Letter from a small bookseller to Luiz Schwarcz

Originally published in the newspaper Already

BY PEDRO PAULO GRACZCKI

Letter of love to books and ova

Luiz Schwarcz, de Cia das Letras, wrote a pseudo-love letter to the books and asks us something that he never had: solidarity and defense of the clbad. Well, any trainee knows that it's stupid to have only one supplier, or only one or two customers. Or strategic mistake if you prefer.

You know what? Well done, you screwed us for years. I am a small bookseller in Cachoeira do Sul (RS), I do 200 book fairs a year. No government badistance. And for many years, Mr. Schwarcz ignored me and tried to overthrow me. He with Saraiva, Cultura, Fnac and the big publishers, have done everything to destroy the book market, and now that they have destroyed it, he asks for solidarity, he calls for help.

Our biggest inconsistency is that we have many more publisher terms than bookshops. It's as if we had 1,000 slaughterhouses and 50 butchers in Brazil. And the refrigerators were still trying to get rid of the butchers. Can you imagine? Well, it's the same thing in the book market. And to make matters worse, "major publishers and booksellers" enjoy a 100% tax exemption, while small ones pay 7.8% of their turnover.

The cow has now been flanked. What a beautiful moment, what a unique opportunity to sit for the first time on an equal footing and discuss our future equally. Instead of a mega-caloteira, why not 200 small bookstores?

Brazil has more than 5,000 municipalities, but you only want to sell in capitals. Of the 200 million inhabitants who buy on the Internet?
There is no bookstore badociation. The badociations that exist are all taken by major publishers or large bookstores. Who speaks on our behalf, among the small booksellers?

Schwarcz calls attention to the protagonists, but never considered the protagonism of the booksellers who are the Don Quixote of the market, running with boxes of books to take away our literature where the gentlemen never have summer. You fired six salaried employees? I've seen many coworkers change jobs after 20, 30 or 40 years of career because Saraiva's discounts were well above the price you were selling.

It's down that life beats stronger. On the upper floor, shareholders have a personal financial capacity to save their businesses. Well, so all is well?

Dear Mr. Schwarcz, we are booksellers here, we have always been and we will be, even when you have stopped publishing books, because profit is low. If they want help to clean the house, we want to be invited to the party when that happens.

Do you want ideas to get out of the crisis? I have several, I put them into practice every day. And that's why I'm going to reopen the São Paulo bookstore in December. Bigger, more beautiful and more practical, with the certainty that without the messengers who distribute the letters, I will have more chances to succeed in the market.

You know what? Good game.