By Juan Ramon Peña

GUADALAJARA, MEXICO -- The 22nd Guadalajara International Book Fair ended over the weekend after having received 600,000 visitors and registered a general increase in sales, organizers said.

"The number of visitors is 12 percent higher than last year, and the number of professionals is similar, around 17,000," book fair director Nubia Macias told Efe.

The fair, which ran from Nov. 29 to Dec. 7, is the biggest in the world of Hispanic publishing, with the presence of more than 1,600 publishing houses and close to 500 writers.

For its 22nd edition, the book fair grew from last year's 26,000 square meters (6 1/2 acres) to 35,000 square meters (8 1/2 acres) this year.

"The big publishing houses reported much higher sales than last year, between 30 and 80 percent more, although some say their sales stayed about the same," Macias said, adding that sales at the 2007 fair totaled about $50 million.

"We have seen a little growth in sales, we haven't had that many people, but whoever comes tends to buy," Jose Luis Castillo, one of the executives at the Planeta stand, said.

This time the country chosen as guest of honor was Italy, which brought some 120 writers including the author of bestselling historical novels, Valerio Massimo Manfredi, and also presented musical acts, movies and several exhibitions.

About the absence of one Italian star on the guest list, writer Roberto Saviano, threatened by organized crime in his country for his book "Gomorra," Macias said that it was "purely a matter of security."

"I think that his escorts decided it was too risky for him to come, above all after he made a statement expressing his interest in discovering ties with Mexican drug trafficking," the book fair director said.

"Gomorra" was one of this year's best-selling books, selling out at the Italian pavilion soon after the fair began.

Some of the writers seen at the fair were Portugal's Antonio Lobo Antunes, winner of the Prize for Literature in Romance Languages at the event, the Spaniards Arturo Perez-Reverte and Fernando Sabater, Welshman Ken Follet and Laura Esquivel of Mexico.

Among the most successful books this year, Macias named "La Region Mas Trasparente" (Where the Air is Clear) by Mexico's Carlos Fuentes, of which a special edition of 600,000 copies was printed to coincide with the tribute paid the author at the fair on the occasion of his 80th birthday.

"The Boy in the Striped Pajamas" by Irishman John Boyne and the adolescent vampire saga "Twilight" by American Stephenie Meyer were among the other most sought-after titles at this year's book fair.

"Gabriel Garcia Marquez is always a bestseller at the fair just with his presence - he doesn't talk but lets his books talk for him," Macias said.

The Colombian Nobel laureate silently took part in several events, such as the main symposium honoring Carlos Fuentes.

Planeta showcased, among others, the work of Spaniard Carlos Ruiz Zafon with the book "La Sombra del Viento" (The Shadow of the Wind), "Como Agua para Chocolate" (Like Water for Chocolate) by Mexico's Laura Esquivel, and the biographical novel about the revolutionary Pancho Villa by Mexican writer Paco Ignacio Taibo II.

Next year the book fair's guest of honor will be the city of Los Angeles, California.



Click here to watch the Homage to Carlos Fuentes at the Guadalajara International Book Fair.