Brazil apart, publishers are struggling to persuade the growing middle class to read more books

Dear Sir,

You said: "But they co-exist with old-fashioned shops, where books must be requested by name from counter staff or are wrapped in browser-proof cellophane to prevent damage."

Most large bookshops in Brazil have offered for over a decade computer-based book search for their clients. I don't remember going to a bookshop anywhere and having asked the staff to unwrap books I wanted to look at.

In addition, the bookshop business in Brazil having an old-fashioned look adds to the experience of entering the world of literature. Livraria da Travessa, for instance, is one of those places where lots of people in Rio horde to in order to have a pleasant afternoon by looking up the books and enjoying the environment.

What needs to happen in Brazil is a greater expansion of entrepreneurial book selling. It needs to reach the North and Northeast with as much power as it does in the Southeast. That will help develop people's taste for reading in those areas. Also, it needs to get into the schools of the greater urban centers. We are not requested to read books so much in the schools in Brazil. I believe lobbying needs to happen in a new level. This whole commercial process will benefit the people immensely.

Joao is right, if Dilma is a Socialist (which is not an insult anyway) I'd be curious to seem some of these Socialist policies? I tire of such immature political rhetoric from Brasilian that claim to be educated, saying such things is such "Third World" and illiberal way of thinking.

If orthodox marco-economics mixed with some fairly mild conditional cash transfers is "Socialist", I'd hate to know what you think countries like Australia, New Zealand, Sweden and Holland are doing... Evil Stalinist dictatorship?

The right in Brasil have nearly 500 years of continual failure on their hands. It has taken 17 years of mild Social Democracy from FHC, Lula and now Dilma to undo all of that damage done by one of the most inept groups of elites in the world.

Class A in Brasil have to be handed some kind of medal for mass stupidity. The sadness irony is the foolish way they still have dreams that their position is based on some kind of superior nature. The reality is that if you are Class A in Brasil, you got there because you were born there. Exactly the same as a favelado.

Back on track, Penguin's entry into the Brasilian market is good news. What Brasil needs is a volume publisher to come in and shake things up a little. Books in Brasil are far too expensive. Amazon would make a killing.

Great article.
We live in Guadalajara. The book fair is a place to be seen and to meet up with friends. Very few people buy books. In fact, very few Mexicans read books at all. Recently we waited in a doctor's reception area. There were 18 people. Two people were reading, my son and myself,both gringos. All the rest just stared at the walls.

Mexico has laws which prohibit the sale of books at discount prices, and selling used books is limited as well. I don't know where all those public libraries are that you mention: I know of one in San Miguel Allende that was started by retired gringos and is now operated by locals. Here in Guadalajara there is a library at a university,but to get there is almost impossible for someone without a car. We have a "library" at the town center,but it only contains a few books with local ordinances and such.

Good to read that book sales in the Brazilian market are rising. But it is still really sad how high the prices of new books in Brazil are, specially compared with Europe or United States prices. I disagree with the explanation of the publishers blaming the costs of paper, because usually only 5% of the final cost of a book comes from there. For example, I was looking to buy a Brazilian book in Brazil that costed R$160,00 (about €65,00), but gave up and bought the exact same book in Germany for €35,00 (the same book, produced also in Brazil, but imported and sold in Germany). Maybe the Brazilian bookstores should be less greedy...

And how precisely do you know what problem came first? I myself can say that, as a young man with not much money for myself, I couldn't pay for most of the good books I wanted to read, because most of them cost more than R$ 100 in Brazil. Even some good academic books which are essential for a student's professional formation may cost more than R$ 200. A Brazilian's average income is about R$ 1,600. So I do mean buying, for example, a good book for one's academic studies and, say it, a History book for one's leisure time may cost about R$ 350 in one month, that is, 21% of an average Brazilian's income. That is way too much. I'm quite sure bookstores in Brazil don't have more people to buy their products because they simply want to profit tremendously much at each sell of a book. That situation is even more scandalous when you remember that books and all the products that are necessary to the production of books in Brazil are exempt from any taxes. Nonetheless, a book in Brazil may be 5 or 7 times as expensive as a cinema ticket and 2 or 3 times as expensive as the average price for a music concert. Frankly, how can such a country, with such a bookstore market, stimulate a relatively poor population to read many books?

