“We want to have a lot of dialogue with the authorities, both with the legislature and with the executive, around many issues that, it seems to me, are the product of the absence of public policies in favor of the book,” Hugo Setzer, president of Caniem.
“There is an absence of clear public policies in favor of the book. In Mexico we have not finished seeing the importance of books for the cultural and educational development of a country. And it is in this sense that these policies are lacking”, says the editor Hugo Setzer Letsche on the eve of the celebration of World Book Day and four weeks after having assumed the presidency of the National Chamber of the Mexican Publishing Industry (Caniem) for the period 2022-2024.
The priority of his administration at the head of the highest representative body of the publishing union, he points out, is building bridges to the outside of the chamber, both with the different levels of government and towards other unions that orbit the publishing business, in particular, confirms, to narrow distances with the booksellers.
“I intend to hold a dialogue with the different bookshops and their two associations, the Network of Independent Bookstores (RELI) and the Mexican Bookstore Association (ALMAC)and see what we can do together to support each other”, he says.
It also recognizes as a priority the strengthening of the link with the legislative power, in particular to unlock several of the fundamental initiatives for the book production chain and promote others that the links have indicated as pressing.
“I think that for a long time there has been an important lack of knowledge about the work of the editor, the author and the bookseller. And I don’t blame the people who don’t know about it, perhaps we ourselves haven’t known how to communicate and that’s an important part of what we want to do now. We have to focus resources on decision makers, from the federal government and from the legislature. We are going to propose meetings with the most significant entities to be able to introduce ourselves and explain what we are, what is the importance of the role we play and how we can contribute to the development of the country. Perhaps this way it will be easier to generate meeting points for the promotion of the book”.
Let the single price come out of the freezer
There are several pending public policies that have not been championed by the legislative power or have remained stagnant, estimates the editor. One of them, he indicates, is the extension of the single price of the 18-month book, as stipulated in the law right now, to 36 months, an initiative that was developed in the Senate since November 2020, was approved with a Unanimously approved, it traveled to the Chamber of Deputies and returned to the Senate in February 2021 with some modifications, but since then it has remained in the freezer of the upper house. The booksellers were waiting for his approval.
“I don’t know why the law has been stuck, but I would dare to think that it is due to a lack of knowledge,” says Setzer Letsche.
But the problem of this regulation is not new. Since the creation of the Law for the Promotion of Reading and Books, in 2008, the figure of the single price was already considered, and even initially it was stipulated for 36 months, but later it was reduced to 18 months under the protection of various individuals who argued violations of free trade. But this first version did not have stipulations of periodicity, authority in charge of monitoring its application or sanctions in case of violation, legal loopholes that left a law that was not very applicable.
“Unfortunately, in our country it often happens that there are laws, but nobody complies with them, and that happens with the single price,” reflects the president of Caniem, who in 2019 became the first Mexican to preside over the International Union of Publishers (IPA), and points out that it is clear that in countries where there are well-regulated single-price laws, such as Germany, Spain and France, the ground is fertile for bibliodiversity and, consequently, for bookstores.
Zero rate and piracy
Another example of pending in the legislature, he expands, is the promotion of a law for the remission or reduction of the VAT adjustment to bookstores, better known as zero rate, an issue that is not new either and has been requested on several occasions by voices of the book chain, in particular by small bookstores, which, as this newspaper documented, were seriously hit by the pandemic.
“In many countries the theme of the zero rate, or at least a reduced rate, works well as one of the many incentives to the book. And this has to be applied to the entire chain, because otherwise the good intention is cut short and it sticks to the weakest link, which are the points of sale”, says Setzer Letsche.
Finally, he warns, piracy is another of the factors in which the focus will not be lost from Caniem. “We should be more concerned, and I think that we also have to fight an important battle there, on the issue of the perception of copyright in the mentality of the whole world, because it has been developing, almost without realizing it, all a narrative where we are justifying not paying for content, especially in digital format”.
By the way, how much do we Mexicans read?
71.8% of the literate population over 18 years of age declares themselves a reader
67.9% of female readers
76.1% of male readers
3.9 books read by the literate population in the last 12 months, the highest figure since 2016
39.5% of the reading population opted for literature books
29.5% chose read textbooks or college
29.5% read self-help, self-improvement, or religious publications
26.5% opted for general culture books
Source: Module on Reading 2022 / Inegi
ricardo.quiroga@eleconomista.