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This year marks the Bogota International Book Fair’s (FILBo) 35^th anniversary. FILBo is the most significant and longstanding cultural event in Colombia and is the second largest book fair in Spanish-speaking Latin America. Usually scheduled to occur in late April and early May to dovetail with the Buenos Aires International Book Fair, FILBo takes place over a period of two weeks and is a mixed public and professional book fair combining literary and cultural events at the main fair venue as well as around the capital city and other parts of the country.

To celebrate FILBo’s anniversary and give readers a glimpse into the opportunities available in Colombia’s vibrant book market, we will be sharing excerpts of our 2022 market guide, Selling Canadian Books in Colombia: A Guide for Canadian Publishers over the coming weeks.

Read on to discover more or download the guide to read in full!

Market Overview

Colombia has the third-largest Spanish-language publishing market in Latin America, after Mexico and Argentina. (Brazil has the largest publishing market in the region but is a Portuguese-speaking country.)

According to the 2021 edition of the report El español: una lengua viva, Colombia’s population was 51,049,498—the second most populated country in the Spanish-speaking world after México.  Due to its geographical location, Colombia sits at a crossroad with South America on one side and Central America, the Caribbean, and North America on the other, connecting the country culturally, commercially, and economically.

Colombia has a high level of political and economic stability. From the beginning of the 21st century until the COVID-19 pandemic, its economy was in constant state of expansion, often exhibiting particularly high growth.  Colombia’s 2020 gross domestic product (GDP) was $CAD344,589 million, falling 6.8% from 2019 when it peaked at $CAD410,593 million. In 2020, the country’s per capita GDP was $CAD6,772.25, compared to $CAD8,156.48 in 2019, a 7.8% decrease.

Some indicators of Colombia’s potential as a publishing market on a global scale include the size of the country’s population, its reading habits, its publishing industry’s productivity, its economic growth before the pandemic, and its economic recovery projections post-pandemic.

Translated and Imported Books

Most translated books sold in Columbia are imported by large foreign publishing groups and by medium and small publishers from Spain, Argentina, and Mexico. Books published by large foreign publishing groups are usually published by the head offices of Spanish groups and by Spanish or Hispanic branches of American groups whose head offices are in other linguistic environments. However, some Latin American publishing groups also provide imported and translated books to the Colombian publishing market on a smaller scale—as is the case of Fondo de Cultura Económico from México. Some Colombian publishers also publish translations.

Of all 2020 titles published in Colombia, 1,140 were translated from other languages—mainly English, French, Portuguese, German, and Italian. Translated titles represented 5.6% of total publishing production. A distinction needs to be made between the works translated in Colombia and those translated and published at the head offices of foreign groups, which were then published by their branches in Colombia using a Colombian ISBN.

Imported books represented 13.9% of all volumes released in the Colombian publishing market in 2020, which is 4.7 million units altogether. In Colombia, book imports have two main sources: local branches of large foreign publishing groups that commercialize a portion of their overall catalogue and book distributors and bookstores.

In 2020, imported books sold in Colombia generated $CAD65 million in revenue and represented 29.2% of net sales. This was a $CAD21.4 million decrease from 2019 when 32.5% of net sales were imported books.

Currently, most imported books come from Spain, followed by the United States. Imports from Latin America come primarily from Mexico and Brazil, followed by Argentina and Uruguay.

China is gaining relevance in Colombia for its book imports, and it can also be assumed that the largest portion of these imports correspond to the trade of manufacturing services. The United Kingdom is a relevant provider of imported books as well, mostly due to demand for books on teaching English as a foreign language, technical handbooks, academic titles, and English-language course books and teaching materials.

Reading and Book Purchasing Habits

According to the 2017 National Reading Survey (ENLEC) implemented by the National Administrative Statistics Department (DANE), 54.2% of people ages of five and up read books. Of those people ages five and up who read books, the average number of books read per year is 5.1—82% in this group read printed books, 70.4% read digital formats, and 91.3% “read in any format (digital or printed).”

ENLEC indicates that “among people aged 12 and above, the most used electronic device for reading is the cellphone or smartphone,” desktop computers are the second most used, and “social networks are most used by people who read in digital format.”

End consumers mainly purchase books through bookstore chains, large retail stores, and virtual and independent bookstores. The public sector and private organizations purchase books directly from publishers. In 2020, net institutional sales to the public sector represented 2.3%, totalling $CAD5,172,728, while those to the private sector represented 11.4%, totalling $CAD25,469,010.

State of the Digital Market

In recent years, the digitalization of the book market has had a significant impact in Colombia. First, many processes related to the production, promotion, distribution, commercialization, and consumption of books have been digitalized. Second, platforms of different sizes have emerged, operating both at the global and local scales—and even the creation of some national ones. Third, new actors seeking to respond to the needs of the digital environment have emerged. Fourth, there has been a significant growth in the offer of digital content in the book sector. Finally, library network catalogues have been enriched with an ever-growing portion of ebooks and audiobooks on offer.

Of the 20,735 titles published in 2020 in Colombia, 3,747 (18.1%) were in a digital format and 474 (2.3%) were audiobooks. That is an increase of 25.5% from 2019 for digital formats and 367.5% for audiobooks.

In 2020, sales of printed books through e-commerce platforms grew 70.4%, and sales of ebooks and audiobooks—through retail, subscription-based platforms, and sourcing processes of library networks—increased by 260.8%. Net ebook sales in 2020 reached $CAD5,582,271, representing a 59.7% increase from 2019.

The main business models for ebooks and audiobooks sales are retail and licensing for subscription-based platforms and libraries. As previously stated, the offer of ebooks and audiobooks through retail and streaming platforms is increasingly in relevance for actors in the book value chain and for users. The commerce channels for ebooks and audiobooks with the biggest presence in Colombia are Apple, Amazon, Buscalibre, Libreriadelau, and Storytel.

Want to learn more about the Colombian book market? Our next blog post will cover Colombian publishers across genres.

You can also check out the recording of our recent Mentoring Program webinar on Colombia led by expert consultant Luis Fernando Páez and our 2020 webinar on the Colombian book market hosted by Sandra Pullido, former director of the Bogota International Book Fair.