Murilo Viana (photo) is a lawyer with a Marketing degree in the city of Campos dos Goytacazes, in the Brazilian state of Rio de Janeiro. He works as an editor and marketing director at Letra Espírita publishing company. In this interview he speaks about his experience in the area. 

How did you become a Spiritist?

I was born into a Spiritist family and, therefore, had contact with Spiritism from as long as I remember. For that reason, all that Spiritism teaches is totally natural to me. 

How was the experience of joining a publishing company?

It’s a totally new world, which I discovered gradually along with my colleagues at Letra Espírita. I was already working at Letra Espírita, at a time when it was producing content to help disseminate Spiritism. We were then advised by the Spiritual Benefactors that we should start operating as a publishing house. I was put in charge of that project, to make it happen. We received guidance and advice from many people, while I studied and researched in my free time to try to understand how it all worked. At the beginning, all the editorial activities were outsourced. Because of my previous experience of almost two decades with a book club, I was the only one assigned to an editorial job in the company. But we have now made progress and I have a team working with me all the time. We are now carrying out all the editorial work at Letra Espírita, instead of relying on third parties. 

As a professional in publishing, what do you think is the biggest challenge that you need to deal with?

Publishing and distributing a book is a hugely complex task. From the original manuscript to the final published work that readers buy, we go through a very complex process, involving many stages, which the public can barely imagine. In our case, it involves a careful examination of the accuracy of the book from a Spiritist perspective, many revisions, adjustments, setting up the layout, printing and publishing, followed by the distribution process. It’s really amazing to follow the whole process and to understand how a block of stone, which is the manuscript, becomes a diamond, which is the published book. 

There’s been a contraction in the book industry. How do you assess what’s been going on, including a tendency for people to read less?

The coronavirus pandemic led, indeed, to big contraction in the book industry as a whole, not only in the Spiritist sector. Fewer books were published as book stores remained closed, and companies focused on e-book editions and on-demand requests. Such changes and adjustments happen regularly in this market and all publishing companies need to be open to review their strategies and marketing positions. It is crucial to adapt to the new situations as they appear. As for fewer people reading or reading less, I can say that that may have happened if you take all the market into account. But that wasn’t the case of the Spiritist book market. On the contrary, people were dealing with so much pain and suffering that they came looking for spirituality and for Spiritist books. At least that is my assessment, from what I have observed. 

Which authors and books would you like to draw attention to?

Letra Espírita has always focused on launching new authors. Authors such as Evelyn Freire de Carvalho, Gabrielle Biondi and Geane Oliveira Lanes took part in our New Authors project and they have since become household names in the book sector. Evelyn was one of the best-selling authors of 2020. Her book, Doutrina Espírita Sem Segredos (Spiritism Without Secrets), which opens the Knowing Spiritism series, was even translated into English in 2021. Grabrielle, with her Despindo a Morte (Unveiling Death), broke selling records during the pandemic and was considered by many as a new promise in the Spiritist novel sector. And the books written by Geanne – Metamorfose (Metamorphosis) and Para Sempre Irmãos (Brothers Forever) – were very well received. Even though the stories from these books are different, they belong to the same literary universe developed by the Spiritual author, Agnel. 

What has your wider experience in the market taught you about Spiritist literature?

Spiritist literature is a great source of enlightenment and wisdom. A Spiritist book is more than printed (or digital) material. It is consolation and guidance. We get regular and amazing feedback from the members of the Letra Espírita Book Club, who share with us stories of how, after receiving the books, they were able to overcome difficult situations. So we have decided to create a new motto for the 21st anniversary of Letra Espírita: Bringing light to the soul and transforming lives. 

What is your best memory from all these years working at the publishing company?

One of the most interesting experiences was when I had the inspiration to launch Letra Espírita publishing house. We launched the first campaign to attract and promote new authors and at the same time Evelyn Freire was looking for someone to publish her book. She had an intuition that the time had come for her to publish her first book. We, in the state of Rio de Janeiro, were looking for an author while, thousands of miles away, in the state of Amazonas, she was looking for a publishing house. So two strangers met with goals that complemented each other. Both sides were simultaneously guided by the Spiritual Benefactors. Letra Espírita was born with the publication of her book, Spiritism Without Secrets, and incredibly the whole process took only six months, from our first contact to the publication of the book. That was a record time for that to happen and as new issues and problems emerged, the solutions came up straight away, thanks to the inspiration provided by the Spiritual Benefactors.