October 2009

……was the vision of Brazil by Monteiro Lobato, one of country’s most influential writers and a founder of Companhia Editora Nacional in 1925, now owned by IBEP. That was how I saw Brazil after three days of intensive meetings with the country’s enthusiastic publishers as well as looking at colorful books. To do it justice I have also to mention delicious food (drinks to which I gave already given credit in a previous post), mouth watering Maria Molly sweets and heavy traffic. But who cares about traffic after Moscow’s terrible traffic jams! The “trine immersion” has put bits and pieces of a puzzle to form a picture ‘Brazilian book market’. I do not claim for the accuracy of my approach, it is just my perspective as Edward Navotka from Publishing Perspective would say, and I welcome any comments and updates.

Market
Compared to Europe, the Brazilian book publishing industry is relatively young. Its origin dates back to the second quarter of the 19th century and coincides with the Brazilian independence from Portugal. Liberalization of the Brazilian political regime in 90’s of the last century gave birth to the new generation of Brazilian publishers. The main share is middle and small-size companies, often family owned, with an average number of employees of 15 – 30 people. The juvenile age of the industry is reflected by the relatively low level of subject area specialization and by the absence of major players dominating the market. Having grown about 10% annually during the last decade the industry shows large market potential, which seems not to be effected by the current economic crisis. In 2008 with 530 active publishers released 51,129 titles, Brazil is in the club of the 10-top world countries in terms of numbers of titles published.
An industry that earned in 2008 more than US$ 1.6 billion is well balanced in terms of production versus sales. Overproduction amounts to 7 million or 2% of all copies produced in the country. Although it has a population with low reading – only 34% (66 million) of the population read books, given the current public policies for the sector, the national reading rate is expected to increase.
The Brazilian Government, the largest book buyer in the world, is responsible for 1/3 of all purchases. Through its purchasing programs for textbooks for primary (PNLD) and secondary (PNLEM) school and supplementary reading (PNBE), the Government purchases a large number of copies to supply to schools and libraries. Understandably, the publishing houses that focus on the school market retain the largest piece of the cake. Although the Government buys books with heavy discounts of up to 85% the deal is still profitable and results in higher than average (8-10%) profitability in the industry (up to 40%).
Fast economic growth during the last decade, investments in biotechnology and thoughtful social policies have been reflected in publishing trends. With the middle class (income bracket C), which has grown up to 52% of the total population of the country, books have become available to those who could not afford them in the past. After textbooks, mass market literature is the second sub-sector that has demonstrated significant growth some 20% in the number of copies sold. The religious sector, with a relatively low number of titles (5, 292), has the highest average print run in the industry – around 9,000 copies with bestsellers like “Quem me roubou de mim?” by Padre Fábio de Melo hit 400,000 copies. Cristina Maria Negrão, editor at Canção Nova is certain that “the economic crisis influenced sales to advantage. People are looking for answers and comfort”. STM books showed the greatest growth in volume of reprinted and of new titles brought to market. With an increase of 34,5%, the sub-sector is responsible for a quarter of all titles published in the country. “You can’t miss our technical and scientific books on environmental issues and bio-fuel, topics in which Brazil has become a global reference”, commented Shoshana Signer, publisher of Oficina de Textos.
Around 12,6% of the books produced in Brazil in 2008 were translations of foreign works. According to the figures of Câmara Brasileira do Livro, among 6,491 translated titles in 2008, 61% were translated from English, 11,5% from French; 16,3% from Spanish, 6,7% from Italian, and 3% from German. Translations from other languages including Japanese and Chinese did not exceed 1,5%. Tax exception on books introduced in Brazil in 2004 resulted in a price drop of 20% during the last 4 years.

Publishers
Currently and according to the CBL, the major 7 publishing houses in Brazil, taken in random order, are Record, Compania das Letras, Rocco, Planeta, Moderna, Cosac Naify, and Editores Saraiva, the latter of these is also a part of the umbrella company also active in the retail book trade. Accelerating development in the book sector attracted the attention of many multinational publishing companies. Thus, Editora Moderna, a publisher of school textbooks, was acquired by Portuguese Santillana, whilst Spanish Planeta is a player in the country through Editora Planeta do Brazil and Editora Academia de Inteligencia. Following Larousse, Hachette, Pearson, and Harlequi, Penguin have started entering the Brazilian book market through a joint publishing programme with the Sao Paolo based Companhia das Letras.
To sustain their businesses, publishing houses depend either on the Brazilian Government purchases or on private investments; Cosac Naify, for example, roughly increases its investment by 30% per annum. In terms of profitability, several publishers report that usually 6 out 10 books show ‘good sells’.
This is not the case with non-commercial publishers however like Imprensa Oficial de San Paolo, with a publishing list of around 500 books including biographies and coffee table reading – more of a craft than being a bestseller.
With 350 Universities in the country, amazingly there are only 120 University Publishing houses. Amongst those, the only one – Editora UNESP (The Publishing house of the University of Sao Paolo) with some 1200 titles on the backlist and 200 fresh titles published each year mainly in the social sciences and humanities – is commercially viable and successful.
Absence of digital content distributors and virtual warehouse make e-books unpopular in the country not to mention their high price. Nevertheless, experts see room for growth and potential especially for libraries.

