Bookstores in Mexico have banded together to launch the first unified association to maintain their interests, curb piracy and to insure their survival against e-books and digital publishing.
There are 1,200 bookstores in Mexico, which is a deplorable number considering the country has a population of over 110 million people. Many of the small neighborhood bookstores are closing because of high taxes and is driving more people to pirate the books instead.
Rodrigo Pérez-Porrúa, director of the Porrúa-Hermanos bookstore chain is the new president of Asociación de Librerías de México. He said “We are uniting because booksellers form a fundamental part of the book’s value chain, and we are inviting all of the country’s bookstores to join us,” he said, adding that one of the association’s first aims is to carry out a bookstore census to determine how many currently operate in the country. “
“Books in Mexico are, in general, accessibly priced, but the 16% VAT means that bookstores struggle, and we want to change the tax regime, as well as achieving a single price for books,” Mario Nawy, director of the Gandhi bookstore chain, said.
Michael Kozlowski is the editor-in-chief at Good e-Reader and has written about audiobooks and e-readers for the past fifteen years. Newspapers and websites such as the CBC, CNET, Engadget, Huffington Post and the New York Times have picked up his articles. He Lives in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada.