Report · Talk at the LIBER 2026 Ágora

The DNA of global success

The 15 genes for selling your books outside your country

In 1950 a pit stop took more than a minute; in 2023, 1.80 seconds. Nobody invented one big trick: hundreds of small improvements added up, measured a tenth at a time. Selling books in another country works the same way. This report expands the talk we gave at LIBER 2026 (held in Spanish) and brings together, gene by gene, the data, the sources and what to do tomorrow.

Nicolás Parola

Chief Marketing Officer, publica.la

LIBER 2026 · 29 September 2026 · 15 min read

See the 15 genes Book a meeting

The sum behind the talk

×4.18

Fifteen 10% improvements, measured and compounded, do not add up to 150%: they multiply (1.115 = 4.18).

Number of genes improved by 10%
  • 5 genes improved by 10%: sales multiply by 1.61.
  • 10 genes improved by 10%: sales multiply by 2.59.
  • 15 genes improved by 10%: sales multiply by 4.18.

From the pit stop to the checkout

From over 60 seconds to 1.80: 97% less

Formula 1 did not cut its stop times with a single idea. It cut them with hundreds of small improvements, each one measured against the last.

  1. 1950

    60+ s

    The first World Championship season. Around four mechanics in shirtsleeves, no helmets or fireproof clothing, and mallets to free each wheel's central nut. Cars stopped for damage or wear, not for strategy.

  2. 1957

    ≈ 50 s

    Fangio starts the German Grand Prix on half a tank and soft tyres, and pits on lap 13 while leading. A wheel nut goes missing and he rejoins third, 48 seconds behind second place. He wins anyway with a legendary comeback, but the strategic stop does not return for 25 years.

  3. 1982

    ≈ 15 s

    Brabham turns the stop into strategy: half a tank to run lighter and refuel mid-race. The tyres are warmed in plywood ovens and fuel goes in from pressurised tanks made out of beer kegs.

  4. 1993

    3.2 s

    Benetton changes all four wheels on Riccardo Patrese's car in 3.2 seconds at the Belgian Grand Prix, measured by telemetry: the benchmark for years.

  5. 1994–2009

    6–12 s

    Refuelling returns and the hose sets the pace, at up to 12.1 litres a second: a stop lasts as long as the fuel takes to go in.

  6. 2010

    Wheels only

    Refuelling is banned. Only the wheels are left, and the war of the thousandths begins.

  7. 2019

    1.82 s

    Red Bull changes Max Verstappen's wheels at the Brazilian Grand Prix in 1.82 seconds.

  8. 2023

    1.80 s

    McLaren stops Lando Norris in 1.80 seconds in Qatar, a Guinness record, with bigger, heavier wheels and some twenty people in sync.

No single idea set the record: thousands of tenths did, measured over 73 years.

Sources: Guinness World Records (2023 and 2024); Formula 1, "Anatomy of a pit stop" (2025); Wikipedia, 1957 German Grand Prix and Brabham BT50; Silodrome, interview with Gordon Murray; RaceFans (2008); F1-Fansite.

The thread of the talk

To sell abroad you need two things

Of the fifteen genes, two ideas hold up everything else. If readers see the price in another currency, or cannot pay the way they always pay, they do not buy. And if your book is not in the bookstores where they shop, they never find it.

1

Be in all their bookstores

Amazon is not enough: in Latin America much of the digital market runs through local bookstores, with their own audience, currency and payment methods.

2

Charge the way the reader pays

Their price, their currency, their payment method. A price converted at today's exchange rate is not a local price.

The path of a sale abroad

  1. 1 Where I sell Each country's bookstores and marketplaces
  2. 2 How readers find me Portals such as ebooksdepository.com
  3. 3 At what price One price per reality, not one per region
  4. 4 In which currency Show and charge in the reader's currency
  5. 5 How I get paid Pix, Mercado Pago, Yape, PSE…

By our estimate these five genes weigh the most: together they account for more than half of the effect of all fifteen. If you have to choose where to start, start here.

The full map

The 15 genes of global DNA

In the order a sale lives them: where I sell, at what price, how readers find me and how I get paid. Each one comes with its data, its sources and one concrete action.

Where I sell

At what price

How readers find me

How I get paid

Genes 1 to 6

Where I sell

Channels and formats: who you sell to, in which stores and in which medium.