Wow! that´s a smart comment! one must certainly read a lot of books to arrive at such a sophisticated conclusion!

Wow! Dilma a socialist? C'mon. You're reading too much Olavo de Carvalho.

I agree.

I'm not sure people realise how expensive book in Brasil have been in the past. This changing, a new hardback can know be as low as R$30 via Folha's site. However Brasil needs deals like the Penguin deal. Hopefully Amazon will wake up to the potential market in Brasil. The key problem would be delivery logistics, but again here is a business opportunity.

Like wise, if Ikea opened a mega-store in Sao Paulo you could almost guarantee it would be most profitable store in the world. At the moment all Brasil has is a Tok Stok, which is poor quality for the price compared with European stores.

This is not a supply problem, it's a demand problem. Latin Americans read little not because books are expensive; rather, books are expensive because Latin Americans don't consume them enough, so economies of scale are not reached.

The most common definition of lingua franca is : A language used for communication among people of different mother tongues.

Of course English is the premier lingua franca of this age, but I do not see a language that is a strong second place across the globe. Everything else depends on on the region or the situation. With native Spanish speakers at 400 milllion, I don't see Portuguese displacing Spanish as a lingua franca, but I really don't see Spanish as a strong lingua franca by the definition I listed either. Even with rising economic strength, I really don't even see Mandarin as becoming a lingua franca -- at least not without war and conquor.
I speak both Spanish and English and when I travel outside of the Americas I typically attempt English first --that usually works no matter where you're at. Even when dealing business with Brazilians, if neither one of us understands the other's langauge, usually English works--or we just speak very slowly and try to understand eachother lol-- unfortunately for some reason, its easier for Portuguese speakers to understand Spanish rather than the other way around. Having said that, I've started learning Portuguese, but only to speak when communicating with Brazilians.

1-) Brazil book sales are increasing because state governments and the federal government are buying more books for schools, not because the population is reading more.

You still have the problem of a population that does not read enough and where very few people knows a second language.

2-) Most big newspapers in Brazil uses practices that would be considered deceptive to increase circulation, like giving free copies in bus stations and giving subscriptions for free. Stiil, the biggest newpaper by circulation in the country has the same circulation that the Minneapolis Star-Tribune have. And the average regional market in the US is fair more competitive than in Brazil.

3-) The major problem is not that the books are expensive. Even very rich people in Brazil simply does not read. Only the Upper Classes in Brazil should be enough to sustain a healthy market for books. Brazil has a very healthy market for luxury items, but not for books.

Hispanics living in the US are not Latin American.

Watch out for 200 million strong Brazilian-Portuguese speakers displacing Spanish as a second lingua-franca, a reality that is only dawning on Spanish speaking folks now.

Come on, everybody who's informed enough knows that, in relation to one's whole estate, rich people in Brazil pay only 25%, whilst poor people in Brazil pay almost 50% of everything they earn and have with taxes. Among people who are more informed about Brazil's tax law and policies from real books than from what the media or the politicians say (and they have their interests to say only part of the truth), it's well known that Brazil's biggest tax problem is that it's tremendously regressive, and not progressive, that is: the tax rate diminishes, instead of increasing, as people get richer. For the Brazilian market and especially for the welfare of the Brazilian society, rich people should pay 40% or 50% of their estate in taxes, and poor people should pay 25%. The rich themselves would be greatly benefitted, because their companies would have many more consumers with much more money to waste. Of course I mean the active rich people, the elite who works, and not the parasites who do nothing and nevertheless want to be as rich as ever.

Actually, Australia, New Zealand, Sweden and Holland are far more economically liberal than most latin american countries. Just check yourself at Doingbusiness.com/rankings.

