Argentina is still the biggest market in Spanish speaking Latin America for trade books, though Mexico is catching up. And as in most of the publishing world, companies are consolidating. One major Argentine trade house, Javier Vergara Editor, s.a. was sold last year to Ediciones B in Spain and both Javier and Gabriela Vergara have left the company. Bertelsmann purchased 60% of Sudamericana (with an option for the other 40%) through its Plaza y Janes Barcelona -- based house early this year.
Though fewer of the major trade houses in Argentine are independent, those that are have internationalized. Even the big Spanish houses like Planeta, which operates in a dozen countries, today have a greater degree of autonomy in each market. And they are reaching out to new audiences. As a result, trade book retailing is also changing.
Nowhere is this more true than Argentina. The new breed of book store chains, Yenny, Ateneo and Fausto, are growing in size and scope and promise much more. This year the first two were purchased by the Gruenheiser family, a local oil concern expert in retailing gasoline (though not yet selling books in filling stations). Libraria Yenny has nine stores now, some of the biggest and brightest in the country, and under their new ownership another 21 are planned. The five stores of the illustrious El Ateneo, including their grand old Beaux Arts original on Florida street, will no doubt get interior makeovers.
And international competition is coming on strong in bookselling in Argentina. Tower Records opened in 1997, hugely successful, thought without a major book section so far. And now from France comes the books-and-electronics retailer FNAC. They have announced plans for five new stores in Argentina and one in Chile, as well as buying into an existing venture in Brazil.
Distribution still being the weakest link in the publishing chain in Latin America, another Argentina independent Emecè has one of the best in their own. Two years ago, they got together with several of the major independents got together to create a combined distribution service, Libros Shop, which has answered some of the costly problems in that part of the business. And Emecè has taken on the global Spanish houses by globalizing themselves.
Commercial fiction has always been the strong suit at Emecè. Sydney Sheldon continues in the number one slot for this company, though Wilbur Smith, Dean Koontz, Ray Bradbury, Maeve Benchley and Arthur C. Clarke are close behind. All are part of the Grandes Novelistas series, which number 1020 titles now.
They also have a new list, all translations, called Narradores Actuales Emece, featuring Martin Amis, Ethan Canin, Howard Norman, James Hawes, Saul Bellow, Colin Toibin from Ireland and Romesh Gunesekera of Sri Lanka. This they call "popular literature with a quality touch." All these are marketed within Latin America, not Spain, with a $15 price tag.
The company turns 60 next year, with brothers Bonifacio and Francisco in charge, while their father relaxes in the USA. With offices in Spain, Mexico, Uruguay, Chile and Peru, Editorial Director Bonifacio del Carril still feels, in most cases, he must adapt books for the European market.
"Not so much with the commercial fiction," he says. "But with the literary titles. And conversely, we have many books from Spain that are alien to our readers in Latin America. We have a long experience in traveling around, however, so we try to make sure all of our titles will work abroad."
An exception is the Toibin book, published in the USA by Henry Holt as Story of the Night, it is set in Argentina, where the author was a correspondent during the trials following the dictatorship. As it is set in Argentina, it is considered acceptable in Spain in its Latin American Spanish.
Del Carril has accepted the necessity of split territorial rights for many of his titles, and he is enlivened by the interest among the young in reading in Argentina. EmecÈ sponsors a contest for new writers each year.
Paidos is another successful independent based in Argentina, with additional publishing houses and distribution centers in Spain and Mexico. Marita Cabarrou, Director of Paidos in Buenos Aires, presents PW this year with a new whole group of titles, including some "alternative" ones beyond their regular lists of psychology, sociology, philosophy and social analysis.
The new Oniro series features writers like Thomas Merton, Alan Watts and Eva Wong. "Subjects like taoism, reflexology, herbal medicine and the Alexandra technique are new for our company," she explains.
With an active website for sales, geared to their strongly academic readers, Cabarrou hopes to enjoy some of the success of Amazon.com in reaching into various markets in Latin America and the USA which are otherwise difficult to reach.
Probably the largest of the remaining independent medical book publishers in the world, Mèdica Panamericana competes successfully from Buenos Aires against the global giants in this field all over the Spanish speaking world. They distribute in 22 countries and print in Colombia, Mexico and Spain, as well as Argentina. They also buy and publish in Portuguese, both in Brazil and Portugal.
The information in the medical world doubles every three years, so the company catalog is full of new and revised titles. However, Mèdica Panamericana's own continuing education programs in various fields of medicine in Argentina have given the company another big boost in the last couple of years, according to President Hugo Brik. And these are something unique to Argentina.
"Science is more local than you think," he says. "The medical certification laws differ by country, so the needs for each are different. Publishers need to take care of the local consumer first."