Gene 1 · B2C

B2C: selling directly to the reader

Business to consumer: the end reader buys a title for themselves, online, in their country and in their currency. This gene gives the others their meaning, because every one of them ends with a reader deciding whether to buy.

That reader is already abroad: almost a third of digital sales on publica.la go to someone living in a different country from the publisher. There are three routes to them, and a publisher selling abroad does not pick one: it combines them.

What to do tomorrow

Combine direct sales, bookstores and marketplaces

of digital sales on publica.la go to a reader in a different country from the publisher's
31%
of digital sales on publica.la go to a reader in a different country from the publisher's
countries with buyers in the last year
108
countries with buyers in the last year

D2C · Direct

Your own store

The publisher sells from its own online store: its brand, its price, its promotions and a direct relationship with every reader.

Third-party sales

Bookstores

Each country's online bookstores sell your catalogue next to other publishers', in their currency and with their payment methods.

Third-party sales

Marketplaces

Large stores and platforms that aggregate many publishers' catalogues and concentrate buying traffic.

Sources: publica.la first-party data, approved digital sales September 2025 to August 2026 with a known buyer country.

Gene 2 · B2B

B2B: selling to institutions

Business to business: libraries, universities, schools and companies license access for their readers. This buyer pays up front, renews every year and buys whole collections rather than single titles.

And their digital demand keeps growing: ebook and audiobook lending breaks records every year, in Spain and worldwide. Selling to them means solving two challenges that selling to readers does not have: the licensing model and the integration with the institution's systems.

What to do tomorrow

Offer licensing models and LTI, SAML, IP and EZproxy integration

We walk through it step by step in our webinar on institutional sales (in Spanish). How to sell to institutions →

of print book turnover in Spain comes from companies and institutions, including textbooks sold to schools
15.1%
of print book turnover in Spain comes from companies and institutions, including textbooks sold to schools
digital loans on eBiblio, Spain's public library platform, in 2025 (+16.6%), across 700,736 licences
4.8M
digital loans on eBiblio, Spain's public library platform, in 2025 (+16.6%), across 700,736 licences
digital loans across OverDrive libraries in 2025 (+10.9%)
820M
digital loans across OverDrive libraries in 2025 (+10.9%)

Challenge 1 · Licensing

  • Concurrent access: how many readers at once
  • Loans by number of uses or by time
  • Pay per loan, or an annual subscription per collection
  • Perpetual purchase with maintenance
  • Tenders and contracts per institution

Challenge 2 · Integration

  • LTI: inside the virtual campus
  • SAML / SSO: with the institution's own login
  • IP: access from the campus network
  • EZproxy: remote access through a proxy
  • MARC records and usage statistics for the librarian

Sources: FGEE, Comercio Interior del Libro en España 2025 (preview, June 2026); Spanish Ministry of Culture, eBiblio en cifras 2025; OverDrive (January 2026).

Gene 3 · Direct sales

Your store makes you strong at home; bookstores take you abroad

These are two complementary channels, not rivals. Your own store works your home territory: people know you there, you have a community there, and that is where keeping the margin and the data pays. In Spain, almost half of digital turnover already comes from the publisher's own website or platform.

In a new country, though, nobody is searching for your imprint. That is where partner bookstores come in: they already have the country's audience, currency and payment methods, and each one sets them for its own market.

What to do tomorrow

Your own store at home; partner bookstores in every new country

of digital turnover in Spain is sold from the publisher's website
21.3%
of digital turnover in Spain is sold from the publisher's website
from a platform the publisher owns
26.4%
from a platform the publisher owns
goes through general commercial platforms
47.7%
goes through general commercial platforms

Your store makes you strong at home

  • Your brand and your community of readers
  • First-party data on every buyer
  • Launches, pre-orders and promotions on your own calendar
  • Your whole catalogue for sale, without depending on anyone
Partner bookstores take you to other countries
Country Currency Local payment method
Mexico MXN Mercado Pago
Chile CLP Mercado Pago
Argentina ARS Mercado Pago
Brazil BRL Pix
Colombia COP PSE, Nequi
Peru PEN Yape

Price, currency and payment method: each bookstore sets them for its market.

Sources: FGEE, Comercio Interior del Libro en España 2025 (preview, June 2026); publica.la.

