In 2008 the global economic crisis hit Spain hard. Until then, almost half of the books in Spanish that were sold in the world were sold in Spain, perhaps surprisingly given that only 48 million of the world’s 575 million Spanish-speakers live in Spain.
In 2023 the situation is very different. Latin America is now very much the main market for books in Spanish and, despite the fact that most business and editorial decisions are taken in Spanish head offices, with each passing year Latin America becomes more important to Spanish-language publishing.
In 2005 Nielsen BookScan launched in Spain; it was not until 2017 that we were able to incorporate our next Spanish-speaking country, Mexico, in the growing BookScan universe, and in 2023 we were able to add Colombia. The goal now is to continue growing and expanding the monitoring of Spanish book sales and work is being undertaken to add Chile and Argentina to BookScan. The technology and resources are available, but to set up a measurement in a new country there must be commitment from the local industry, mainly booksellers. Booksellers are at the heart of a measurement system like BookScan as well as the great beneficiaries, since for them the information is completely free while their data is completely confidential as all sales figures are aggregated.
In Colombia the situation is still evolving, though the industry understands the necessity to employ this type of measurement in order to improve the professionalism of the sector and enable decisions to be based on real data.The initial support of the Colombian Book Chamber was fundamental–they are a well-organized association that brings together both booksellers and publishers, and they supported the project decisively.
Although BookScan Colombia is only eight weeks old, we currently measure around 70% of trade sales in the country and we are in advanced negotiations with two major booksellers that have not yet been incorporated, as well as with the independent bookstore association. Everyone is welcome to join, both big and small!
We currently capture just over 100,000 books sales each week in Colombia, but if we estimate figures for both the remaining booksellers and the Christmas period we can anticipate that we will be measuring a trade market of around ten million units each year.
So what do Colombian consumers like to read? We can see a similar pattern to that observed in Mexico and Brazil, with the market dominated by general nonfiction (current affairs, politics, and self-help), while the adult fiction market is less important than in other countries, as is the children/YA market, although the latter is showing strong growth.
Of the Top Ten titles from the first eight weeks of measurement, nine are nonfiction; the first adult fiction title in the rankings is at number 20, Breaking the Circle by Colleen Hoover published by Editorial Planeta. So very unlike European markets.
The average price of a book in Colombia is 47,682 COPS ($10), compared to $16.6 in Spain or $14.75 in Mexico. The catalogue of titles– the number of different ISBNs recorded with at least one unit sold–in the first eight weeks of operation was 43,000 in Colombia, compared to 217,000 in Spain and 136,000 in Mexico. If we combine this figure with the share of volume sales taken by the Top 500 titles, which in Colombia is 35% compared to 24.6% in Spain and 28.6% in Mexico, we can say that in Colombia there is a significant sales concentration of bestselling books.
We are only at the beginning of the measurement in Colombia, but we can already see some clear patterns. We look forward to analyzing market patterns in much greater depth over the coming years as more precise data becomes available.
David Peman is the Nielsen BookScan territory manager for Mexico and Colombia.