With seven separate programs and 116 titles in production in their various markets, including a new bilingual dictionary of medicine they think may have potential USA distribution. The company is no longer the big buyer of foreign rights they once were.
"More than 80% of our titles are proprietary now," says Foreign Rights Manager Claudia Maiocchi. "This is a dramatic change. We are still buying rights for all Spanish speaking markets, both reference and medical textbooks in our fields, mostly from the USA. And we sell those in all the other countries. But the continuing educational materials are all originals."
Brik reports that while the medical market in Spain is flat ("so much competition," he says, "there are more publishers than doctors there") Mexico is getting much stronger. In the USA, 700,000 doctors spend $1 billion a year on books and journals. In Latin America and Spain that same number spend only $80 million, so there is a lot of room for growth.
"Latin America is where the action is," he concludes. "With stable politics and currencies, we have a very good step forward. The lack of education is still a gap that must be filled, this is the big challenge for book publishers. I'm convinced the next decade will be about education and information."
In keeping with the trends, Mèdica Panamericana has a new website.
The only South American country with a national Children's Book Fair, Argentina also boasts the largest exclusively juvenile house in the Spanish speaking Americas, Sigmar. No one knows children's books in Argentina better than Roberto Chwat (pron. "kwat"), son of Sigfrido Chwat, the man Walt Disney first visited in 1941, who passed away in 1997 at 85 years of age and never retired.
With 100 new titles every year and a strong backlist of over 1000 more, Chwat reports that his top five markets are, in order: Argentina, Chile, Uruguay, the USA and Venezuela.
"It is as niche publishers that we can remain independent in these markets," he says confidently. "We work together, to save on distribution costs now. Eight or nine of us who are exporting books with non-competitive products share our sales forces. It took us two years to get it together, but it is working well now."
Sigmar publishes only in Spanish, but works with companies like Melhoramentos in Brazil, developing series of titles that share artwork. Today, 50% of their list is licensed from elsewhere, the rest is produced right in Buenos Aires and printed wherever in the world it is most economical, including Europe and Asia.
"One of our best markets is the USA's West Coast, from Oregon to Mexico," he says, with a web of 30 different distributors in the USA. "And we see great growth for children's books in Latin America, but publishers should understand that each market in Latin America is different in its peculiarities. They are all changing all the time, each is getting more competitive. You have to know each market well. You can't transfer the success of one to another."
Between Bologna, Bogota, BEA, the two fairs in Argentina and Frankfurt, Chwat is busy enough just with book fairs. This year, he took his 16-year-old daughter with him to Bologna. "She loved it, and I loved having her along," he reports, hinting at the future he envisions. "More than two thirds of the children's book publishers are women now."
Chwat is sanguine about the future in Latin America.
"All the markets have recovered from what we call the 'Mexico effect' of 1995. And so far we have not been too badly damaged by the problems in Asia, though the Pacific coast countries, like Chile and Peru, are having more serious repercussions, as a greater part of their exports had been oriented towards Asia. It all depends on how long this takes and the domino effect it may have on other countries in the region."
An important part of the juvenile business today is supplementary school readers, especially now with Argentina making education mandatory to the 9th grade. English is also taught now in public schools in Argentina, so ESL readers are a growing area.
Argentine trade book publishers like Emece, de la Flor and Sudamericana are also involved with children's books now, and Sudamericana's Editorial Director Gloria Rodrigues also reports success with readers for schools.
"We try to do local books. So many Spanish language books for children today have vocabulary different from Argentine Spanish and the children find them difficult to read. We are even selling our local books into the schools now. And we have a new series coming out, 'Histories and Legends of Argentina' which we hope to be able to export."
Nobody is part of anything bigger than Atlantida. Founded in 1918 and grossing $17 million last year, they are still owned in part (40%) by the family of the founder, Constancio C. Vigil. Another 30% belongs to CEI, Citicorp Equity Investment, and so are part of the multi-billion dollar Citicorp/Travelers merger that made business news earlier this year. Spain's Telefûnica Internacional de Espana (TISA) has the rest.
Atlantida also has a printing plant in partnership with R.R. Donnelley and Sons. But the company is run independently by Executive Director Alfredo Vercelli, and the beloved Editorial Director Jorge O. Naveiro, who sounds pretty expansive themselves.
"We just bought a very important stake in the ownership of Editorial Zigzag in Chile, which adds $5 million to our gross," Naveiro tells PW. "And we are devoting more time to our Mexico operation. We will set up in Spain as well. Otherwise, it is impossible to fight for the big trade titles."
With both adult and juvenile lists, Atlantida just made an exclusive distribution agreement for Argentina with SM Ediciones in Spain. From SM will come a big juvenile series, Barco de Vapor (Steamboat), adult fiction (Accento), travel guides including the Gallimard series, and a small &"subjects in a nutshell" series of 150 titles, each 64 pages. Also added to their juvenile lists are all the Fisher-Price books for Latin America in Spanish.
