Booktegi turns six years by putting books on the net, with a sleek and free frequency.
This year we have published less than last year for funding problems. We are receiving far fewer subsidies, and of course we cannot spend all day on Booktegi. It has become night work. We used to publish a book every week and less now.
What happened to subsidies?
On the one hand, it's good news, because there are more and more projects in Basque. The cake is distributed and less and less for everyone. On the other hand, we must also mention what the subsidies require. We have to justify the whole budget, and I think it is right and proper, but the reality is that we put half of the budget in our pocket. A lot is being done in Basque, and for Booktegi there is less and less left. We cannot do it for a long time, we cannot pay for the privilege of working. It is not feasible.
The march you had so far was the weekly publication of a book. At the request of publishers or how do they work?
Sometimes we have asked publishers, but we usually publish new books at the authors' request or on our behalf to the authors.
In recent weeks, with the arrival of the festival, we have published new stories created by the writers for the meeting. These writings will serve as the basis for the two tertulias and the writers who have written the stories will take the floor. The round table on energy will include Nerea Ibarzabal, Eneko Bidegain and Arrate Egaña, and Ugaitz Agirre, Maitane Pérez and Miren Gorrotxategi.
On Saturday, 28 October, Booktegi will hold a festival in Usurbil commemorating its sixth anniversary. Tell us, because it looks good.
The morning will be very literary. In addition to the two tertulias mentioned, there will be a poetry reading open to the public. The morning program will be developed at the Zumarte music school and the afternoon at the Sutegi House of Culture, which we hope will be for a wider audience. The 20netoak literary work will be projected in Sutegi, involving the musician Beñat Barandiaran, the writer Harkaitz Cano and the musician, interpreter and creator Maite Larburu, and later the Storytellers of the pupils of the ikastola of Usurbil. At night, at 19:00, we will enjoy the concert of Petti. The songs you play will be in general discographic Manipulation Strategies and with a photograph of each song you will see a photographic exhibition on the walls of the house of culture.
He told us that Booktegi's usual activity has decreased slightly due to funding problems. Have the objectives changed?
No, of course not. Booktegi's goal was and will be to foster a passion for reading and writing in Basque. To do so, six years ago we saw that it was possible to expand the e-book. The use of digital books in Euskal Herria is very scarce, and at the same time it seemed to us that many good books do not go far. That is, they do not have a second edition, there are many exhausted and they cannot be bought. We believe that many Basque books deserve a longer trajectory and digital format offers this possibility. Another reason is that many new books are not published because of the costs that come out and sometimes very few copies leave.
Booktegi was created to address these shortcomings, and we will continue to do so as far as we can.