I’d rather jump off a sixth floor: the case
of Sexto Piso, independent publisher
It’s no secret Mexico has a problem with its reading habits:
UNESCO has recently (2012) shown the average Mexican reads less than three
books per year, one of the lowest numbers in developing nations. These poor
results have persisted for decades, despite official initiatives to promote
this activity in all sectors of society. So how exactly do you plan to open a
publishing house under these conditions?
The case of Sexto Piso is a rarity: around 2003, a group of
Political Science students in the country’s largest public university –National
Autonomous University of Mexico, with its campus in the south of Mexico City– decided
to translate and publish their mentor and friend Roberto Calasso, an Italian
author and publisher with plenty of experience in his country and other European
countries. Calasso not only offered his expertise in matters such as rights
acquisitions, but gave them exclusive rights to some of his titles.
Sexto Piso’s founders didn’t have marketing studies or strict
business plans when they set up the company. Despite its logo, which shows a
man jumping off a sixth floor (a “sexto piso”), becoming publishers wasn’t
exactly a leap of faith: they cultivated a selection of mostly foreign and
obscure authors and topics, hired more than competent translators and printed high
quality editions, catering to the knowledge and interest of a very specific
sector: the highly educated middle class of the capital.
Surprisingly, Sexto Piso’s main obstacle wasn’t a low number
of readers, disinterest in their obscure or rescued classics, or difficulties
in buying rights: they had to fight very hard to get a space in bookstores that
were very reluctant to exhibit other titles than their proved formulas. The
publishers worked hard for their spaces and began a fast rhythm of editing
carefully selected and diverse materials, from Political Science to Philosophy
and Science Fiction. Some of their first publications were Morris Berman’s The
Twilight of American Culture (“El crepúsculo de la cultura americana”), novels
by the somewhat obscure Stanislav Lem and Milorad Pavic, and titles of classic
writers that hadn’t been translated to Spanish, such as David Hume, Etienne de
La Boétie or George Orwell.
What all these heterogeneous books had in common was their
singularity and their dedicated design, the discreet but recognizable covers
with their funny falling man logo, a clean typography and acid-free paper that
was a luxury in those years, but has become a standard in many local artisanal
publishing practices. Within a year, Sexto Piso won the 2004 International
Young Publisher of the Year Award, opened an office in Spain (the main market
for Spanish language literature) and has become a shift in the paradigm of how
and what to publish in one of the most difficult markets for literature, such
as Mexico.
The editorial house, now with more than 300 titles divided in
six collections ("classics", "narrative",
"essay", "actualities", "illustrated" and
"kids"), bases its success in
the taste of its board members, exercised almost as a curation of a work of art
in itself: a solid, perfect catalog that’s been possible against the odds. More
than 10 years since its foundation and without having become massive, Sexto
Piso has grown steadily in Mexico despite the low levels of readership that all
surveys show, and in a permanently stagnant economy.
Another component of their growth is the opening of a section
dedicated to illustrated books and graphic novels, a collection called “Sexto
Piso ilustrado” (“Sexto Piso illustrated”). One of the first titles and
on-going projects is the 2006 adaptation
of Marcel Proust’s In Search Of Lost Time volume I, by French comics artist
Stéphane Heuet, and translated to Spanish by Conrado Tostado. Heuet’s
adaptation of the French classic took many years to complete and proved how a
visual adaptation to the form of comics is far from a substitution of the
written text, but a rich and demanding narrative with its own merits.
The illustrated collection of the editorial house is not only
following the guidelines of some of the finest art and comics publishing houses,
such as Fantagraphics or Drawn and Quarterly, but competing with them in the
growing market of Spanish-speaking readers in the United States, acquiring
rights and signing authors such as Peter Kuper, whose “Diario de Oaxaca” was an
astonishing drawn and written diary that offered a personal and intimate insight
into one of Mexico’s most brutal political confrontations of recent years, the civil
protest led by teachers in the state of Oaxaca, and the repression that
followed in 2006.
Sexto Piso’s method of
work wasn’t new; Spain’s Anagrama and Siruela, or Argentina’s Amorrortu, among others, have been
following an approach of singular titles with attention to design and a
particular audience in mind for many years, and with great results. But it’s
Sexto Piso’s merit to have defied the very real obstacles of the Mexican
editorial industry and perhaps even the commonplace of "a disinterested
audience that doesn't read",
who, in response, maintains alive and in prosperity one of the country’s most
important independent cultural projects.
As part of
the third edition of "Celebrating Mexico", a program that shows
two-minute short films of various successful Mexican personalities from diverse
areas (arts, science, entertainment, gastronomy, sports…), Latin American
Discovery Channel and its various networks are presenting, from September 2015
to September 2016, a video-clip of Eduardo Rabasa and Felipe Rosete, two of the
founding editors, talking of their company's place is Mexico's editorial
landscape and the role of editing and writing, as they show what a common day
is like in the workshop press and in their offices. They can be watched during
the commercial breaks of the networks regular schedule.
Local TV show Central Once recorded a program centered on the
company's main collections, as well as an interview with Eduardo Rabasa. Their
great collection of covers and high quality pressings can be seen next to shots
of graphic novelists working on their desks. It's on Youtube, in Spanish.
