Book clubs the not-so-new hope for struggling Brazilian publishing industry

As the Brazilian publishing market continues to grapple with the court-supervised reorganization of the country’s two main bookstore chains and an anemic economy, a not-so-new alternative that resurged in recent years became a renewed hope for the country’s publishing houses: subscription-based book clubs. 

The “box club” e-commerce model has picked up steam for the last few years in Brazil. According to the Brazilian E-Commerce Association (Abcomm), there were 800 companies specialized in this subscription model in 2018, generating revenue of BRL 780 million. In the publishing market, a study on Brazilians’ reading habits indicated that independent book clubs generated BRL 20.14 million with these products, more than traditional channels such as newspaper stands, but still streets away from the BRL 1.86 billion generated by bookstores.

TAG Experiencias Literárias subscription-based book club rose as the movement’s leading example. In the past five years, the company sold over 700,000 literary kits to 50,000 readers, according to its website. At TAG, customers may choose between receiving books from special curators or works that have never been published in Brazil. 

The model is inspired by the Círculo do Livro, a joint-venture publishing house owned by Abril—Brazil’s largest publisher—and German group Bertelsmann. Círculo do Livro operated a popular book...