Arturo Zapata was an editor from Manizales who managed several companies: a newspaper, a magazine and two publishing houses of books, between 1920 and 1960. This article focuses mainly on the work of this editor in his Casa Editorial y Talleres Gráficos Arturo Zapata; through it, Zapata personified the figure of the modern editor. Combining intellectual, economic and technical processes, Zapata innovated -perhaps like no other editor on your time- in the consolidation of channels for the distribution and dissemination of Colombian book, and to conquer new readers.