Living in Peru : your everyday companion

By Luis Felipe Gamarra
For El Comercio

During the economic crisis of the 80’, one of the sectors that was endangered the most was the editorial industry. With the exception of El Virrey, La Casa Verde, Época and La Familia, bookstores all around Lima disappeared, even in districts like Miraflores, Barranco, San Isidro and Lima, where the cultural offer was very important. Nonetheless, now, the book market has gained strength and steady growth thanks to the improvement in the national economy.

According to Liliana Minaya, general manager of the Peruvian Book Chamber (Cámara Peruana del Libro, CLP), a private non-profit organization, Peruvians are spending more of their income on books. “There is a relationship between the offer and demand of books, which allows us to say that more books are being read in Peru.” As a consequence, more bookstores have opened and supermarkets have become important places for the distribution of books.

The CLP, with information provided by SUNAT, states that during the year 2008, US$49,000,000 were imported in books which represents a growth of 32% in relation to the previous year, during which there was a 45% growth in relation to 2006. Even though the CLP said that they do not have statistics on book sales around the country, the last Feria Internacional del Libro (FIL) is a good indicator. During this event, US$2,400,000 worth of books were collected which was US$5,000 more than in 2008. This, despite the fact that last year, the FIL was held in Jockey Plaza and this year in the National Museum.

The Northern Lima Book Fair that was held in the Centro Comercial Megaplaza, also registered great success and duplicated its sales in respect to last year.

The CLP won the Entrepreneurial Creativity award in 2008 thanks to its intense marketing strategy.

Production Also Counts
Another piece of information that illustrates the growth of this industry is the production of registered books. According to information from the National Library, through the registration forms from the ISBN (National Agency of the International Standard Book Number) – which identifies every book published around the world – in 2008, 5235 registration forms were filled out, which is 5% more than in 2007.

New editorials from the Alianza Peruana de Editoriales (ALPE) have joined bigger transnational editorials such as Planeta, Norma and Santillana in their book production. Fifteen out of the 18 editorials that make up the ALPE have opened in the last five years.

According to Gladys Díaz Carrera, president of the CLP, the sector has also grown due to the opening of new supermarkets in Lima that have boosted the book offer for children which represents 35% of the total sales.

The CLP has set the goal to decentralize its activities during the next couple of years. “We would like to hold a book fair in southern Lima and offer more support to book fairs in the different departments,” says Díaz Carrera. In the interior of the country, the CLP supports fairs in Trujillo, Arequipa and Huancayo, which also contribute to the growth in the number of readers.

Learn More
The UPC, organizer of the Entrepreneurial Creativity contest, gives lectures to companies that are interested in participating.
The deadline to sign up for the contest is October 29.
For more information, click here or call 313-3333 extension 1312.

To keep en mind

No more books
This year, the Feria del Libro Ricardo Palma will not be held in Parque Kennedy due to a decision made by the mayor of Miraflores.

Other alternatives
Mayors of Barranco, Pueblo Libre, Jesús María, San Miguel, Lince, Surco and Lima have offered their districts as alternatives to Miraflores.

Fairs
The Peruvian Book Chamber organizes the Northern Lima Book Fair (at Megaplaza), Ricardo Palma Book Fair and International Book Fair.  It also promotes and sponsors the ones in Trujillo, Arequipa and Huancayo. It has the objective of organizing one in southern Lima.

Translated by Diana Schwalb