The writer Alba Dalmau has just published Ho, ho, ho. Another story of Nadal in the Univers publishing house, of the Enciclopèdia Group, but she has given up doing more promotional events because she has not yet been paid the advance. “They ordered the book from me, under the promise of a more generous advance than I was used to, to which the audiobook rights were added, which they have already collected, but they owe me a total of 4,500 euros.” And if Dalmau has now published the Christmas book, a few months ago Melcior Comes published the summer book, El dia de la balena, which is up for the Òmnium award for best novel of the year. Comes had negotiated to collect a good part of the advance payment in advance, but they still owe him 2,000 euros that they had to pay him once it was delivered and published. This book was already another headache for him, and that is that in Grup62 “there was some discomfort because a house author like me published a book in another publisher.” At the end of October they told him that he would be paid soon, when the “treasury tensions” were overcome, but in November they already warned him that “unfortunately we do not know when it will be possible.” Comes does not doubt the task of the editors, because “they have published books that sell a lot, you can see it in the lists, but I don’t think that an author can save the publishing house.” He, however, still remembers when the Mallorcan publishing house Moll went bankrupt and they owed him money.
There are other authors pending payment, such as Xavier Mas Craviotto, who has been waiting to collect an invoice for months, or the translator Mar Mañes-Bordes, who has two pending invoices and the rights for two years, or the translator Yannick Garcia, who has pending charge for an interpretation, as well as the case, for example, of an author who, out of caution, does not want to give her name but among other pending invoices she has one for translation rights that Enciclopèdia has already collected and has not paid the corresponding part. There are those affected who prefer not to go out in public so as not to be singled out and to preserve the personal relationships they have built in the sector for years. Some of them are organizing to coordinate and act together, following the steps of the requirements that the Associació d’Writers in Catalan Language made a few months ago, and which resulted in the payment of some of the overdue invoices. Despite the situation of non-payments, however, in recent months Enciclopèdia has continued to contract books and promise advances.
One of the leading authors of the label, Xavier Bosch – a brand new signing last year, coming from Columna, from Grup 62 –, regrets “the bad step of the company, the brand and the workers”, while claiming that “ La Galera is, almost, a State structure, and Univers is a new label that, in a short time, has made an impact. I am convinced that none of that will be lost.”
The general director of Enciclopèdia, Joan Abellà, addresses the non-payments and rumors that have spread in recent days, including about the closure of the publishing house. “It is true that we are preparing an ERE, which we will present soon, and that the group’s headquarters have been sold to be able to face the debt emergencies. The situation is complex but we are working to reverse it.” Abellà insists that they have not received offers to sell any stamps, although he knows that there have been “informal conversations” in the sector. The general director of the group also assures that a grace period has been agreed with the creditors until mid-2024 and a plan that lasts until 2028: “We have a structured and ordered debt, the task I have is to turn the situation around and find a business outlet, because we are still necessary.” Regarding the employment file – which would affect more than 10% of the workforce of 112 workers – he explains that “it will affect the entire perimeter of the group to focus on the most viable businesses and readjust.” “What we have to try is to catch up on payments, and that also involves reducing activity until we have lungs,” he adds.
In the sector there is fear of the effects that the fall of the group would have, on the one hand due to the weight of labels such as the historic La Galera or Univers, but also because it includes Àgora, the distributor that at the same time has 45% of Entredos. , the distribution logistics platform that should have represented a great improvement and instead has entailed numerous problems from the beginning. Joan Abellà acknowledges that “Entredos’ bad start” was the last straw, but he defends that “it was a necessary investment, and even the banks agreed.” At the moment, around twenty Catalan publishers, under the marketing company Xarxa de Llibres, are demanding 2.8 million euros in a lawsuit. Abellà argues that “when the distribution is going well there is a flow of money, and when it is not, there are cash tensions.”
The history of the Enciclopèdia Group has been turbulent from the beginning, when in 1965 the first project of what would become the Gran Enciclopèdia Catalana was born, with the initial impulse of Edicions 62 and later of Jordi Pujol’s Banca Catalana. Over time they moved into literature by buying Proa and creating La Galera and Pòrtic, but after a few years the debt began to accumulate, until in 2003 they had to sell the historic headquarters, Casa Garriga Nogués. In 2006 he participated with the Planeta group and La Caixa in the creation of Grup 62, finally absorbed by Planeta in 2013, when Enciclopèdia had to present an ERE, and still in 2020 it refinanced the debt again.
When Enciclopèdia celebrated 50 years in 2015, Father Massot already pointed out in an article in La Vanguardia that “the complicated history of the Enciclopèdia could be enough for a few novels.” And it continues.
Catalan version, here