Gene 4 · Bookstores and marketplaces

Your book in other people's shop windows

Bookstores that sell third-party catalogues multiply your points of sale without you opening a new store. One sign-up, many shop windows: each bookstore sells your book in its country, in its currency and with its payment methods.

And it is the channel that crosses the most borders. On publica.la, one in four reader purchases is another publisher's catalogue sold by a bookstore, and half of those sales go to readers in another country. From the publisher's own store, only 14% do.

What to do tomorrow

Open your catalogue to third-party bookstores

of reader purchases on publica.la are third-party catalogue sold by bookstores
26%
of reader purchases on publica.la are third-party catalogue sold by bookstores
of what third-party bookstores sell goes to readers in another country (14% from the publisher's own store)
50%
of what third-party bookstores sell goes to readers in another country (14% from the publisher's own store)
Bookstores with the largest catalogues in the ebooksdepository.com directory
Bookstore Country Titles in catalogue
Sanborns Ebooks Mexico 744,551
Bajalibros Latam Latin America 399,809
Bajalibros Argentina Argentina 394,326
Ebooks Librería Antártica Chile 381,889
Bajalibros Colombia Colombia 379,847
Ebooks Librería del GAM Chile 373,176
Bookshop Uruguay Uruguay 360,251
Ebooks Yenny - El Ateneo Argentina 357,111
Ebooks Librería Española Ecuador 345,666
Crisol Ebooks Peru 334,098
Gonvill Ebooks Mexico 329,794
SBS Librerías Argentina 323,133
Bajalibros España Spain 321,587

Sources: publica.la first-party data, approved purchases September 2025 to August 2026; "another country" means a buyer country different from that of the account holding the catalogue. Catalogues: ebooksdepository.com directory, consulted 28 September 2026.

Gene 5 · Subscriptions

Subscription: another reader, another revenue stream

Unlimited reading and listening for a monthly fee. A subscriber is not the same reader who buys a single title: they read more, try new authors and reach the backlist that is no longer on the new-release tables.

In Spanish-language audiobooks subscription is already the norm; in ebooks it is still a small share of value and, according to Bookwire, it does not cannibalise unit sales. It works as an additional revenue stream, not a substitute.

What to do tomorrow

Test a subscription platform with your backlist

of Spanish-language audiobook consumption was through subscription in 2025
89.5%
of Spanish-language audiobook consumption was through subscription in 2025
of the Spanish-language digital market came from subscriptions in 2025 (library lending, 6.7%)
5.6%
of the Spanish-language digital market came from subscriptions in 2025 (library lending, 6.7%)
of turnover on publica.la comes from monthly subscriptions, across 87 stores
20%
of turnover on publica.la comes from monthly subscriptions, across 87 stores

Your own

A subscription in your store: your catalogue, a price per country and recurring billing.

Platforms

Nextory, Kobo Plus, Storytel, Audible: immediate reach into their subscriber base.

Backlist

The backlist, no longer on the new-release tables, finds new readers through subscription.

Sources: Bookwire, Spanish Market Report 2026; De Marque, Annual Digital Book Report 2025 (April 2026); publica.la first-party data, approved gross turnover September 2025 to August 2026.

Gene 6 · Formats

Three formats, three prices, three audiences

Audio grows far faster than ebooks and sells for almost twice as much; print still sets the highest ticket. The same title in all three formats reaches three different readers: the one who reads on paper, the one who reads on a phone and the one who listens while driving.

Spanish-language audio is no longer just Spain's: Spain holds 54% of the market, the United States 20% and Mexico 18%, almost ten points more than a year before. And abroad, ebooks and audiobooks pay no shipping and never clear customs.

What to do tomorrow

Publish your best-selling title as an audiobook

audiobook turnover in Spain in 2025
+53.3%
audiobook turnover in Spain in 2025
Spanish-language audiobook revenue worldwide
+11.5%
Spanish-language audiobook revenue worldwide
Spanish-language ebook revenue worldwide
+1.5%
Spanish-language ebook revenue worldwide
of digital turnover on publica.la is audio, from 1.9% of units
3.2%
of digital turnover on publica.la is audio, from 1.9% of units
Typical price per format, in US dollars
Print
$17.25
Audiobook
$16.52
Ebook
$8.89

Sources: FGEE, Comercio Interior del Libro en España 2025 (preview); Bookwire, Spanish Market Report 2026. Print: average print book price in Spain in 2025 (€15.0, FGEE) at 1.15 USD/EUR. Audio and ebook: medians of publica.la purchases September 2025 to August 2026.

