Business models have yet to be invented for Latin American electronic publishing, although certain actors are already carving out a clear direction. With new social sectors being incorporated into electronic consumption year by year, accelerating investment in several countries and the liveliness that characterizes its online literature, digital publishing in Latin America will have [...]
Presentation
Technical data
Countries that make up the region: Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Cuba, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, El Salvador, Guatemala, Haiti, Honduras, Mexico, Nicaragua, Panama, Paraguay, Peru, Puerto Rico, Uruguay, Venezuela. Population: 588,649,000 (2010) Urban population: 79.6% (2010) GDP: US$ 2,760,840.9 millions (2010) GDP per capita: US$ 4,789.2 (2010) Unemployment: 7.6% (2010) Politics and society: [...]
The history of digital publishing in Latin America
The first experiments in digital publishing in Latin America date back to the late 1990s; that is to say, to the time of the first Internet bubble. Dozens of digital libraries sprang up throughout the region during that period. In 1999, in the framework of the Crecer Project, the Argentine rural libraries association founded the [...]
Digital technology for printing books
Firstly, we should mention the expansion of print on demand (POD). Most Latin American capitals now have POD terminals, of varying sizes, depending on the dimensions of each market. Print on demand has gradually begun to displace the traditional Offset system, in a context of decreasing average print runs. The survey carried out by CERLALC [...]
A new wave of virtual stores
At the same time, numerous traditional bookstores have discovered successful formulas for selling paper books via the Web,[1] perhaps as a consequence of the greater propensity on the part of consumers to buy online, with Brazil leading the statistics in this area.[2] But it is perhaps the incorporation of electronic books into these stores’ catalogues [...]
Big aggregators
It is interesting to observe that most of the e-books sold in Latin American stores come from external aggregators, in particular from Spain, the US and the UK. In Spanish-speaking countries, the leading virtual bookstores obtain their backlists thanks to Publidisa (Spain), which has over 20,000 titles.[1] In general, the imbalance between local and imported [...]
Devices and applications
So far, e-readers have not reached anything like a mass market, due to various factors. The most important one is without doubt the high price of these devices at the destination point, in the case of imported ones: in Argentina or Colombia, a Kindle bought for 139 dollars through Amazon may end up costing more [...]
Digital publishing houses
The accelerated pace of new developments in the electronic arena has encouraged the growth of native digital publishers, that is to say, publishing houses conceived entirely with the Web in mind. The profile of these ventures is extremely diverse. First of all we find self-publishing houses whose works are distributed in paper (POD) and/or electronic [...]
Mobile phones and micro-stories
With regard to mobile phones, so far in Latin America there have not been any publishing projects that have had an impact comparable to those found in sub-Saharan Africa, perhaps because Internet penetration is higher among Latin American users than African ones, which means that the most innovative experiments are targeted directly at the Web. [...]
Online reading and writing
The Internet is currently home to much of the literary vitality of Latin America. The Web has become a privileged setting for creation and diffusion, thanks to free and open source tools like WordPress, Issuu and Blogspot. There are countless online literary journals and blogs, such as Moleskine Literario (Peru), Ficción Breve (Venezuela), Boca de [...]
Traditional publishing and its response to the digital world. Between danger and opportunity
The previous point may help to explain the attitude of many Latin American publishers and booksellers towards the digital age. Piracy is probably the major concern, since no one wants to suffer the same fate as record companies. However, paper publishing has its limitations and sooner or later publishers will have to experiment with new [...]
Challenges and proposals: digitization, training and networking
If our vision is correct, then digital technology could signify a positive step for Latin American professionals, since, if properly used, these tools would help to boost the strengths and mitigate the weaknesses of present-day publishing. However, any digital reengineering of the sector will demand considerable effort. First of all, any professionals seeking to distribute [...]
Possible trends
In any case, irrespective of the reaction of the traditional actors, there are various trends that are likely to accelerate the development of digital publishing in Latin America: A new middle class will be rapidly incorporated into the consumer market, especially in Brazil. Digital products (hardware and content) will no doubt feel the impact, particularly [...]