Fall in book sales as Spanish-language publishers head to Latin America

A SLUMP in book sales in Spain has seen Spanish-language publishers looking to head to Latin America instead.

Countries such as Chile are becoming a new source of revenue for publishers as Spain’s book-making industry reports a 10-15% drop in sales.

Javier Cortes Soriano, president of the Spanish Publishing Federation, said: “Revenue for publishing firms in Spain has fallen by 30% since 2009, but the Mexican publishing industry hasn’t been badly affected.”

He added: “Spanish publishers are now turning their focus toward Latin America. For the last eight or nine years they have been focusing on Brazil, a market where they previously had no presence, and now they are seeing growth in Chile, Peru and Colombia.”

At this year’s Guadalajara International Book Fair (FIL) there were just 38 Spanish publishing houses present, in comparison with an average of 60 in recent years.