Creative Bulletin n.324
And just like that, this year’s Turin Book Fair is over, and I’m about to disappear for a few days to recover 😅 I want to take the opportunity to thank everyone who stopped by to say hi. Truly, thank you from the bottom of my heart!
What’s actually right for us. More than in any previous year, I found myself watching us while we were at the stand, presenting our books, talking to people, exchanging tired but encouraging smiles whenever we were running on empty. And I kept wondering: “But is this really right for us?”
There are certain things I keep telling myself, and that I’ve heard other publishers repeat over and over again: “It makes sense to be at the biggest publishing event of the year. It makes sense to try and sell as much as possible to cover the costs. It makes sense to end up exhausted because it’s objectively draining.”
And yes, all of that does make sense.
But is it right for us? 😅
It’s a question I ask myself often. Because sometimes the things everyone agrees “make sense” still aren’t what’s right for me, or for Luigi, or for Carla.
🌈 Creative Takeaway: acknowledging oppression
A lot of the time, we fool ourselves because we don’t want to admit that we feel oppressed: we push ourselves to stay positive, to always look on the bright side. But by doing that, we end up losing something important.
I’m not afraid to admit that I felt oppressed. Like always, we pushed ourselves way too hard, and then soothed ourselves with the genuine smiles of the people who came by to greet us and thank us for what we do. Was that enough to make up for the oppression? Maybe… but the truth is, I still felt oppressed 😂
So I started daydreaming: what if, instead of trying to sell enough to break even, we got a bigger stand, with couches and a giant screen so we could interact more with the people walking by, and just accepted that we’d lose money on it (even several thousand euros) but actually have a lot more fun?
Haha. Maybe it would make less “sense,” but maybe it would feel a lot more right for us ❤️
With love,
Matteo
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