There are Argentine readers who return these days to the works they already have in their libraries; others who choose to buy used books; some have borrowed; There are those who choose to download the pirated digital version. But many have stopped buying new copies in bookstores, where sales fell by around 30% in January, according to different players in the sector who estimate an even more pronounced decline for February. The economic crisis in Argentina, which today is the country with the highest inflation, has emptied citizens' pockets and buying books is becoming increasingly inaccessible: a minimum wage in the South American country buys 13 publications while one in Spain buys 63.
Gustavo López, editor at Ediciones Lux, has himself stopped buying works of poetry, novels, essays… “We are also readers and we know what a book costs. Although it is an object of great need, our pockets are not in a position to pay the cost of a book today.” López, who runs a small publishing house, founded in the 1990s in the city of Bahía Blanca, south of the province of Buenos Aires, says that “the last few months have been terrible” for the sector: “Sales fell tremendously and the production costs of the books multiplied. At the last fair we went to, Edita, we normally sell 200 books and this time we didn't reach 60″.
The Argentine Book Chamber (CAL) estimates that the drop in book sales in January was “close to 30%,” according to Juan Manuel Pampín, president of the chamber and Ediciones Corregidor. “The decline is becoming even more accentuated,” Pampín anticipates before the publication of the sector's annual report, which surveys bookstores and publishers in Argentina. The editor conveys the widespread “concern” among his colleagues: “Our industry comes third or fourth after paying for food, services, rent, clothing… We are going to find ourselves in a complex situation.” .
At the Cúspide bookstore, for example, one of the country's large chains, sales grew in 2023, but fell 18% in January compared to the previous year. To find a similar drop you have to go to October 2020, during the covid-19 pandemic, indicates Alejandro Costa, the company's Sales Manager. In smaller bookstores, such as Céspedes, in Buenos Aires, the year-on-year drop was 30% in the first month of the year and its owner, the writer Cecilia Fanti, estimates that it will be 45% in February. “Retail consumption is plummeting because it is part of the adjustment plan [del Gobierno] and they do not seem to have the slightest interest in policies linked to culture and cultural industries,” notes the bookseller.
The collapse in book sales is a blow for a country that boasts of having one of the cities with the most bookstores in its territory: Buenos Aires has about 22 for every 100,000 inhabitants and in the entire country there are about 1,600 in total. For now, the closure of these businesses does not appear as a threat, according to the Argentine Book Chamber. Some even opt to continue opening them. Cúspide, for example, opened four new branches in 2023 and Nativa Libros, which until now had three stores in Buenos Aires, inaugurated a new sales point on December 10, while Javier Milei assumed the Presidency. “Luckily, we do not lack ingenuity and the love of books. Opening this new point of sale, in this political and economic framework, is an act of faith,” says Carla Campos, Sales Manager of the bookstore and distributor.
“If you can, buy it now”
Publishers and booksellers consulted by EL PAÍS have no doubt that the drop in sales is directly related to the loss of purchasing power of Argentines due to the skyrocketing prices that caused the 50% devaluation of the currency imposed by Javier's Government. Milei in December, a few days after taking office. Everything has increased in Argentina and books are no exception. “If you can, buy it now because next month it will increase again,” is the maxim that customers hear in bookstores—and in any business—. The increases have kept pace with inflation, which in 2023 was 211.4%, while production costs grew even more, according to editors from small, medium and large companies consulted.
Today the average price of books is around 15,000 pesos (about 16.5 euros) in Argentina, although a 600-page novel by a female author best-seller can reach 30,000 pesos, the same as the Sociology Course by Pierre Bourdieu. A person who receives the minimum wage of the South American country, which has become 202,800 pesos per month (about 220 euros), could buy, if he invested all his money in it, 13 books at the average price. With the minimum wage in Spain – 1,134 euros – around 63 publications could be purchased in bookstores in that country. In Mexico, a minimum wage—7,468 Mexican pesos (405 euros)—is enough to purchase 28 books.
“The prices in euros are similar in the three countries, the only big difference is that Argentine readers, not having a frame of reference, perceive them as something expensive. However, a standard book continues to cost, as always, the same as a trip to a restaurant or two kilos of meat,” warns Carlos Díaz, editorial director of Siglo XXI, a medium-sized imprint with bases in Argentina, Mexico and Spain. “We are going through a very particular situation, with brutal cost increases that have been occurring for two years, especially in paper, and that in the last three months have become completely unhinged. And salaries do not accompany these increases. Readers no longer have a record of what a reasonable price is,” says Díaz.
