Before the traditional press conference The Planeta Prize galawhich will take place on Tuesday in Barcelona and will be attended by ReyesFelipe and Letizia, this 2024 has had the joy of celebration, of 75 years of Grupo Planetathe campaign that its founder made in 1949, José Manuel Lara Hernándezwith an initial capital of 100,000 pesetas. Also because, as his current President, Jose Crehueras, “This is it “the best year in the history of the publishing sector”including the growth of literacy that began during the epidemic. However, before giving information that supports the health of the book industry, he did not fail to remember those who died in recent months, Rosa Regàs and Fernando Delgado, both former members of the jury. the best prize in the worldcon million euros for the winner and 200,000 euros for the runner-up.
Some figures that the last tenmany gave under a pseudonym, which according to the principles of their work given by the spokesman of the jury, Juan Eslava Galán, promises the darkness of scriptures. For example, some of the programs: the corpse of a woman in the car and attempted murder judge uncovers Nazi-related fraud in Seville in 1937; the mother tells the psychologist how he cut off the body of the rapist from his daughter; a a policeman in the hands of the devil, employed by SGAE, which finds a Cuban bolero singer; old woman facing the explosion, a cultivation of marijuana, the disappearance of his son and the beheading of his Muslim neighbor; a woman with spiritual powers who rebelled against being abandoned suffered in childhood; or a German who arrives in the United States after World War II to be forced to work for the Russians…
The judges of the 2024 Planeta Prize, and the President of the Planeta Group, José Crehueras, in front of the photos of the two judges who died this year, Rosa Regàs and Fernando Delgado. / ELISENDA PONS
This year they are given to Planet 1,070 originals (some less in 2023, when the number reached 1,129) and will increase “crime fiction and entertainment, personal fulfillment and another type that is on the rise, of books that contain relationships made through social media or online chat”, Eslava Galán said.
New judges
Another judge was not present at the press conference this Monday, the author Peter Gimferrerare recovering from the operation, but the rest are not missing, for the first time more women than men: Eslava Galán, José Manuel Blecua, Carmen Posadas and Belén López, including the first two living in the abandoned places by Regàs and Delgado, the author Luz Gabas (who won the Planeta in 2022) and student and rector of the International University of Valencia Eva Giner.
1 billion books were sold
Crehueras, who has said that Planeta’s mission has always been “to publish books and find new authors”, explained what has happened in the 75 years of the group’s existence: published 135,000 books and sold one billion copies; that the prize-winning books have sold 45.5 million copies, with an average of 300,000 to 350,000 copies, and that of the 73 copies of the prize approximately 28,000 have been shipped.
It has also celebrated the sweet moment of the Spanish book market, which Jesús Badenes, director of the Planeta bookstorehas defined “is The adjective “strong” is which he has provided data, among them, that from 2019 to 2023 it grew more than 35%and so far this year they have already done 11.7%,”which may cause the roof of the building to be destroyed. “There has never been much reading in Spain,” Badenes celebrated, pointing out that the reading rate is at 68.3%. He also explained that “a lot of books are bought”, which fiction is growing more than 14.6% and books for young people is the sum of ‘love‘, a mix of romance and fantasy, 45%, and joke drawing on young people, “quarry of the future”.
Rumor mills
Although Crehueras was quick to deny it, early rumors were already talking about the winner of Planeta. Pablo Motosthe group ‘El Hormiguero’, the star program of Antena 3, one of the televisions of the Planeta audiovisual conglomerate. We will wait for the writing gala this Tuesday, in the Oval Room of the National Art Museum of Catalonia (MNAC).
