1. What is the proportion of books written by local authors, including scientific and popular literature on the natural sciences?
2. What are the typical editions of popular books on science in your country?
Popular science books in Brazil
Rubens Machado, July 2012
Book sales in Brazil are unfortunately still quite modest. Popular science books tend to follow the overall pattern of small printings, of the order of 1000 to 3000 copies, typically. Anything above 5000 copies may usually be considered a success. By comparison, in neighbouring Argentina -- where a much more well established book tradition is present -- popular science books selling on the hundreds of thousands are not unheard of.
In Brazil, translations of popular science books are probably more numerous than titles by local authors. It seems likely, though, that both the total number of such books and the fraction of Brazilian authors have been increasing over the last few decades.
Some printing houses do specialize in science and/or popular science. But these, along with university presses, are generally small. One such publisher (Vieira & Lent) however, has since 2002 been building a remarkable catalogue of dozens of new popular science books written chiefly by Brazilian scientists. They cover subjects such as dinosaurs, genetics, evolution, chemistry, physics and science outreach itself. One of their titles, a popular biology book about the brain, has managed to sell over 30 thousand copies.
Another particular example stands out: published in 1992, "The Dancing Universe" by Brazilian physicist Marcelo Gleiser is quoted as having sold over 70 thousand copies. This was a popular science book dealing with cosmology, printed by one of the largest publishers in the country (Companhia das Letras). Due to this success, and to the author's weekly science column on Brazil's leading newspaper, his subsequent books have also enjoyed notable popularity.
(With information and help from Bernardo Esteves, Raquel Cozer and José Roberto. See also A ciência compreendida by Fabrício Marques.)