Home 5 Articles and Reports 5 A Publisher’s Love Letter to Books and Bookshops

A Publisher’s Love Letter to Books and Bookshops

by | Dec 18, 2018 | Articles and Reports, News

A love letter to books – and by extension, to bookshops – has been written by Luiz Schwarz, the CEO of publisher Companhia das Letras in Brazil.  In it he addresses the crisis facing the Brazilian book industry, a crisis that has seen the country’s two leading bookstore chains, Livraria Cultura and Saraiva, both file for bankruptcy.

In the letter, a blog post on the company’s website that went viral, he asks everyone – “publishers, booksellers and authors— to join together in the search for creative and idealistic solutions” to the problems besetting the Brazilian book industry.  He urges people to learn from campaigns in the country’s recent election and to heed “the solidarity networks that formed”.  He wants people to use “letters, Whatsapp messages, emails, social media posts and videos, produced with sincerity and an open heart, [to rally] around fellow bookworld stakeholders, especially its more fragile players”.

He wants people to seriously consider giving books as gifts this Christmas and writes: “For those of you who, like me, nurture a love of books as your very reason for being, I ask you to spread this call, urge others to buy books this holiday season; books by your favorite authors, and by new authors you’ve been meaning to explore. Buy them at those bookstores that are heroically riding this crisis out, honoring their commitments, but also at those that have fallen on hard times, and who need our help to muddle through.”

Many people have been posting pictures of their bookshelves on social media or recommending books in twitter posts.  Marcus da Veiga Pereira, president of Brazil’s National Union of Book Publishers, has also launched a campaign on twitter, urging people to buy a book from a bookstore.

Schwarcz concludes his love letter to books:  “Gifting books today is about more than supporting a cornerstone of society in the fight for a more just world, saving a small publishing house or some jobs at one of the larger firms. What it’s really about is extending a lifeline to bookstores nationwide and showing a little love for something that has given us so much for so long: the book.”

Recent News

03Jun
Book Ban Expands in Russia

Book Ban Expands in Russia

The Russian book distributor BMM has ordered bookshops to “return or destroy” works by the Pulitzer Prize-winner Jeffery Eugenides and the British bestseller Bridget Collins, among others, the BBC reports.  It is the latest case of censorship targeting the country’s literary scene.   BMM sent a letter to shops at the end of May, seen […]

03Jun
£75K Prize for 3 Pages

£75K Prize for 3 Pages

New book prize to award aspiring writer £75,000 for first three pages of novel A new competition is offering £75,000 to an aspiring writer based on just three pages of their novel.   Actor Emma Roberts, Bridgerton author Julia Quinn and Booker-winning Life of Pi author Yann Martel are among the judges for The Next […]

03Jun
380 Writers Call Gaza War Genocide

380 Writers Call Gaza War Genocide

Three hundred and eighty writers and organisations including Zadie Smith, Ian McEwan, Russell T Davies, Hanif Kureishi, Frank Cottrell-Boyce and George Monbiot have signed a letter stating that the Israeli government’s war in Gaza is genocidal and calling for an immediate ceasefire. “The use of the words ‘genocide’ or ‘acts of genocide’ to describe what […]

Related Posts

£75K Prize for 3 Pages

£75K Prize for 3 Pages

New book prize to award aspiring writer £75,000 for first three pages of novel A new competition is offering £75,000 to an aspiring writer based on just three pages of their novel.   Actor Emma Roberts, Bridgerton author Julia Quinn and Booker-winning Life of Pi...

380 Writers Call Gaza War Genocide

380 Writers Call Gaza War Genocide

Three hundred and eighty writers and organisations including Zadie Smith, Ian McEwan, Russell T Davies, Hanif Kureishi, Frank Cottrell-Boyce and George Monbiot have signed a letter stating that the Israeli government’s war in Gaza is genocidal and calling for an...

Celebrating Austen Across England

Celebrating Austen Across England

This year marks the 250th anniversary of the birth of famous author Jane Austen. Jane Austen was famous for her books on middle class English society, and is seen as a direct influence on the modern fiction books we read today. This is despite only publishing four...

Previous Next
Close
Test Caption
Test Description goes like this

Pin It on Pinterest