Why are there 2 different Anarchist Bookfairs in the San Francisco/East Bay area ?

Question

There's the long-running bookfair in San Francisco (Bay Area Anarchist Bookfair) and the more recent East Bay Anarchist Bookfair in Oakland.

Why are there two Anarchist bookfairs within 20 miles of each other ?

Comments

Not that Anarchist Bookfairs are ultimately a gauge of Anarchist activity (they can be really disappointing), I do like to see new Anarchist zines/literature and chat it up with writers I like (if Anarchist writers are invited so forth.)

Answer 1

a) the two bookfairs happen at different times of year,
b) the east bay one is less about selling to non-anarchists
c) the east bay one was less speaker/big name-focused, more discussion group focused.

the bay area is pretty active, and there are plenty of different scenes that wouldn't feel represented by either of the bookfairs that happened, so having more is better.
also, you know, decentralization.

Answer 2

One answer/opinion among others (my opinion is not always an answer)...

PM Press dominates the San Francisco Anarchist Book Fair (Bay Area.) Before  Ramsey Kanaan left AK Press to start PM Press, AK Press used to dominate the San Francisco Anarchist Book Fair (Bay Area.) Bound Together Bookstore organizes the Book Fair and their store is heavy on PM Press and AK Press. They are two big book publishers to be fair....but is fair fair ?

Many of the writers/presenters who attend San Fran identify as Marxist or general anti-Capitalist. There are other problems with San Fran Book Fair.

PM Press and AK Press were listed in tags. Funny.

Comments

Here's some further information that has been posted on Anarchistnews.org :

http://anarchistnews.org/content/bay-area-anarchist-book-fair-all-pm-press
http://anarchistnews.org/content/cash-anarchy
http://anarchistnews.org/content/sf-bookfair-report-back


AK Press actually reposted one of the original posts criticizing the Bay Area Anarchist Book Fair for being dominated by PM Press :

http://www.revolutionbythebook.akpress.org/interesting-critique-of-the-bay-area-anarchist-bookfair/