Are books expensive in Argentina?
Argentine writer Camila Sosa Villada, author of the bestseller The evil ones, published by Tusquets, from Grupo Planeta, took aim on Twitter at publishers for the prices of books in Argentina: “Let's see, publisher, if we lower the price of books, which have already been amortized. Unless they want to kill the authors and distance them from their readers, which seems very likely to me given recent events.” The comment provoked a reaction from editor Julieta Elffman, who asked not to create “unnecessary confrontations” between authors and editors, which “at times like this, can be fatal.” The exchange opened a debate: are books expensive in Argentina?
Let's see if the publisher can lower the price of the books, which have already been amortized. Unless they want to kill the authors and distance them from their readers, which seems very likely to me given recent events.
LOWER THE PRICES.— SeMeSubieronLosHumos (@LanoviadeSandro) January 31, 2024
“For Argentine pockets they are expensive,” says Damián Ríos, editor of Blatt & Ríos, a small publishing house founded in 2010. “As an editor, I ask myself who I edit for: sectors of the middle class can no longer buy books, not to mention workers.” . But [los precios] “They are below what they should cost and this is because Argentine publishers have not translated the costs of paper into prices,” says Ríos. The editors with whom EL PAÍS has spoken agree that the increase in the price of paper “has not given any respite” and they estimate that its value represents between 50 and 70% of the costs. “There are two large paper mills and there is not much supply of paper because imported papers do not enter either,” explains Ríos. The publisher then distributes the profits from the work between the bookstore, which receives around 45%, and the author, who receives 10%.
Pablo Braun, owner of the Eterna Cadencia bookstore, points out that books have also become expensive in dollars and that has a double disadvantage: “The prices of books that are imported to Argentina are beginning to be similar to those of local production. That makes it more attractive to import and publishers are a little less protected. In addition, publishers were previously able to export. Given the brutal drop in sales, it would be a palliative, but today that was diluted.” Braun, however, clarifies: “It is impossible to lower book prices because there are a lot of costs. To believe that it could be lowered is to believe that the publishers are setting a premium and putting them at a high price so as not to sell them makes no sense.”
A litmus test for the sector will be the Buenos Aires Book Fair, which this year takes place between April 23 and May 13. To survive, publishers of small and medium-sized companies, which publish 63% of the copies in the country, according to CAL, are betting on reducing circulations, which are “stuck” at 1,000, or postponing the riskiest bets. in favor of publications whose sale is assured, which makes the offer more conservative. Some have also chosen to create collections in which manual work prevails and others, directly, say that they are going to start praying “so that things rise as quickly as possible.” Bookstores also use agreements with banks to offer payment alternatives to customers. “We all work together to get through these times,” says Carla Campos, from Nativa Libros.
United against the 'omnibus law'
To the discontent over the drop in sales, the industry added another concern in January that united part of the sector against the Government of Javier Milei. The far-right sent a bill to Congress in December that, among the hundreds of repeals and regulatory reforms it proposed, eliminated the Law for the Defense of Book Activity, which establishes that books must have a uniform price for sale to the public. The sector's rejection of that point of the omnibus law was unanimous in a statement: “The plurality and diversity of bookstores is essential (…) Otherwise, it is the large chains, platforms and large stores that monopolize the book sales market, eliminating competition, concentrating the market , determining what is read and, consequently, what is published.”
Milei's bill failed in the legislative debate and has not yet been discussed again. In that sense, industry players breathe a sigh of relief, at least for now. But concern about falling sales persists because the coming months will not be easy. “Everything we are as a publishing industry is not going to disappear because it is in the Argentine gene,” says Braun, “but the book ecosystem and the intellectual wealth it generates are going to suffer.” The bookseller points out what he believes is evident, which is that if the economy improves, so will the sector. But he then points to a “structural problem” that goes beyond the economic situation: “There is no consistent plan in Argentina that transcends governments to encourage readers. With an increasingly smaller industry – with Netflix, social networks and other entertainment – reading loses.”
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