Secteur caribéen de l’édition et mutations en cours
The fragility of the Caribbean publishing sector in light of current changes
The Caribbean book market must be understood in a context in which information is often lacking. Consumption patterns, reading habits, distribution circuits have not been studied to allow for a truly forward-looking approach to the sector, although major regional trends are evolving with regard to the weaknesses in the sector as well as at the level of the key role;played by the main publishers in the Caribbean.
Building a book market
Due to the absence of recent statistical data it is difficult to understand the real situation concerning the book market in the Caribbean.Since the book industry is unable to generate direct revenue, it has been collapsing over the last ten years.The latest known figures show a trade balance with a high deficit, and an import value of 250 million EC dollars, as compared to 25 million EC dollars in exports.This deficit in production affects the four main book-producing states in the region, namely Barbados, Jamaica, Trinidad and Tobago and Guyana.
The situation reflects the fragility and weakness of the local actors in the publishing industry, and it can be explained by multiple factors at different levels particularly in the English-speaking and French-speaking countries of the Caribbean.In Caribbean territories, markets are small and opportunities are limited. Businesses in the sector, particularly publishers, are small in size,often family businesses, whose capital base cannot accommodate large-scale development and an aggressive or dynamic approach within the sector. Whether they are in the English, Spanish or French-speaking Caribbean, these businesses must face direct competition from large English speaking and French groups with a full, more competitive catalogue offering entertainment as a key feature. A lack of qualified human resources to exploit opportunities presented by new technologies, and the absence of a smooth distribution network, as well as inadequate marketing of regional publications deepen the difficulties in the sector. Finally, maintaining the supply of publications on primary commodities (paper production) to the detriment of multimedia products and the lack of harmonised intra-regional fiscal regimes are elements which do not favour competitiveness in the Caribbean book industry.
Dynamic territorial initiatives which have no regional scope
In Jamaica for example, several renowned authors have preferred to settle in the United States, Canada or the United Kingdom so that they can access the international markets and be published outside their country. This, however,should not cause us to overlook the vibrancy of the sector in this country, which also has a dynamic press. The latter comprises publications by The Gleaner Company with key publications such as the Gleaner and the Sunday Gleaner with up to 190,000 copies published on the weekend, as well as The Observer and The Herald, not to mention purely local publications. Distribution networks have often remained unstructured, and in Jamaica street-hawking or small sales points are the preferred methods.
In the Spanish-speaking Caribbean, the situation is the opposite. In Cuba, the publishing sector is largely state-controlled. There are very few independent bookshops. Access to foreign, and even Latin American authors remains difficult,although change is taking place. In fact, with the development of e-books, or rather electronic copies of books, a parallel market has developed and avoids state control of publications.The golden age of Cuban publishing is now over.Foreign publishers wishing to offer titles from their catalogue on the island must pay taxes, but this is not a good illustration. In this seemingly difficult situation, the success of Havana’s International Book Fair has helped to break the island’s isolation in this regard by bringing together Cuban and foreign authors, international publishing houses large numbers of members of the public. In 2012 there were approximately 2 million visitors.
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Books Market
The subsidised market in the overseas départements
In the overseas départements, the book market receives strong support from the state. In fact, written laws governing this market contain general provisions for taking into account the cost of shipping books to the overseas territories far from production centres. The law dictating a single price for books (La loi sur le prix unique du livre) provided for a mark-up on the publisher’s price to cover transport costs. However, this provision has shown to be incompatible with the currently stated objective of providing wider access by overseas populations to cultural goods. The current measure provides for a single price to be charged for schoolbooks both in France and overseas, while a higher price is charged overseas for other publications. Moreover,to deal with transport costs, the Ministry of Culture subsidises bookshop to make up for this extra cost, and this is managed by the Centrale de l’édition. However, these apparent weaknesses should not detract from the region’s creative potential, for which well-designed and integrated commercial practices can lead to significant development.
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Havana's International Book Fair
The role of schoolbook publishing in this sector School and academic texts occupy a very important place in the catalogues of the largest publishers in the English-speaking Caribbean.They need to provide themselves with a captive market if they are to ensure that they will make a minimum profit from publishing, since state agencies support this sector by providing assistance for purchases or by making direct purchases through schools and universities and through library acquisitions. There is some reluctance to invest in works of literary fiction because it is difficult to predict their success. Therefore, the small size of markets is not the only explanation for this state of affairs. It is interesting to note that whatever the cultural or linguistic area of the region, this interest in school publications is shared to a great extent. It takes the form of a major investment by publishers in this type of format. It could also be direct support as in the case of the overseas départements where prices are aligned in metropolitan France in an effort to control the purchase price in these territories.
We thank the ICFC (Franco Caribbean Cooperation Institute) to this excerpt from The Link 8 which presents a very complete file on the Caribbean in the publishing market
