A year ago, the design image promoting the Bogota international book fair was a reading face in a gas mask. "Resuscitate Yourself with a Book" was the message, and things seemed to be getting better. This year the message was changed to a reader with his head in the clouds. But the gas mask remains more indicative of the ominous times.

A handsome fairgrounds and a beautifully organized fair, including an upbeat cultural display of the "new" England, the guest country this year, could not draw the numbers of business visitors or book buyers that this event has enjoyed in years past.

Even with a new hard line, Harvard-educated president elected last year, Andres Pastrana, Colombia continues in the grip of a civil war in the countryside and corruption in the government. It is creating enough instability to shoot lending rates up to 55-70% in April. It is paralyzing the cities and crippling book sales. As one local joke g s, Colombians think they live in the garden of Eden; without electricity, without telephones and without decent roads.

Life g s on, of course. There are still good restaurants and good book stores, a more book titles are being published than last year. But sales have dropped and profits are down across the board, according to individual book publishers. The latest statistics from the book publishers' association, Camara Colombiana del Libro, are for 1997 and last year's will not be ready before the summer. But the decline from the stable days of 1993 and 1994 has been consistently cut by one third in 1995 through 1997.

The publishers doing best tend to be those with strong markets beyond Colombia.

Like most of the major international Spanish language house, the major international textbooks companies: Pearson Education, McGraw-Hill, Oxford and Cambridge University Presses, all have regional offices in Colombia, serving northern South America, Central America and the Caribbean areas. Neither Ecuador nor Venezuela is doing well, they report. The best business growth is coming from Central American countries.

Jairo Camacho, president of the country's second largest homegrown textbook and juvenile house, Grupo Editorial Educar, told PW he is waiting for the new president to turn things around. Book prices against costs have plunged.

"We sold four million copies of books in 1998," he says. "In 97 we sold just three million, but we made more profit then. We've had to lower prices to sell books this year."

The large private school market, 40% of enrolled students, accounts for 60% of the books purchased. And private schools are now suffering.

While books continue to be tax-free in Colombia, only in a few areas of sales distribution are growing. One is direct sales, which seem to improve when bookstore sales decline. Circulo de Lectores remains the most successful book club in Latin America, and is based in Colombia, though they have business in several other countries.

A major door-to-door success, with markets now in Mexico and Argentina, is Zamora Editores Ltda. They are even considering the USA market.

Prolibros is a thriving distribution business, by various means, with 22 offices around the country for distribution. The president, Henry Estefenn, hopes to expand abroad this year, into Equador, Venezuela and Argentina. "So we can earn money in dollars," he explains. They are also developing a website, with son Farid Estefenn in charge of all electronic media.

Strongest in Colombia has got to be the giant Colombian publisher Grupo Editorial Norma. In textbooks, in trade and in buying rights for translations from English, Norma is number one. They have seen their trade division nearly double in each of the last two years, according to Luz Mercedez Mejia, Communications Director, because they have actively been expanding into other markets beyond Colombia.

"So many separate imprints gives us a wide coverage of the market," she explains. "Plus our own offices in every country in Latin America and our own publishing houses now in Argentina and Mexico, which are the number two and three biggest markets for us."

"We are also doing local publishing there. In Argentina we have 40 new titles in current affairs, management, personal analysis and how-to. And because bookstores in Latin America are still so small and not so good, we look for new sales channels like Kmart, which are very good. And we are very strong in reference products door-to-door in Colombia."

"The alliances with Microsoft, with the Dummies, Chicken Soup and 7 Habits series, and with Deepak Chopra are doing well. Self-help and spiritual titles do well in the supermarkets."

Norma is also relaunching in Brazil, after a seven year absence, with translations from their Spanish language lists. And while their USA office, based in Puerto Rico, is still small, they are looking for growth there, too.

Another part of the giant Carvajal family's printing and publishing operations based in Cali, Norma is "biggest, largest and strongest" in juvenile titles, according to Maria Candelaria Posada, Editorial Director for that division, also internationalizing.

"And now our aim is to be the same in Venezuela, Argentina and Mexico," she says. The Colombian company's massive sales team in schools, directly to teachers, to libraries and in various points of sale in these markets is "working well, and since we have the top titles, from Disney to R.L. Stine. We see a strong future."

Norma is helping encourage this with a $10,000 literary prize for the best children's and youngsters' literature in Latin America, launched three years ago. The Premio de Literatura Infantil y Juvenil Norma Fundalectura is a big incentive for authorship. Funding comes from Norma and FundaLectura, the excellent reading promotion organization based in Colombia and in turn funded by the country's paper and printing industries, together with the Camara del Libros.

The first winner, Laura Restrepo's Dulce Companà a, was offered in English by HarperCollins last year. Two years ago, Puerto Rican Juan Antonio Ramos' El Principe de Blanca NiÈves won the 1st Prize. Last year it was Colombian Celso Roman for El Imperio de las cinco lunas (The empire of five moons). A secondary AccÈsit prize, to an unpublished writer of childrenís literature, went to Argentine Sergio Aguirre.

Contrary to the political situation, Colombia continues to be a country of p ts, thinkers and readers, as publisher Patricia Hoher at El ¡ncora Editores confirms. For 19 years she and her husband have made a living on subjects Colombian, including their bestselling Antologi· de la PoÈsie Colombia. They also have created some of the best translations of the great p try of Europe in bilingual editions that sell well in $10 editions.

"Every Colombian thinks he is a p t," she reasons.

Santiago Pombo Vejarano at TM (Tercer Mundo) Editores also continues to find strong demand for his titles on local political commentary, especially in the hard times. With violence now coming from four directions in Colombia, the guerillas, the paramilitary, the drug dealers and the regular outlaws, he has many readers, he figures.

English language books in Colombia

Oswaldo LeÛn S. at Books&Books, a major English language book importer and distributor in Colombia, has not had a good year. Though there are 100 bilingual schools in Colombia, half of them in Bogot· and all of them using imported teaching materials, with the current political instability, attendance is down.

But the UK Pavilion at the Bogota fair, organized by the Colombian unit of the British Council, successfully blending book publishers from the UK, British film and British rock into a popular hot spot for the young of Bogota×the future of the book market.