The expo is organized by the Fundación El Libro, a non-profit established by the Argentine Society of Writers (SADE).

Those fairs, hosted as well at other cities of Argentina, were not limited to sell books, but included as well poetry, theatre, music or ballet performances.

[4] The fair has been hosted in recent years by the Argentine Rural Society in its Palermo borough expo grounds, of nearly 45,000 square meters.

Vargas Llosa had criticized the policies and alleged corruption of the presidency of Cristina Fernández de Kirchner, and some Argentine intellectuals, including National Library director Horacio González, requested to prevent his presence.

[13] The fair has been visited by many noteworthy foreign authors, such as Paul Auster, Ray Bradbury, Italo Calvino, Susan Sontag, Camilo José Cela, José Saramago, Mario Vargas Llosa, Muhammad Yunus, Tom Wolfe, Brian Aldiss, Manuel Vázquez Montalbán, Ángeles Mastretta, Rosa Montero, Nelly Sfeir Gonzalez, J. M. Coetzee, J. M. G. Le Clézio, Fernando Savater, Roger Chartier, Julián Marías, John Katzenbach, Claudio Magris, Isabel Allende, Arturo Pérez Reverte and Wilbur Smith.

[3] Argentine authors like Jorge Luis Borges, Adolfo Bioy Casares, Silvina Bullrich, Marco Denevi, Tomás Eloy Martínez, Roberto Fontanarrosa, Beatriz Guido, Manuel Mujica Lainez, Olga Orozco, Quino and Ernesto Sabato were regular visitors of the fair as well.