In 2008 Brazil produced nearly three and half million books, making it responsible for 50% of the books produced in Latin America and the eighth biggest book market in the world. Despite this figure, a dearth of well-known authors (Paulo Coelho being the only Brazilian author to become a household name) has resulted in the country long residing under the radar of the Western markets.

Literacy levels in Brazil are incredibly low with only 55% of the population of 190 million receiving a school education and only a third describing themselves as regular readers. These poor levels of education ensure that reading, especially in the north and mid-west areas, is restricted primarily to textbooks and the Bible. As Jézio Hernani Bomfim Gutierre, executive publisher of Editora Unesp, an academic publisher linked to the University of São Paulo, says: “The problem in Brazil isn’t just that there is a concentration of wealth, but that there is also a concentration of information. The Brazilian middle class is growing, but their reading habits aren’t.”

The Brazilian government is the biggest buyer of books in the world, buying 57.5% of the 211,542,458 copies sold in the country in 2008. Fifty-two percent of the books produced in Brazil are textbooks, bought by the state from publishers under three schemes buying for primary education, secondary schools and school libraries. Despite this high percentage of sales, however, an average discount rate of 85% means that the state’s purchases only actually provide 28% of the country’s total books income: book sales in Brazil in 2008 were worth nearly $1.7bn  (£1.1bn) with the government’s contribution reaching just $434m (£270m).

At various times throughout the year, every publisher can submit 20 titles to the state in the hope of having them picked up by one of schemes. Although a discount rate of 85% might seem excessive to an outsider, selling books to the state is still incredibly worthwhile for Brazilian publishers, some of whom rely on government sales to remain afloat. As the reading market in Brazil is so low the average print run for books is small, around two to three thousand for the majority of books, but print runs for books commissioned by the state are much larger in size, reaching figures of around 40,000 to 50,000.
For Erivan Gomes, director of Editora Cortez, a publishing house based in São Paulo, government sales have proved tremendously beneficial: “Last year the state government of Fortaleza bought 230,000 copies of our children’s book on Fortaleza, from our City series, for every child in the state. That was amazing for us financially and we’re hoping that other state governments follow suit.”

Door to door
It is the sheer size of Brazil that dictates the high discount rate of state purchases, efficient distribution is a real issue and getting books out to the poorest and most rural areas is an expensive and time-consuming business. So, while door to door selling may have become unfashionable in Britain in the 1960s, in Brazil, porta a porta selling results in 13.66% of the country’s total sales. The majority of books sold through this method are religious texts, an area that made up just over 10% of the titles produced in 2008 and 37% of the copies produced.

Canção Nova, a Catholic publishing house based in São Paulo, has 22,000 porta a porta sellers and produces a new catalogue for this purpose every three months. Although its books are not often picked up by bookstores, it is flourishing without much retailer support, and its titles consistently demand higher than average print runs (around 10,000 copies). Cristiana Maria Negrão, editor of Canção Nova, attributes their success to the price of the books: “Our books are cheaper than the average book found in bookshops. Brazil is split into five social classes and we cater for the last two, the D and E classes. Our books are smaller in size, use simpler language and follow a central theme of religion: they appeal to customers not usually reached by the fancy bookshops in Rio de Janeiro and São Paulo.”

Fair dealings
There are 2,676 bookshops in Brazil, 53% of which are located in the south-east of the country. The north of the country, the largest area geographically, has only 5% of the bookshops. This discrepancy, combined with the high cost of books in Brazil, makes the Bienal do Livro, Brazil’s annual book fair, especially important when it comes to selling books to the public. Primarily a promotional activity by Brazil’s two publishing associations to encourage younger audiences to become avid readers, the fair alternates location each year between São Paulo, where it is organised by the CBL (Câmara Brasileira do Livro), and Rio de Janeiro, where it is organised by SNEL (Sindicato Nacional dos Editores de Libros). Despite its size, it covers more than 55,000sq m, the fair lacks a commercial international presence with Brazilian companies making up about 95% of the exhibitors.

A third of the 600,000 visitors at this year’s fair in Rio were children and there were 84 events created especially for them. Both the CBL and SNEL see changing the attitudes of the young, and creating future generations who are regular readers, as the only real way to transform Brazil and create a reading culture. It is for this reason that each year 500 reais (£172) is given away to every public school to facilitate a trip to the fair and five reais (£1.72) is given to every child, so that they can buy books for themselves. The scheme is hugely successful and the fair acts, in essence, as a giant bookshop. The popular Brazilian retail chain Livraria da Travessa has a stand at the fair every year, and reported sales of 3,000 books in its first three days this year.