Genes 7 to 9

At what price

The right price, currency and promotion change from one country to the next.

Gene 7 · Price per country

There is no such thing as a LATAM price

A reader in Spain pays, at the median, three times what a reader in Mexico pays for a digital book: 16 dollars against 5. A single price for the whole region is expensive in some countries and a giveaway in others: you lose sales where it is high and margin where it is low.

The answer is not a regional discount but a price per country, set in its currency, starting with the markets that already buy from you.

What to do tomorrow

Local prices in the 3 countries that buy from you most

Median price paid for a digital book, by buyer's country
Buyer's country Local median Median in US dollars
Spain 14.00 EUR $16.34
Colombia 39,900 COP $10.89
Uruguay 399 UYU $9.99
Chile 8,900 CLP $9.63
United States 8.99 USD $8.99
Argentina 12,699 ARS $8.88
Peru 29.90 PEN $8.82
Brazil 29.90 BRL $5.82
Mexico 90 MXN $5.30

The dollar misleads: a Big Mac costs almost the same in Mexico (6.27 USD) as in the United States (6.22 USD), with an income per head six times lower. The right price comes from purchasing power, not the exchange rate.

Sources: publica.la first-party data: approved unit purchases of PDF, EPUB and audio in every store, September 2025 to August 2026, publishers with 30 or more sales, final price paid including taxes. In the United States and Uruguay a single store accounts for over 90% of sales. The Economist, Big Mac index (July 2026).

Gene 8 · Local currencies

Showing the local currency is step one; charging in it is step two

Readers do not buy what they have to convert in their heads. A price in dollars or euros makes them do the maths and distrust the exchange rate their bank will apply.

Currency is not the same as price. Converting 9.99 dollars into pesos at today's rate is showing the local currency; setting 90 pesos is a local price. Both help, but the second one sells.

What to do tomorrow

Charge in the reader's currency, do not just display it

of cross-border shoppers expect to pay in their local currency
94%
of cross-border shoppers expect to pay in their local currency
abandon a purchase if they cannot see prices or pay in their currency
22%
abandon a purchase if they cannot see prices or pay in their currency
more units sold in Mexico in pesos than in dollars in publishers' own stores
6×
more units sold in Mexico in pesos than in dollars in publishers' own stores
Units sold in Mexico in publishers' stores, by the currency charged
In Mexican pesos
3,803
In US dollars
604

Latin American buyers paying in euros: some 1,400 sales in the year, with a median of €9.70. They buy, but they pay the friction of the exchange.

Sources: PYMNTS Intelligence and Worldpay (July 2025); Global-e and Censuswide, survey of 9,000 shoppers in 9 markets (2022); publica.la first-party data (September 2025 to August 2026).

Gene 9 · Discounts

A discount is a per-country tool, not a global button

On publica.la only 2% of digital sales are made with an active price promotion, and just 1.3% with a partial coupon: it is a lever that is barely used. The challenge is not to discount more but to apply the right discount in the right market. 20% off in Peru and 0% in Spain can, in practice, be the same real price.

And within the law. In Spain the fixed book price also covers ebooks (Law 10/2007): a consumer discount cannot exceed 5%, or 10% on Book Day and at book fairs. Selling abroad does not breach it, but every destination has its own rules: Mexico, for example, requires a single registered price.

What to do tomorrow

A promotions calendar per country and bundles per format

of digital sales on publica.la carry a price promotion, at an average of 55% off
2%
of digital sales on publica.la carry a price promotion, at an average of 55% off
use a partial discount coupon
1.3%
use a partial discount coupon
maximum consumer discount in Spain (10% at fairs and on Book Day)
5%
maximum consumer discount in Spain (10% at fairs and on Book Day)

By country

Promote where purchasing power calls for it, not in every market at once.

By format

An ebook and audio bundle, or a discounted audiobook for readers who already bought the print edition. It raises the ticket rather than lowering it.

