Today we kick off our blog series on the Mexican market. Last year we published a new market guide Selling Canadian Books in Mexico, written by Javier Celaya of Dosdoce.com and René López-Villamar of LibrosMexico.mx. For the next few weeks we’ll be featuring excerpts from the report and sharing expert advice on the Mexican book market. Let’s begin with an overview of the current publishing climate.
Spanish is the third most spoken language in the world after English and Chinese, and the revenue potential from a market made up of 550 million Spanish speakers across all continents should not be overlooked by the publishing sector. With over 120 million Spanish speakers, Mexico is the largest Spanish-language market in the world. This is followed by the United States, where the latest census counted more than 57 million people of Hispanic or Latino origin who regularly speak Spanish at home. Spain comes in third place with over 45 million speakers. Although it is still not possible to talk about a single digital Spanish market—since each country moves at its own pace and has its unique characteristics—there are general digital trends throughout the Spanish markets that should be analyzed to determine what the best business opportunities are in each market.
Following years of uncertainty, the general outlook for the Mexican book market is beginning to look cautiously optimistic. The number of retail points for books, particularly within bookshops and in department stores, is increasing after having declined for years. Although the industry’s total annual turnover, estimated to be MXN 10,889,836,226, or about USD 670 million, by the National Chamber for the Mexican Publishing Industry (CANIEM), does not appear to have increased significantly, its relative stability amid the recurring global and regional financial crises points to an increase in the number and capacity of readers in the country. The figures revealed by the National Survey of Reading and Writing 2015, commissioned by the National Council for Culture and Arts (Conaculta – Consejo Nacional para la Cultura y las Artes) (now the Secretaría de Cultura [Ministry of Culture]), are encouraging: the yearly average of books read by each person in Mexico has increased from 2.4 books in 2006 to 5.3 books annually in 2015, although the most relevant discovery of the survey may be that among Mexicans, reading for entertainment surpassed reading for academic development as the main reason for reading.
This change is due to both the creation of new points of sale and the implementation of programs encouraging reading and literacy within all levels of government and in the private sector, supported by the Law for the Encouragement of Reading and the Book enacted in 2008, despite the fact that the price of books increased by 8% on a yearly basis.
Another encouraging sign is that while the federal government continues to be the major printer, distributor, and purchaser of books and e-books in the country, with almost 60% of the market share, this percentage will slowly decrease each year and be replaced by the open market. According to the Bookwire Spanish and Portuguese Digital Markets Report, all Latin American governments in the region will continue to play an important role in promoting digital content creation and demand. Data indicates that there is a direct relationship between reading and levels of social and economic development. The emergence of the digital era offers governments and publishers a new opportunity to increase the number of readers in the region. Public library e-lending will be key to achieving an increase in the number of readers, as it will provide free access to e-books across the region.
These signs of positive growth have led major multinational publishing groups, as well as medium-sized and independent European publishers, particularly those from Spain and the United States, to focus their interest on Mexico. The market is perceived as a gateway into Latin America and within the next decade may soon become the regional leader in terms of the production, distribution, and marketing of both printed and digital books. In a recent interview for Publishing Perspectives, the publisher Turner in Mexico referred to the country as the new “El Dorado” for Spanish publishers seeking to increase sales or simply survive the crisis in their country. Ricardo Nudelman, who was recently appointed the Mexican representative for the prestigious publisher Anagrama, has managed to supervise the “expansion and growth [of Anagrama] in Mexico and the rest of America”.
One of the reasons for this optimistic outlook is that the statistics surrounding reading and book sales are beginning to improve, due to the shifting composition of the country. Traditionally, Mexico has seen a link between the areas of education, purchasing power, and reading habits. From 2013 to 2014, more than half a million young Mexicans became college graduates, a number that continues to grow year-on-year. These young professionals seek new alternatives to entertainment and education in order to continue the learning process, and these typically include reading books and magazines in both print and digital format.
Check back next week for more information on exporting your books to Mexico. Can’t wait? Download the full report!
01/24/2017 | Export, Market Guides, Marketing, Rights