They recently bought the Anne Rice's latest Pandora from Knopf, adding to the five they already publish. They have Carlos Castenada's latest, Magical Passes and five, so far, from Patricia Cornwell. But their eye is shifting.
"All publishers here are looking at the local scene for new hits," Naveiro reports. "The bestsellers list is local, or certainly Latin. Only a few translations are up there now. It used to be the other way around. Now wonderful local writers are enjoying sales of 200,000 copies. They are writing universal stories that are easy to translate. Now is the time for Argentine writers to move out into the world."
Among the examples Naveiro offers is Cristina Bajo's Como vivido cien veces set in Cordoba in 1840, which he calls, "a kind of Spanish Gone with the Wind" Felix Luna, Marcos Aguinas, Abel Posse and Pedro Orgambide, among others, are also new on the list.
"You cannot abandon initiative," Naveiro says with one of his slyest smiles.
Another old Argentine company now in the hands of the 30-something generation is Editorial Albatros (sic). With a new office and an energetic Andrea L. Canevaro as President, Albatros expanded successfully last year into decorative arts titles and have linked up with Avon for a new series sold both through that massive direct marketer and by Albatros in book stores.
These combine how-to books and supplies for the craft described. There is even a literature series.
"Avon is very specific about the products, the prices and the designs," says Canevaro. "They know their customers needs, their tastes. We are planning to sell these in all the Spanish language markets, and extend these lists with our own."
Canevaro reports active co-publishing arrangement now with David & Charles in the UK and Paramon in Spain.
"Aside from the Avon products, we are expanding our juvenile list into science subjects, from John Wiley & Sons, and we continue to buy rights from Storeybooks in Vermont and the Ultratumba horror series by Tom B. Stone from Bantam."
A new pocket book series for adults, Libro de Bolsillo, covers alternative medicine, health and lifestyle.
"Basically we are looking for titles with lower prices and lots of color," says Canevaro. "And we are expanding to the library market in the USA."
Vergara & Riba Editoras, known previously as V&R Editoras, and co-owned by the Vergara daughter, Trinidad, and Lidia Maria Riba, has a thriving international business now in gift books, their unique niche in Latin America.
"The difference is that we choose each book for any occasion of gift giving, not just for family or friends, making our catalog universal," says Vergara.
By the end of this year they expect to have 28 titles in print, 35% translations, some having already sold 50,000 copies. With five employees and many subcontractors they distribute in eight countries including Spain. They even have a "best quotes" from the works of Paulo C lho and expect to be selling as well as buying this year at Frankfurt.
Starting with the extensive Vergara network for trade books, Vergara and Riba have various connections now throughout the region and have pioneered the gift shop channels in Latin America. That provides 50% of their revenues now. They also market through a major cosmetic sales organization, Gigot.
This month, they open their first foreign publishing branch in Sao Paulo, Brazil. "It is very unusual for a Spanish speaking publisher to go into the Portuguese language markets,"Vergara concedes. "Even being geographically so near, the idiomatic barrier makes the huge Brazilian market too far from their neighbors."
"Also, you have to have a list where you control universal rights: originals that you can translate to any language in the world. We have this, and we have made some important tests with our gift books and the results are very promising. Maybe we have a truly international product," she says with glee.
"We try to seduce the people who donÃt usually buy or read books, to give them a hint of the fascinating world books have to offer," Vergara explains. Riba, who is also author of two of their biggest hits, adds, &"These books help people express their feelings through beautiful, yet simple words. This is what makes a truly good gift book."
Omar Claus at Angel Estrada also had a new trick up his sleeve this year, a dictionary of the correct use of Spanish words, concentrating only on those that differ by country.
"One exists already," says the excited Claus, "but it is very expensive, $240. Then there is a small pocket book version. Ours is in the middle, in size and price." It will sell for $40 in Argentine and less elsewhere, says this former cable TV producer. Now the company, specialized in the textbook market in Argentina alone, needs to develop Latin American distribution. It seems to be the direction everyone is headed.
Coming the other way, Joaquìn Gil Paricio of the Spanish book importing service, C.spide, sees the demand in Argentina for books from Spain as higher than ever, especially for academic texts. And English language titles, "at least a few fields like art, contemporary art, photography, fashion, eroticism, graphic design, architecture, coffee table books," are doing well, according to foreign book importer Guido Indij of La Marca.
What d s all this mean for foreign rights? Not a real problem, according to Argentina's rights guru Nicholas Costa, whose agency International Editors has served US and European publishers here, in Brazil and in Spain, for decades. "Consolidation won't hurt us," he reasons. "There have been no big changes in their policies towards buying foreign rights. And the input of companies like Bertelsmann may help improve these organizations."