The military government in Brazil was even more socialist than our current Government, we used to be forbidden even to import things abroad.

Off course it's hard to become rich in Brazil, look at the taxes, how a poor person can buy a car or a home? How can he have a good public education with so much corruption?

Try to educate yourself reading books.

1-) Brazil book sales are increasing because state governments and the federal government are buying more books for schools, not because the population is reading more.

You still have the problem of a population that does not read enough and where very few people knows a second language.

2-) Most big newspapers in Brazil uses practices that would be considered deceptive to increase circulation, like giving free copies in bus stations and giving subscriptions for free. Stiil, the biggest newpaper by circulation in the country has the same circulation that the Minneapolis Star-Tribune have. And the average regional market in the US is fair more competitive than in Brazil.

3-) The major problem is not that the books are expensive. Even very rich people in Brazil simply does not read. Only the Upper Classes in Brazil should be enough to sustain a healthy market for books. Brazil has a very healthy market for luxury items, but not for books.

I am also from Guadalajara and this Economist reader is speaking for himself or herself. I do buy books at the book fair FIL every year and I also buy books in libraries throughout the year. You mention that at the doctor's office you were the only one reading a book, because you're a gringo and gringos and Canadians prefer to read a book rather than talking to their own children I know that for a fact because I lived in Canada for many years and my father has a friend married to an American woman who never played with her children, neither listed to them or cook for instance because she was holding a book at all times. However I do agree that Mexicans need to read more, but I do think that in Mexico we're working towards that goal. I hope that we never substitute spending time with our children, family or friends with a book because in Mexico we have stronger family tights than in the USA and Canada and that is extremely important for society, since the family is the core and basis for a healthy society. If american women put the book aside to see what their children and teenagers are doing the USA society would be less addicted to drugs, less prompted to disfunctional families.

I live in Chile and publish a small online magazine here gringolandiasantiago.com. Yes the author is correct that books are priced ridiculously high here for small print runs or whatever reason. The typical book in Chile costs $25 USD and more, often a lot more. For this reason people buy pirated editions of Isabelle Allende and Coelho in the streets for $6 USD. The books are treated as such valuable commodities here that when you go the the bookstore most are wrapped in plastic and you cannot even look inside. Ridiculous, yes?

I believe the way to get books out to the masses is to deliver them electronically to many devices including cell phones. But Amazon does not sell electronic books here. They recently open Amazon.es in Spain but have not made electronic books available there nor here and in order to buy books there one would need a credit card denominated in euros or dollars which the poor of course do not have. There are some small companies here delivering books electronically but nothing will change until Amazon makes there entrée here.

In general I would say that the big American media companies are ignoring Latin America in many ways and this makes no sense as these economies are doing better and growing more than the USA. Netflix recently opened up here but Apple iTunes and Amazon video rentals are not available here. Their web sites say content cannot be purchased outside the USA.

Maybe some of these old fashioned print publishers can team up with the cell phone companies here and let people buy and read books on their cell phone and then charge them by their cell phone bill. Nothing else will work as most people do not have credit cards nor do they have a Kindle. But even the poorest people have a cell phone and of course the young people use this things all day long.

As an expatriate I avoid the high prices of books by buying them in the USA market on the Amazon Kindle. You can read here about my experience with Amazon Kindle in Chile here http://www.gringolandiasantiago.com/2011/04/17/me-and-my-expatriate-amaz...

Books are very expensive in Mexico but that's no excuse for not reading. For the average Mexican family it is cheaper to buy DVD's, illegal copies mind you, for their kids than books. Even pirated books are more expensive than the "alternatives".

We have a Mexican friend in Mexico City who had a contract to publish and distribute a Spanish-language edition of Scientific American. Before he shut down,he discovered things such as the fact that there are two individuals who distribute such items in all of Mexico. They take 66% of the cover price of everything they distribute but only distribute on consignment. They don't actually buy the magazines but they keep the 66% whether the magazine sells or is returned unsold to our friend. Who can make any money under such conditions? Where is the competition?