The image used to promote the international book fair in Bogota last April was a person in a gas mask. The message read: resuscitate yourself, buy a book. While one d s feel slightly lacking of oxygen at this capital's formidable altitude, book buyers seemed plentiful enough, and book consumption here in Spanish is second only to Argentina in South America (though both are behind Mexico).

All the big textbooks companies are coming to Colombia now to service the Latin American and Caribbean areas, if they weren't here already. McGraw-Hill has been the market leader for many years and publishers many of their Spanish titles here. Harcourt Brace has a distribution office. Prentice Hall's office is two years old here, CUP is setting up, so is Scott Foresman, and OUP is expanding (see Mexico interview).

Jairo Camacho, President of the country's second largest national textbook publisher, Grupo Editorial Educar, explains that the large private school market, 40% of enrolled students, accounts for 60% of the book purchased. Especially since in the last two years under Samper Government purchase of textbooks for the schools was unreliable.

Camacho recently bought Latin American rights to the BBC ESL series, "Muzzy", which uses American English. These are selling in supermarkets for $14 a pack. A great songster himself, Camacho created a CD/book package "Cantalo" which offers favorite songs both in complete and in instrumental-only versions for sing-it-yourselfers, which is a favorite in the supermarkets, too.

The largest Colombian textbook publisher is Norma, part of the giant Carvajal family's printing and publishing operations based in Cali and "the biggest, largest and strongest" in juvenile titles in Colombia, according to Maria Candelaria Posada, Editorial Director for that division.

"And now our aim is to be the same in Venezuela, Argentina and Mexico," she said with a confidence born of experience. The Colombian company's massive sales team in schools, directly to teachers, to libraries and in various points of sale in these markets is "working well, and since we have the top titles, from Disney to R.L. Stine, we see a strong future."

A $10,000 literary prize for the best children's and youngsters' literature in Latin America was launched three years ago. The Premio de Literatura Infantil y Juvenil Norma Fundalectura is a big incentive for authorship. Funding comes from Norma and FundaLectura, the excellent reading promotion organization based in Colombia and in turn funded by the country's paper and printing industries, together with the Camara.

The first winner, Laura Restrepo's Dulce Compania, was offered in English by HarperCollins last year. Last year, Puerto Rican Juan Antonio Ramos' El Principe de Blanca Nieves won the 1st Prize. This year it was Colombian Celso Roman for El Imperio de las cinco lunas (The empire of five moons). An secondary Accesit prize, to an unpublished writer of children's literature, went to Argentine Sergio Aguirre.

Octavio Paz died shortly before the Bogota event, and a minute's silence in his honor was offered at the opening ceremonies. Almost as a tribute to this great Latin American writer, and certainly in view of the difficult political factions at home, the Camara Colombiana del Libro, announced a new literary "Peace Prize."

Open to the world's authors, in the areas of literature, social science and the arts, the winner from among the first five finalists will be announced at next year's fair.

"We are getting signs now that things are better, economically," says Richard Uribe Schr der, the new Executive Director of the Camara. "And we are hoping for help with this prize from publishers in other countries, especially the USA and Germany."

Contrary to the news most of the world hears of Colombia, this is a country of p ts and readers, as publisher Patricia Hoher at Elcora Editores. For 18 years she and her husband have made a living on subjects Colombian, including their best selling Antologies de la P sie Colombia. They also have created some of the best translations of the great p try of Europe in bilingual editions that sell well in $10 editions.

"Every Colombian thinks he is a p t," she reasons.

Things are doing better, generally, in the country. The new president, Harvard-grad Andres Pastrana hopes to "oxygenate" the economy by getting control both in the 34 year old guerrilla war and with some of the corruption that makes Colombia third highest in the world, according to Transparency International and The Economist.

Gaston deBedout of Editorial Voluntad, one of the major textbook publishers in the country, gave PW a wish list for his country's book industry:

"What we need first is more readers. We also need reliable distributors who pay sooner than 180 days. And we need super bookstores, not supermarkets. We need franchise retailers, too. I think the Barnes & Noble system would be ideal here."

Grupo Editorial Norma, meanwhile, has seen their trade division nearly double in each of the last two years, according to Luz Mercedez Mejia, Communications Director, because they have actively been expanding into other markets.

"So many separate imprints gives us a wide coverage of the market," she explains. "Plus our own offices in every country in Latin America and our own publishing houses now in Argentina and Mexico, which are the number two and three biggest markets for us.

"We are also doing local publishing there. In Argentina we have 40 new titles in current affairs, management, personal analysis and how-to. And because bookstores in Latin America are still so small and not so good, we look for new sales channels like Kmart, which are very good. And we are very strong in reference products door-to-door in Colombia."

"The alliances with Microsoft, with the Dummies, Chicken Soup and 7 Habits series, and with Deepak Chopra are doing well. Self-help and spiritual titles do well in the supermarkets."

Norma is also relaunching in Brazil, after a seven year absence, with translations from their Spanish language lists. And while their USA office, based in Puerto Rico, is still small, they are looking for growth there, too.

Santiago Pombo-Vejarano at TM (Tercer Mundo) Editores also notices signs of improvements. "It is very timid, but it will be a steady growth," he told PW. "Pastrana is good for the business community. And with violence now coming from four directions in Colombia, the guerillas, the paramilitary, the drug dealers and the regular outlaws, the society is affected from every direction, both inside and outside the country."

The "tequila" crisis of two years ago affected Colombia sufficiently to modified publishing plans at TM. Pombo still d sn't see production and export levels of 1994 and 1995, but he reports that the recoveries in Venezuela, Mexico and Argentina have helped, and he looks to Central America as a promising new market.

"We are doing more joint publishing efforts with university presses, NGO's and government institutions," he says. "Our expertise helps them and our marketing emphasis is on university bookstores."

New projects this year at TM include a collection of works on the psychic and reason with Dolmen in Chile, a series on urban studies, and two books on political relations between Colombia and the USA commissioned by the Colombian Government.

Ediciones Monte Verde is the publishing arm of the Grupo Lerner, run by Jack and Dahlia Grimberg. "We used to do $4 million in printing in the USA," he says. "Now we do $6 million in publishing, so that is the side of the business we promote. Their encyclopedia, dictionary and reference sets sell well throughout Latin America, most of them high quality four color offering, printed in the Lerner plant.

(Colombia's resources as a book printer to the world will be covered later this year in PW.)

English Language Books

Oswaldo Leun S. at Books&Books, a major English language book importer and distributor in Colombia, was part of a group of such companies, representatives of English language publishers, who put the English Language Pavillion together at the Bogota international book fair.

"We knew it would be an additional cost, but this is the best collection in English this fair has ever seen," the ten-year veteran Leun said enthusiastically. "We cover everything here from primary to University level."

There are 100 bilingual schools in Colombia, half of them in Bogota and all of them using imported teaching materials. While Books&Books reps much of the Cambridge University Press ESL materials, Leun admits that American publishers are more in demand. This is true all over Latin America. The trend is towards American English.