According to the CBL there are 530 “active book companies” operating in Brazil but even with this high number the publishing industry remains close-knit. With few international links it has remained virtually untouched by the global recession: stable but static. Cosac Naify publishes high-end art, literature and children’s books and is one of several publishers in Brazil that do look outward to the international market. It has produced several titles in conjunction with international art galleries. Cassiano Elek Machado, editor at Cosac Naify, explains: “We see ourselves as more of a cultural project rather than a publisher. We’re so keen for Brazilian artists, poets and writers to be picked up by the international market and vice versa. We do all we can to work with international publishers to connect with people globally, from Facebook pages to Twitter feeds.”

As Rosely Boschini, president of the CBL, says: “The Brazilian publishing market is a very mature one, but it is also a family-owned market that needs help to develop on an international scale. We have developed several initiatives with Apex (The Brazilian Trade & Investment Promotion Agency), to help the industry promote itself to the international market and we are starting to see positive affects.” One such initiative is a tax exemption that has been in place since 2004: it gives publishers and booksellers between 3.5% and 9% off their taxes (depending on their size) and has resulted in a 20% drop in prices. This positive drop has helped grow the market by 15% year on year, and has helped the average number of books read by Brazilian’s each year rise from 1.8 in 2003 to 4.7 in 2008.

Another key factor in Brazilian publishing is the translation market; with nearly 12% of titles produced in 2008 translated from a foreign language (6,226 titles out of 51,129); an increase of nearly 5% from 2007. In contrast the business of translating Brazilian works into foreign languages is relatively small. To counteract this discrepancy CBL and Apex have been providing publishers with foreign rights training to get them ready for this year’s Frankfurt Book Fair. Although many publishers have been to the fair before the aim of this year’s visit, more than ever before, is to build international relations and secure the all-important rights deals that will bring Brazilian authors, illustrators and publishers into the limelight.

First published at www.thebookseller.com

http://www.thebookseller.com/in-depth/feature/98666-market-snapshot-brazil.html

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

It’s not often that I find myself trapped in the midst of the flashlight scrum of the Brazilian paparazzi but last night in one of Rio de Janerio´s most loved bookshops, the Ipanema Beach branch of Livraria da Travessa, I was caught up in their glare.
I was unwittingly at the launch of journalist Tania Carvalho’s new biography of Tônia Carrero, who at 87 years of age is Brazil´s oldest living actress. Famous for her work on screen in both films and telenovelas, Carrero is a powerhouse of Brazilian film and her family is now a cinematic dynasty with both her children and grandchildren following in her footsteps. Bibi Ferreira, another grand-dame of cinema, famous for depicting Edith Piaf, and José Serra, the Governor of São Paulo, also turned up in support of the beloved actress. Carvalho´s publisher, Imprensa Oficial, is the official publisher of São Paulo, hence the Governor’s presence.

Similar in colour scheme and signage to Waterstone’s, but with more of an independent flavour, all of Livraria da Travessa’s six branches are testament to the international and literary spirit of Brazil, with a large range of books readily available in six languages. Despite having only a small space to work with in terms of square feet, the passionate books manager of the branch, Renato Alcides, explained to me that bringing foreign works to Brazilian customers was unbelievably important. Passionate and proud of the range of British, French, Spanish, Italian, German and Portuguese authors available, both in their original and translated forms, Alcides suggested that the real struggle in running such a prestigious chain was maintaining the stores’ true identity as more branches opened and the company grew larger both physically and monetarily.

Walking into both the Ipanema Beach branch and the Loblon beach branch, the thing that struck me most about the stores was the complete lack of “discount” signs. Both stores (and I am reliably informed that this stands true for the other four) had no “three for two” tables, no sectors where every book was 75% off, no 99p tables. In fact they had no pricing stickers anywhere and more importantly, no r.r.p.: just beautiful books laid bare in nothing but their jackets.
It is up to individual bookshops in Brazil to set the price of their stock, and Livraria da Travessa seems to have taken price out of the equation for its eager customers—the chain has scanning machines dotted around so that customers can check how much their purchase will cost before they get to the till, but there are no promotional materials leading customers to make their decisions on price alone.

It is a business model that seems to be working: a seventh store will soon be opened up (the fourth in downtown Rio) and a link-up with the Pompidou Centre in France to promote French books in store, suggest that it has been a good year for the chain.

First published at www.thebookseller.com
http://www.thebookseller.com/blogs/97140-books-on-the-beach.html