Trade
With about 190 million people, Brazil has 2,676 bookstores, which is about 1 book outlet per 71 thousand people (3 thousand in the USA, 9 thousand in Western Europe, 66 thousand in Russia). Unevenly distributed throughout the country, 68% of bookstores are concentrated in the South and Southeast, which results in 1 bookstore per 300 thousand people in some other regions. Thousands of door-to-door sellers bring books especially religious ones and those of self-help into people’s homes. Around 14% of all sales are made through this channel allowing to reach “those, who otherwise would have never come to a book store.”
The oldest Brazilian bookstore chain Siciliano founded in 1928 and its 46 stores was acquired by Livraria Saraiva last year. The acquisition made Saraiva with its own 41 outlets the biggest book chain in the country. In addition to Saraiva, among the bookshops that integrate large national networks are Fnac (Fond National d’Art Contemporain) and Livraria Cultura, with a wide range of international titles and arts books. The retail chains containing assortments that go far beyond books, CDs and DVDs are also active in online business competing with online Submarino. On-line book trade showed a 15% increase last year. The six-store chain Livraria Travessa is well established in Rio de Janeiro confidently Twittering with their customers.
Publishers supply books to stores on consignment conditions, the average return amounts to 30%. Livraria Cultura is said to be among few to actually purchase books from publishers. The trade agreement on the retail book price does not allow the trade to down-price books. French-owned Fnac as well as small independent retail outlets are in a privileged position regarding discounting. Whilst the average discount for the wholesalers is around 55%, discounts in the retail sector amounts to 40%. Traditional book stores, “reporting of [which] death is [obviously] an exaggeration” remain the main channel of cash-flow in the industry.

Some of the professional bodies and press
SNEL – Sindicato Nacional dos Editores de Livros (National Union of Book Publishers) is Rio-based publishers Association promotes Bienal do Livro de Rio de Janeiro.
CBL – Câmara Brasileira do Livro (Brazilian Chamber of Books) is a San Paolo-based publishers’ Association, together with SNEL is an active supporter of an APEX-Brazil project aimed at international promotion of the Brazilian literature. CBL is an organizer of the International Biennial Book Fair in Sao Paolo.
Libre – Liga Brasileira de Editoras (Brazilian League of Publishing Houses) unites 106 small independent publishers. Organizer of the Primavera dos Livros Book Fair.

Resources on Brazilian Book market
www.publishnews.com.br
Monthly Panorama Editorial Magazine with publishing statistics and trends
Weekly Vision prints bestseller list

For those, whose courage has brought them to this point there is a couple of useful links. Those who is interested in in-depth view of the Brazilian book market could browse two sources (have to admit that I have read neither of them myself so far)
1) A book “O livro no Brasil: sua história [The book in Brazil: its history]” by Laurence Hallewell can be found at:
http://revistapesquisa.fapesp.br/?art=2274&bd=3&pg=1&lg=en

2) An article “The book publishing industry in Brazil “ by Robert E. Baensch from NYU published by Publishers Research Quarterly, Springer
http://www.springerlink.com/content/r18g38p416126638/

3) “The Market for Publishers in Brazil” by Tainã Bispo, Jornal Valor Econômico, Avenida Jaguaré 1485, 1° andar, Sao Paulo, CEP 05346-000, Brazil
http://www.springerlink.com/content/x804176342113830/

Question of the day: Will I ever be back?
Joy of the past days: Rio’s become the capital of the summer Olympics 2016

Brazil’s cookbook scene is dominated by books on healthy cooking, tomes by British celebs and a dose of local color

I recently spent a week in Brazil, attending a book fair in Rio de Janeiro and meeting with book publishers in São Paulo. Although the purpose of the trip was for me to get an overview of Brazil’s publishing industry, I also got a fantastic impression of Brazil’s food culture. Like most Latin countries, food is an aspect of any social gathering, even if it’s business-related. For meetings, publishers set out platters of pastries, carafes of Brazilian coffee and pitchers of tropical fruit juices. Lunches were never hurried, beginning with caipirinhas and empadinhas (filled with hearts of palm, cheese or beef), and ending with coconut tapioca pudding. Here’s a look at what I ate in Brazil, how cookbooks are marketed there, and how well one cookbook publisher is doing.

Brazilian steakhouses, or churrascarias, serve meat on massive skewers, with waiters carving it off the bone right onto your plate. I went to Carretão, in Rio’s Copacabana neighborhood, and just like the churrascarias in the U.S., the meat overload was intense. A salad bar offered some modicum of healthy freshness, but really, it was all about the carne. I’d actually chose feijoada over meat at a churrascaria—it’s a classic Brazilian dish brought to South America by the Portuguese, which I had for lunch one day. Brazilians eat the hearty stew made with beans, beef and pork both in restaurants and at home. Cheese puffs called pão de queijo are ubiquitous in Brazil; akin to French gougères, they’re about the size of a golf ball and laced with mild orange cheese (supermarkets sell boxed mixes for making them at home). And then there’s breakfast: a beautiful array of fresh fruits (papaya, pineapple, watermelon and banana, the latter sometimes sprinkled with cinnamon), tropically-flavored yogurts (coconut was my favorite), frothy fruit juices (açai, passion fruit, mango, peach) and coconut water. Of course, the café com leite is fantastic. Brazilians also seem to always have a little something sweet at breakfast, whether it’s a pound cake or their version of the French pain au chocolat.

