of Guilds also points out that this generalized increase in the sector is not due to a rise in book prices —the average price only increased by four cents in 2024— but to an increase in copies sold: 5.6% compared to 2023.
"Bookstores continue to be the main sales channel, and they are the one that grows the most, with 8%"
From editing to distribution
After the emergence of e-commerce and the disruption caused by Amazon, large publishers have accelerated their strategies to increasingly control more links in the value chain. Distribution has become a strategic key. A close and recent example is the new logistics center of Penguin Random House in Cerdanyola del Vallès: 42,000 m², cutting-edge technology, robotics, and an investment of 36 million. From there, they will centralize all their operations in the territory and also provide distribution services to third parties.
It is not an isolated movement. Planeta has a majority stake in Logista —the largest distributor in Spain— and owns the La Casa del Libro chain. And the Anaya group, third in the editorial ranking, has a large logistics center in Getafe, from where it manages more than 30,000 references.
Even so, focusing solely on these giants distorts the real picture of the sector. Most of the publishers in Catalonia (156 out of 268) are small companies with an annual turnover of no more than 600,000 euros.
In this value chain, bookstores continue to be the main sales channel. And they not only resist: they are the one that grows the most, with an 8% increase in turnover in 2024.
Goal 2030: "More readers, more habitual, and in Catalan"
Ilya Pérdigo, president of the Associació d'Editors en Llengua Catalana and founder of Editorial Clandestina, also celebrates the good moment for books in Catalan. 30% of books sold in Catalonia are in Catalan, a percentage that has grown slightly in recent years thanks, according to Pérdigo, to "the good harmony between administrations and the book sector."
An example is the National Plan for Books and Reading, which defines the sector's strategy between 2023 and 2030. Its objectives are clear: more readers, more habitual readers, and more reading in Catalan. Through this plan, by 2030, the Generalitat has set three main goals: that 76% of the population over 14 years old reads a book per quarter, that 65% does so at least once a week, and that 40% habitually reads in Catalan. The key to achieving them "is for all parties to get involved," adds Pérdigo: Education, Culture, the publishing industry itself...
And in the drawer of challenges and the future, Tixis adds one more: adequately integrating "the role of new technologies, especially generative AI," into the publishing world. He denounces that large tech companies are not being transparent nor respecting the intellectual property of authors whose texts they use to train their models. Content that, he reminds, "should be remunerated." And he concludes: "If they have money to invest in these technologies, they should also have the sensitivity to recognize and compensate creators and publishers."
In a sector undergoing full transformation, Barcelona not only reaffirms its historical weight but also draws a future where tradition, innovation, and linguistic diversity coexist. An industry that grows, internationalizes, and claims, now more than ever, the value of reading and creating, with Barcelona as the backdrop.