With Mexico as the honored country at BookExpo America, organizations such as Conaculta, Caniem, Planeta, Fondo de Cultura Económica, Sexto Piso, and many others can be seen and heard throughout the halls of the Javits Center and as part of BEA’s Global Market Forum 2013.
Authors, publishers, and agents from Mexico have been doing business in the U.S. for quite some time, but few U.S. publishers have ventured south of the border. Mexico’s participation at BEA hopes to change that. With a population of about 117 million and a book market worth $830 million in 2011, the industry has grown 2.7% in volume and 13.2% in sales since 2010. Mexico, the 13th-largest economy of the world (its GDP grew 5.5% in 2010), occupies a significant position among today’s emerging economies, and remains a privileged trading partner of the U.S. through NAFTA.
Mexico sports a lively and active publishing scene across many categories—in fiction, nonfiction, children’s, and graphic novels. Mexican publishers in recent years have started to supplant the dominance of publishers from Spain. FIL, the International Book Fair of Mexico, has surpassed the book fairs in Spain and Argentina and is now the largest Spanish-language book fair in the world, and the second-largest book fair after Frankfurt.
With the participation of 38 publishers from Mexico and in partnership with the Mexican government’s National Council for Culture and the Arts (Conaculta), as well as with Caniem, the Mexican Chamber of the Publishing Industry, the presence of Mexico is being felt at the Javits Center and throughout New York City. A diverse professional program was featured yesterday, highlighting the various business opportunities available on both sides of the border.
The Global Market Forum opened yesterday with a panel discussion that offered an overview of the Mexican publishing industry and featured conversations among independent publishers from the U.S. and Mexico as well as a presentation by children’s book publishers. Opportunities dominated the conversation surrounding the sale of books in Spanish in the U.S. and books in English into Mexico. E-books, distribution, and printing problems in both markets were discussed, and the hope is that opening a dialogue will lead to solutions. As Dr. Ruediger Wischenbart, director of international affairs for BookExpo America, pointed out, “Imagine the huge Spanish book-reading community in the U.S. on the one hand, and the rapidly growing, well-educated, vertically mobile audience in Mexico, with lots of readers fluent in English. What is a perfect cultural and business opportunity on both ends if not such a setting?”
In Mexico, the government strongly promotes and fosters educational publishing through ventures such as the publishing superpower Fondo de Cultura Económica (established in 1934) and publications by Conaculta. The government also assists small and mid-size independent publishers and has an ambitious plan for e-books. Enrique Peña Nieto, the current president of Mexico, has set an ambitious goal: to have all of the books published by the government available in a digital format by the time he leaves office in 2018—approximately 50,000 titles. Peña Nieto hopes that the private industry will come together and make available its books in an electronic format as well. The challenges, opportunities, and impact of this plan remain to be seen, but the availability of e-books in Spanish in the U.S. could open the door for many publishers to enter the U.S. market as issues of distribution, returns, and inventory are addressed. However, this could also pose a problem for U.S. publisher publishing in Spanish, as they would be facing increased competition in the domestic market.
The richness of Mexican culture has arrived in New York City as well. At BEA’s Main Stage there will be readings, presentations, and book-signings by prominent authors like Enrique Krauze, Alma Guillermoprieto, and Juan Villoro. The activities outside BEA are just as impressive. “A lavish cultural program will take place the likes of which New York hasn’t seen in quite some time,” says Julio Trujillo, editorial director for Conaculta, who is overseeing Mexico’s participation at BEA and throughout New York City. On the agenda are activities and events at multiple venues outside of the Expo itself, such as the Museum of Modern Art , the New Museum of Contemporary Art, the Mexican Cultural Institute of New York, the Instituto Cervantes, the stunning Orozco Room at the New School, the City University of New York, McNally Jackson Books, the Crosby Street Screening Room, and Casa Mezcal. Writers, visual artists, historians, editors, and photographers (with special emphasis on the portraits by Manuel Álvarez Bravo) are all taking part in this cultural extravaganza.