And what are Brazilians cooking at home? Unfortunately, I didn’t get the opportunity to eat chez a Carioca (resident of Rio) or Paulista (resident of São Paulo), so I can only go on what I saw in the “culinária” sections of the cities’ bookstores. At the swank Shopping Leblon mall in Rio de Janeiro’s Leblon district, just west of Ipanema, amid Armani and Starbucks, is Livraria da Travessa, a gorgeous showpiece of Brazilian publishing, with elegant lighting, small nooks for browsing and nary a price tag (shoppers must scan books themselves at one of the stations around the store for a price check). Two kinds of books dominated Livraria da Travessa’s cookbook section: books on “light” cooking and books by British celebrity chefs, although there were also a smattering of titles on Brazilian cooking, such as 1,000 Receitas de Culinária Brasileira and A Cozinha Amazônica. On the healthy cooking side, titles like Cozinha Light and Comer bem! Como? received spine-out treatment, while books by bestselling Brits Gordon Ramsay, Nigella Lawson and Jamie Oliver were stacked on tables.

Out of the dozen or so publishers I met in Brazil, Senac Editions had the most cookbook-heavy list. I spoke with a few reps from the house at the Bienal do Livro, a massive book fair that’s open to the public and held every year, alternating between Rio and Sao Paulo. Senac has almost 1,000 titles on its backlist, in nonfiction categories ranging from cooking to the environment to fashion. And in a market where 3,000 copies is the average print run, Senac is having terrific success with a few cookbooks this year, going out with a 6,000-copy first printing of Chef Professional, a Portuguese translation of The Professional Chef by the Culinary Institute of America. The hefty book is priced at R$180 (US$100), although it was selling for R$150 (US$84) at the Bienal do Livro. At least two other Senac books, Gula d’África: O Sabor Africano Na Mesa Brasileira and Gastronomia & Historia: Dos Hotéis-Escola Senac Sao Paulo, have won Gourmand World Cookbook Awards.

This story originally appeared in Cooking the Books, PW’s e-newsletter for cookbooks.

http://www.publishersweekly.com/article/CA6698648.html?q=brazil

My visit to the 28th Bienal do Livro, which took place from the 10th to the 20th September in Rio de Janeiro, got off with a real bang when the arrival of teenage self-help author Thalita Rebouças caused Brazilian schoolchildren up and down the fair’s numerous aisles to scream, shout and stampede with the volume and hysterics usually reserved for pop stars. Sore eardrums aside, it was a real privilege to see children en masse get so excited about an author, and their enthusiasm really set the tone for the whole fair while I was there.

Out of the 600,000 public visitors at this year’s fair about 200,000 were children and for the fair’s main organisers Sindicato Nacional dos Editores de Libros (SNEL) this high number is essential to success, as the fair itself is less about selling foreign rights and more about selling books.

Book prices in Brazil are incredibly high and many of the publishers in attendance sold their books off with 20% or 50% discounts as well as bringing in backlist titles that are no longer available in smaller Brazilian bookshops. In order to promote literacy to the young (in a country where reading levels are very low, especially in the north and mid-west) SNEL gives 500 reais to every public school to facilitate a trip to the fair each year as well as five reais to every child so that they can buy books for themselves.

Over the fair’s 11 days there were 84 events created especially for children and the children’s Book Forest, an interactive area which covers 800 sq m, was designed specifically to attract younger children and leave then feeling excited and enthused about literature.

Although this year’s fair saw well-known international authors including Meg Cabot (who is incredibly popular in Brazil), David Grann, Bernard Cornwell and Joseph O’Neill fly over to discuss their books, commercially the fair lacks an international presence, with Brazilian companies making up about 95% of the 154 exhibitors. Those 154 exhibitors sold off 100,000 titles (including 1,000 new publications) in an area of 55,000 s qm. The Bienal is
primarily a promotional activity (a giant bookshop if you will) designed to foster good reading habits in the young rather than produce business deals and publishing partnerships.

The fair’s organisers, including Câmara Brasileira do Livro (CBL) who organise the fair in Sao Paulo (the fair swaps location each year between the two cities) are hoping to change this over the coming years however. Both CBL and SNEL are keen to expand the
professionalisation of the fair and SNEL is now hopeful that at the next Bienal do Livro in Rio in 2011 the first day will be closed to the public so that foreign publishers, agents and authors can come to discuss those all important rights deals and hopefully bring the Brazilian book market to the international spotlight.

First published at www.thebookseller.com

http://www.thebookseller.com/blogs//97924-hysteria-at-the-bienal.html