By moment

Every country has its calendar: Buen Fin moved 219 billion pesos in Mexico in 2025, Hot Sale 42.7 billion, and Chile's 2026 CyberDay 531 million dollars.

To recover

A time-limited coupon for whoever left the cart answers the first reason for abandonment: costs they did not expect.

Sources: publica.la first-party data, approved digital sales September 2025 to August 2026; Spanish Law 10/2007 on reading, books and libraries (BOE, consolidated text); Mexico's Law for the Promotion of Reading and Books (2023 reform); Concanaco; AMVO; Santiago Chamber of Commerce.

Genes 10 to 13

How readers find me

Search engines, AI assistants, advertising and portals: readers have to reach your book before they can buy it.

Gene 10 · SEO

Get found on Google in every country

Search is still the front door. It is no longer enough on its own, but without it there is no GEO: AI assistants read the same pages Google indexes.

The unit of publishing SEO is the book page: one page per title, language and country, with the price and currency the arriving reader expects, loading fast on a phone.

What to do tomorrow

One page per title, language and country

traditional search volume forecast by Gartner for 2026
−25%
traditional search volume forecast by Gartner for 2026
retail conversion for every 0.1 seconds shaved off mobile load time
+8.4%
retail conversion for every 0.1 seconds shaved off mobile load time

SEO checklist for your catalogue

  • Original blurbs and titles, not copied from the distributor: duplicate content does not rank.
  • One URL per language and country, with hreflang and a sitemap: Google shows each reader the price that applies to them.
  • Structured data (schema.org Book, Offer and Person): price, currency, ISBN and author readable by machines.
  • Mobile speed: the book page loads fast on a mid-range phone.
  • Author and series pages that link to every title.

Since June 2025 Google no longer shows the book-buying rich results ("Book Actions"). Structured data still helps search engines and assistants understand your catalogue, but it no longer produces a buy button on Google.

Sources: Gartner (February 2024); Deloitte and Google, "Milliseconds Make Millions" (2020); Google Search Central (June 2025).

Gene 11 · GEO

When readers ask ChatGPT or Gemini, do you show up?

GEO (generative engine optimisation) is SEO for AI assistants: getting a model to cite your book, your price and your store when a reader asks it for a recommendation.

Traffic from AI assistants is still small, but it multiplies every year and already converts better than the rest: in twelve months it went from converting 38% worse to converting 42% better.

What to do tomorrow

A catalogue readable without JavaScript, with llms.txt

AI-referred traffic to US retail sites between October 2024 and May 2026
+1,324%
AI-referred traffic to US retail sites between October 2024 and May 2026
better conversion from AI-referred traffic (May 2026)
+54%
better conversion from AI-referred traffic (May 2026)
of the top 1,000 websites already publish an llms.txt (0.3% a year earlier)
8.7%
of the top 1,000 websites already publish an llms.txt (0.3% a year earlier)

What an AI model looks at in your store

  • Price, title, ISBN and buy button visible without JavaScript
  • Complete ONIX metadata and a table of contents that can be quoted
  • llms.txt and access for GPTBot, ClaudeBot and PerplexityBot
  • A presence on the portals assistants consult (gene 13)

Sources: Adobe Digital Insights, via Digital Commerce 360 (June 2026) and TechCrunch (April 2026); Rankability (June 2026).

Gene 12 · Ads

The same budget buys very different reach

Targeted advertising costs something different in every country. With the same budget, a Meta campaign buys about seven times as many impressions in Brazil, Argentina or Colombia as in the United States.

But a cheap impression only helps if the reader can buy: target where you already have a local price, currency and payment method.

What to do tomorrow

Campaigns only where you have local pricing and payment

Median Meta Ads CPM, in US dollars (July 2025 to July 2026)
United States
$23.42
United Kingdom
$17.38
Argentina
$3.62
Brazil
$3.46
Colombia
$3.20

Rules for advertising abroad

  • Only advertise in countries with a local price, currency and payment method live
  • The price in the ad is the price at checkout: in pesos if you charge in pesos
  • One campaign per group of countries with a similar CPM
  • Send the click to the book page, not to the store's home page

Sources: Superads, monthly medians across its client accounts, July 2025 to July 2026 (indicative: some months swing by up to five times).

