The Argentine publishing sector is recognized in Latin America for its diverse and quality production. Although it is the country with the highest inflation in the region (211.4%), it has a network of more than 1,500 bookstores, of which 70% are independent. It has an average of 3.43 bookstores per 100,000 inhabitants, three times the number in countries such as Brazil or Mexico. “The Argentinian publisher is a resilient publisher,” assures La Vanguardia Juan Pampín, one of the heads of the publishing house Corregidori, president of the Argentine Book Chamber (CAL). “Our company is 53 years old, it was created by my father, and today we continue with my two sisters”. The publishing house of the Pampín family went through numerous economic crises throughout its history. “The Rodrigazo in 1975, the corralit or in 2001, the recent covid pandemic; we always try to find a way, with more or less number of publications, here we are”. After all, “without books there is no future”, used to say Manuel Pampín, Juan’s father and founder of Corregidor. However, in the “new Argentina”, presided over by the far-right Javier Milei, an unprecedented threat looms over the publishing landscape, which could trigger the definitive closure of an industry that has survived almost everything.
Last week, the debate on the omnibus law began in Congress: Bases and starting points for the freedom of Argentines. A set of regulations with which Milei intends, among numerous extreme measures, to repeal the bookshop activity law.
“This law is an agreement between the three basic legs of the industry, which are booksellers, publishers and distributors”, explains Juan Pampín. Sanctioned in November 2001, the regulations state that “any publisher, importer or representative of books must establish a uniform selling price to the public (PVP) or final consumer of the books that they publish or import”. In this way, the value of the book is the same in all points of sale, regardless of geographical location or whether it is an independent bookstore or a mass retail chain. It is a law like the one in countries like Spain or France and allows smaller bookshops and publishers to compete with the big labels.
According to a report made by the CAL, since its creation, the country’s publications have increased by 200% and the number of publishing houses has tripled. “It is a law that works. Countries like Colombia or Mexico want to replicate it, when we go to the fairs they ask us to present the subject”. Abolition, Pampín fears, greatly endangers bibliodiversity and the survival of small and medium-sized companies in the sector. “It transforms the market into what I call gray bookstores, in which the offer is gray due to uniformity and standardization, reduced to fashionable books.”
The elimination of a regulation without assessing its possible consequences “is a typical neoliberal attitude, where they see regulation they throw a grenade, then they decide if throwing it made sense”, says Fernando Fagnani, who for more than 30 years has he works in the publishing industry and is currently general manager of the Edhasa Argentina label. “There have been economic crises repeatedly, what has never been an attempt to modify a law that works perfectly, that costs the State absolutely nothing and that the only thing it does is protect bookstores and smaller publishers”. Supporters of the repeal of the fixed book price law claim that it will benefit readers, because prices will go down. According to Fagnani, “assuming that for the reader the only benefit is financial, which is also not true, this benefit is short. It lasts as long as the big chains need to keep a majority part of the market”. It is enough to observe the experiences in the international scene, such as the abusive discounts of Amazon in the USA (a company that coincidentally will soon arrive in Argentina) or the Waterstones bookstores in England. There, after Margaret Thatcher’s government repealed the Net Book Agreement, in one year they closed more than 500 bookstores.
Last week, while Congress was debating Milei’s omnibus law, a cultural cauldron resounded in different parts of the country. Laura Forni, owner of the small bookstore El Tren Nocturno and secretary of the Argentine Chamber of Independent Bookstores (CALI), an organization created just a month ago, was present. “This year the books increased more than ever, but it has to do with the price of the paper”, explains Forni. Traditionally, the price of paper in Argentina was around 30% to 35% of the industrial cost of the book. Today it is well over 50%. The country’s paper companies, which operate as an oligopoly, are making more profits than any other participant in the book industry chain. “If the law is repealed and prices are freed, whoever has more financial backing will be able to make big discounts and this will affect independent publishers who do not have the ability to compete.” Given the difficult economic landscape, when the possibility of closing her bookstore is discussed, Laura Forni comments: “It’s something I prefer not to think about now. It constitutes a very possible risk”.
Nora Galia founded the publishing house Letras del Sur ten years ago. “We stand out because of the diversity of our readers, because we publish authors and emerging themes and because we have a presence in medium and small bookstores and in alternative distribution channels.” It is these points of sale which, argues Galia, offer a more specialized and diverse catalog. “Cultural managers and especially publishers are used to working in scenarios with a certain degree of uncertainty, but this situation, which seems fictional, is absolutely destructive”. As of August 2023, devaluation and inflation in Argentina caused prices to increase by more than 200%. “As a consequence, we had to rethink the six-month publication plan, reduce print runs and generate new agreements with distributors and printers.” The repeal of the law, according to Ga lia, would be “the final blow to an industry that has been faltering for almost a decade”.
After being elected president, Milei stated in his speech as winner that in 35 years, Argentina will regain the status of a world power. “Today puts an end to the impoverishing model of the omnipresent State, which only benefits some people”. According to the agent’s perspective, in which the book is considered simply a commodity, it must be governed by the laws of the market. If the activity is not profitable, then it is suggested to produce something that is. “Literature does not have to be profitable, it is useful and necessary”, argues the Argentine writer Franco Chiaravalloti. “It helps to record an era, we know more about the Spanish Golden Age from Don Quixote than from history books.” The Argentine book industry is preparing to withstand what could be one of the strongest blows. As the author Ernesto Sábato (1911-2011) expressed: “What is admirable is that man continues to fight and create beauty in the midst of a barbaric and hostile world”.
