Entertainment 
Book Fair economics
By
Tyler Stamatyades
seth.stamatyades001@mymdc.net
Like almost everything else in Miami-Dade County, the Miami Book Fair International is feeling the consequences of a slow economy.
Ana Jones, the operations assistant for the Florida Center of the Literary Arts, said that there are several losses in funding this year for the Book Fair. According to Jones, government funding was cut.
She also said that, in order to counter the loss of income people were asked to give donations to the Book Fair through the “$40 Keep the Fair Going Campaign”. The “Friends of the Fair”, another donation program, also helped out.
“[We] lost a lot of sponsors,” Jones said.
They lost a lot, but the Book Fair did retain several major sponsors, such as American Airlines and Google.
Ticket prices were increased this year: regular admission rose from $5 to $8, senior citizens admission rose from $3 to $5, and evening sessions, which will run from Nov. 8-13, are going to be ticketed for $10 each.
There have been setbacks but the Book Fair will still feature more than 350 authors. More local authors will be used this year.
Jones said that the staff of the Florida Center of the Literary Arts and other organizers of the event really worked on maintaining the established level of quality so that fairgoers would not suffer.
“We have scaled it down a little bit,” Jones said, “but not in the numbers of authors and not in the quality of authors.”
The Book Fair will operate from Nov. 8-15, from 10a.m. to 6p.m. Entrance for MDC students, staff and faculty (with ID), and persons ages 18 and under is free.
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