Gene 13 · Portals

Show up where readers already compare

ebooksdepository.com brings bookstores and publishers' stores together and shows who sells each book, where and at what price. It is a gene of its own because it works on top of the others: it adds traffic with purchase intent and sends it straight to the store.

What to do tomorrow

Be on ebooksdepository.com

stores in the directory, from bookstores and publishers
300+
stores in the directory, from bookstores and publishers
countries with stores
20+
countries with stores
titles in the largest catalogue
744k
titles in the largest catalogue
bookstores in 9 countries sell the audiobook of One Hundred Years of Solitude
23
bookstores in 9 countries sell the audiobook of One Hundred Years of Solitude

Why a portal is a gene of its own

  • One book, all its stores: readers see who sells the title in their country and at what price.
  • Traffic with intent: whoever arrives is already looking for that book, and the click goes straight to the purchase.
  • Queryable by AI assistants: the portal exposes its catalogue to models, so it pushes GEO too.
  • No extra work: if your book is in the directory's stores, it already shows up.

Sources: ebooksdepository.com directory, consulted 28 September 2026.

Genes 14 and 15

How I get paid

This is where the sale is decided. Every drop-off point you recover is a sale that was already won.

Gene 14 · Checkout

The checkout is where the sale is won or lost

Seven in ten carts are abandoned before payment. That is the market average, and almost always for reasons a store can fix: costs that appear at the end, mandatory sign-ups, long forms, a missing payment method.

The recipe is well known: the total visible from the start, few fields, a single step, fast loading on mobile and the payment method the reader already uses. And for those who leave anyway, an email recovery flow.

What to do tomorrow

Visible total, few fields, one step and a recovery email

of carts are abandoned before payment (average of 50 studies)
70%
of carts are abandoned before payment (average of 50 studies)
of orders that already reached publica.la's payment gateway are not completed
31%
of orders that already reached publica.la's payment gateway are not completed
of people who receive an abandoned-cart email go on to buy
3.3%
of people who receive an abandoned-cart email go on to buy
in the top 10% of stores by flow performance
7.7%
in the top 10% of stores by flow performance
Why shoppers abandon a checkout (% of US shoppers)
Extra costs
40%
Did not trust the site with card details
19%
Had to create an account
18%
Long or complicated checkout
17%
Could not see the total up front
12%
Not enough payment methods
9%

These are two different moments: Baymard measures from the cart, publica.la from the point the reader has already started paying. Leaving retries aside, 18% of purchase attempts on publica.la are never completed. A flow of up to three emails, the first within a few hours, is the recommended practice to recover them.

Sources: Baymard Institute (September 2025); publica.la first-party data, book purchase orders at the payment gateway September 2025 to August 2026 (pending, cancelled or failed); Klaviyo, Abandoned Cart Benchmark Report (2024), 143,000 flows; Omnisend (2026).

Gene 15 · Payment methods

Two in three online purchases are no longer paid by card

Digital wallets and instant transfers dominate e-commerce in Latin America. If you only accept cards, you shut out most readers in some countries.

publica.la's data confirms it country by country: in Brazil almost two in three reader purchases are paid with Pix; in Argentina, with Mercado Pago. And the trend is rising: in August 2026 Pix already reached 74% in Brazil.

What to do tomorrow

Pix, Mercado Pago, PSE, Nequi, Yape and OXXO

of global e-commerce in 2025 was paid with digital wallets; by card, 31%
56%
of global e-commerce in 2025 was paid with digital wallets; by card, 31%
of Brazilian e-commerce was paid with Pix in 2025
42%
of Brazilian e-commerce was paid with Pix in 2025
of Latin American shoppers would not buy from a store without their local payment methods
≈ 70%
of Latin American shoppers would not buy from a store without their local payment methods
Reader purchases paid with local methods through publica.la's gateway (January to August 2026)
Brazil Pix
64.3%
Argentina Mercado Pago
63.6%
Peru Yape
49.0%
Chile Mercado Pago · August 2026, newly enabled
33.4%
Colombia PSE and Nequi · 55.6% in August
29.8%
Mexico Mercado Pago · April to August 2026, newly enabled
9.4%

Behind each method sits a huge base: Pix is used by 148 million people; Mercado Pago has 88 million monthly active users; Yape, 16.4 million; and Nequi, some 28 million.

