Mapping Brazil - Literature: Publishers and Brazil outside Brazil

Publishers: small, medium-sized and large
For at least a decade, international publishing groups have had a foothold in the Brazilian market. Planeta, from Spain, penetrated the market in 2003, followed in 2009 by Portuguese group Leya. Before merging with Random House, owned by Germany’s Bertelsmann, British-owned Penguin acquired 45% of Companhia das Letras in late 2011. In 2014, Penguin Random House acquired all the major imprints of Santillana, a Spanish group which had previously acquired 100% and 76% of Brazilian publishers Moderna and Objetiva, respectively. As such, Penguin Random House Brasil, combining Companhia das Letras and Objetiva, is now the third largest publisher in the non-fiction market, behind only Record and Sextante. Interestingly, the Brazilian publishing market is now ranked ninth in the world with a turnover of 6.7 billion reais (around 1.9 billion euros) and 469,000 books sold in 2011, according to International Publishers Association data. The countries with the biggest markets are the United States, China, Germany, Japan, France, the UK, Italy and Spain.

Some people see internationalisation as a concern, not just because of the inherent financial risks, but because it puts the diversity of editorial standards in jeopardy. Another hypothetical issue is that these big corporations could put an end to Brazil’s small and medium-sized publishing houses. However, it is too early days to judge how the situation will play out. Indeed, in recent years, new small and mid-sized publishers have emerged or consolidated their positions, assuring decentralisation from the major hubs and easier access to the market for more authors. A few examples are Vidráguas, Livros do Mal and Sulina in Porto Alegre, Tulipas Negras and Travessa dos Editores in Curitiba, Substânsia in Fortaleza, and Queima-Bucha in Mossoró. The small publishers in Rio and São Paulo also tend to publish writers from other towns and cities, again assuring a more diversified offer. These include 7 Letras, Oficina Raquel, Cozinha Experimental and Oito e Meio in Rio, and Musa and Patuá in São Paulo.

Liga Brasileira de Editoras (Libre) is an NGO that represents some 120 small and medium-sized publishers, helping them work in cooperation with a view to strengthening their businesses, the publishing market and what they call “bibliodiversity”. Since 2002, this non-profit organisation has coordinated a collaborative network of publishers with the aim of increasing the reading public, strengthening independent publishing houses and creating public policies for the book market and reading in general.

Brazil outside Brazil
The Brazilian literary system has proved increasingly mature and objective in recent years. There are grants available for writers, providing them with the conditions they need to work; there are multiple publishers that seem increasingly willing to make room for first-time authors; there are national and international fairs, festivals and biennials that help divulge Brazilian publications; and there are translation grants, which provide new publishing opportunities, broaden the readership and offer greater visibility for Brazilian literature and consequently Brazilian culture as a whole. Yet only continuity – which depends on political will and funding (always unstable in Brazil) – can guarantee the success of such a complex system of interdependent actors.

The National Library Foundation (Fundação Biblioteca Nacional), under the auspices of the Ministry of Culture, offers grants for the translation and publication of works by Brazilian authors to foreign publishers keen to translate, publish and distribute books already published in Brazil in their countries. The programme provides financial support for literature and the humanities, especially novels, short stories, poetry, chronicles, books for children and youth, plays, reference works, literary essays, social science essays, historical essays, and anthologies of poems and short stories. The grants are available for publishers interested in bringing out works never before published in a particular language, or to cover the cost of new translations or new renderings of works that have already been translated but have been out of print for at least three years. The Support Programme for the Translation and Publication of Brazilian Authors will run until 2020. New calls for projects are planned to be brought out every two years (the first was published in 2013) detailing the specific terms and conditions.

In 2013, Brazil was the guest of honour at the Frankfurt Book Fair (the previous occasion had been 1994), the biggest event in the global book industry. Similar tribute was paid at the Bologna Children’s Book Fair the following year. Brazil was also guest of honour at the Paris Book Fair in 2015. Forty-three authors working in a variety of literary genres were invited, all of whom have works translated into French. According to Câmara Brasileira do Livro (CBL), around 60,000 people visited the space dedicated to Brazil. There were 37 debates summing 58 hours in total. Le Figaro newspaper reported that Brazil, the only country to have been the guest of honour twice, was warmly welcomed by the visiting public. The encounters with Brazilian authors were packed, demonstrating real curiosity about the country’s literature, which is so little known in France. The interviews with authors also ranged across a variety of subjects beyond the realm of literature, like the Amazon, police violence and football. The Salon du Livre bookshop had around 12,000 Brazilian books on sale in French and Portuguese, of which 8,000 were sold. The executive director of CBL, Mansur Bassit, said he was “very satisfied and hoped for a positive impact on sales of publishing rights and exchanges”.

At the event, the National Library launched its sixth Machado de Assis Magazine – Brazilian Literature in Translation, containing texts in French, Spanish and English by 22 authors. A collaborative effort by the National Library Foundation and Itaú Cultural that provides free access to and download of texts by 100 authors, the magazine aims to divulge and encourage the publication of Brazilian literature overseas. It is a valuable source of information for literary agents, translators, researchers and students interested in Brazilian literature and culture (www.machadodeassismagazine.bn.br).

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