Medusa courts Mexican distributor at Guadalajara book fair

Medusa’s first official visit to the Guadalajara International Book Fair has opened a potential door into the Latin American market, but that access will depend on securing a local distributor.

Editor David Gálvez and Jan Arimany of Trotalibros attended the fair as part of a small delegation that also included Lluís Viu (Editorial Andorra) and Joan‑Marc Joval, head of Cultural Action at the ministry. They went without a stand, using the trip as a low‑budget fact‑finding mission to learn how the fair works and to seek distribution contacts rather than to sell books directly.

At a stall run by an association of small independent presses they encountered an improbable coincidence: a Mexican reader asked for Muertos, ¿quién os ha muerto?, believing Medusa to be the Mexican publisher of Iñaki Rubio’s bestseller after seeing an interview on Spanish television. Gálvez says he had none to give — Medusa (the Andorran press) had not brought stock and currently has no distribution in Mexico.

Guadalajara is a hybrid fair that mixes professional deal‑making — agents, editors and distributors negotiating rights and sales — with strong public attendance; it is the main fair for the Spanish‑language book market and draws more than a million visitors annually. Arimany first attended in 2022, and this year the small Medusa delegation treated the visit as a way to make human connections and assess opportunities.

Medusa has published 26 titles, some in Catalan, and is focusing its Latin American hopes on two Spanish‑language novels by Iñaki Rubio (Muertos, ¿quién os ha muerto? and Picasso en el Pirineo), on emerging Mexican author Emmanuel Vizcaya (Memoria de los meteoros), and on Luis Harss’s Confieso que he vivido. Gálvez says Harss has not met expectations in the Spanish market but that a Mexican distributor could prompt reconsideration of further titles.

Gálvez returned convinced the trip was worthwhile. Though initially skeptical because of Medusa’s small size, he notes that being present at the fair allowed them to identify contacts and assess both direct‑sale and distribution opportunities. “The fair is the door to the Mexican market, and Mexico is the door to the Latin American market,” he says.

The outcome of the venture now hinges on whether the distributor they targeted considers Medusa a good fit as a small, independent, literary press and offers a distribution agreement that would open the Mexican market.