Sources: Worldpay, Global Payments Report 2026; Worldpay via Poder360 (Pix); dLocal, LATAM Retail & Payments Report 2025; Central Bank of Brazil (2026); Mercado Libre (Q2 2026); Credicorp (Q1 2026). publica.la first-party data, approved payments with an identified method.

To take away

Fifteen genes, 10% in each

One action per gene. As in the pit lane: nobody changed one big thing; they changed many small ones and never stopped measuring.

Gene What to do tomorrow
1B2C Combine direct sales, bookstores and marketplaces
2B2B Offer licensing models and LTI, SAML, IP and EZproxy integration
3Direct sales Your own store at home; partner bookstores in every new country
4Bookstores and marketplaces Open your catalogue to third-party bookstores
5Subscriptions Test a subscription platform with your backlist
6Formats Publish your best-selling title as an audiobook
7Price per country Local prices in the 3 countries that buy from you most
8Local currencies Charge in the reader's currency, do not just display it
9Discounts A promotions calendar per country and bundles per format
10SEO One page per title, language and country
11GEO A catalogue readable without JavaScript, with llms.txt
12Ads Campaigns only where you have local pricing and payment
13Portals Be on ebooksdepository.com
14Checkout Visible total, few fields, one step and a recovery email
15Payment methods Pix, Mercado Pago, PSE, Nequi, Yape and OXXO

A figure for Spanish publishers

The typical Spanish publisher on publica.la sells almost half its books abroad

Among the 35 Spain-based publishers selling on publica.la, the median one sells 46% of its digital books to readers in other countries: 74 countries in a year, led by Mexico, the United States, Colombia, Argentina and Chile. Almost all of it comes from their own stores. Only 175 sales went through third-party bookstores, and 95% of those went abroad: the channel that crosses the most borders is the one they use least.

Local bookstore + local currency = a sale abroad

Which gene do we switch on first?

Let's review your international footprint together and find your next 10%. publica.la turns these genes into revenue; the 10% of decision in each one is your publishing house's.

Book a meeting with Nicolás
  • Your own store with prices per country and local currencies
  • Distribution to more than 30 bookstores in 12 countries
  • Checkout with Pix, Mercado Pago, PSE, Nequi and Yape
  • B2B sales with licences and LTI, SAML and IP integrations
  • A catalogue readable by search engines and AI models

Frequently asked questions

With the five that weigh the most: being in each country's bookstores, showing up on portals such as ebooksdepository.com, setting a price per country, charging in the reader's currency and accepting their local payment methods. Start with the three countries that already buy from you, and measure before and after every change.

For sales outside Spain, yes. The fixed price of Law 10/2007 governs sales to consumers in Spain, ebooks included. Abroad, each destination's law applies (Mexico, for example, requires a single registered price) and, within the European Union, the geo-blocking regulation allows different prices per country for ebooks. The prudent course is a single price per market and a lawyer's advice.

From approved purchases on the platform between September 2025 and August 2026, excluding sandboxes and demos. Prices per country count every store but only publishers with 30 or more sales, at the final price paid including taxes.

That the effects compound: 1.1 to the power of 15 is 4.18. It is a model for thinking about small, sustained improvements, not a sales forecast; every publisher starts from a different place and each gene weighs differently in each case.

It is not essential: each country's bookstores and marketplaces already sell in their currency and with their payment methods. Your own store gives you margin, brand and data at home; most publishers combine the two.

Methodology

First-party data. From data.publica.la: sales approved between 1 September 2025 and 31 August 2026, excluding sandboxes and demo stores. "Digital" means PDF, EPUB and audio books. The buyer's country is the sale's; the publisher's, that of the account holding the catalogue.

Prices. Medians of the final price paid (taxes included) in every store, only for publishers with 30 or more sales and excluding 100% coupons. Each purchase is converted to US dollars at its own day's exchange rate before the median is taken. Paraguay is left out of the table because a single store makes all its sales.

Checkout. Orders with at least one book created at publica.la's payment gateways, excluding subscriptions; "not completed" means pending, cancelled or failed. Payment methods: approved purchases with an identified method, January to August 2026.

The fifteen-gene sum (1.115 = 4.18) is an illustrative model of compounding, not a forecast. The relative weight of each gene is an indicative publica.la estimate.

Sources