Maristela Succi Bosso (photo) is the director of the Allan Kardec Publishing House. A mathematician with a career in Business Administration, she is also a member of the board of directors of the Allan Kardec Spiritist Centre, a well-respected institution in the Brazilian city of Campinas, in the state of São Paulo. She has spoken to us about her experience in the Spiritist Movement here time at the publishing house:

When and how did you become a Spiritist?

I became a Spiritist in 1986. I was at the university at the time and met someone there who was a Spiritist and told me about the courses at CEAK, the Allan Kardec Spiritist Centre. We began attending the courses every Sunday morning and I met two people who would leave a strong impression on me: Therezinha Oliveira, who coordinated the courses and the training department, and Daisy Jurgensen Machado, who was our Group’s president and was a great inspiration to me. The funny thing is that the person who introduced me to CEAK left after a year, while I’ve stayed there to this day, thanks to the great people I met and all that I heard and learned there. 

How did you begin your involvement with publishing?

Since concluding the theoretical courses at CEAK, I’ve always worked in teaching Spiritism to other people. I’ve been in charge of three classes for the past 20 years and I started teaching two other courses seven years ago. My involvement with the publishing house began in 2020. I was called to help as the Allan Kardec Publishing Company struggled with the impact of the coronavirus pandemic. Those were very difficult days for everyone and we had to make comprehensive changes, to cut costs and to find new ways of promoting our material. It’s been a huge challenge!

What’s the criteria to select the works that will be published?

We, at CEAK, approach everything that we do with a great deal of care and responsibility. Our mission with the Allan Kardec Publishing Company is to become a reference in the Brazilian market. We want to be recognised for our efforts to help disseminate Spiritism through the publication of high-quality Spiritist literature in well-designed books. The income generated from book sales is donated to the social programmes we keep at the Allan Kardec Spiritist Centre. We’ve been advised by the Spiritual Benefactors not to focus solely on commercial success but, instead, to prioritise the publication of books that follow the basic principles and values of Spiritism. That’s why we are so careful and thorough when it comes to making the annual list of titles that we will publish. 

Book launches are a special moment both for authors and the publishing house. What would you like to say about those occasions?

Yes, it’s a very special moment indeed, as we work together with the authors to transform their ideas, their creation and their hard work into books that will take the enlightening messages of Spiritism to other people. We dedicate a lot of energy to book launches. It is, after all, the climax of a long process to which so many people contribute. It involves so many stages, from the author’s agreement to donate their copyright, to the revision process, the creation of the book cover, printing and preparing the book’s promotion plan. Not to mention the actual book launch day, which also involves a great deal of work. But it’s all done with a lot of care. And it’s very gratifying when we finally see the published book available for everyone to read. 

What are the main challenges faced by a publishing company?

The publishing industry is going through a serious crisis in Brazil, where some of the big bookshops have been closing their doors. Our main challenge in this scenario is to persevere with the titles that remain faithful to the Spiritist Teachings and that are also capable of reaching a new, wider public. We don’t want to provide material only for those who are already in the Spiritist Movement. We want to reach a new public and spread to new groups of people the Spiritist ideas: that our souls are immortal, that Spirits communicate with us, that God is fair and good, that it’s important to do good deeds and that we must hope for a better future. I must also stress that good management makes a big difference in the survival and success of a publishing company. And I would like to mention what the Spirit, Gustavo Marcondes, one of the founders of our Spiritist Centre once wrote to us: “We, in the Spiritual World, have a long list of books ready to be sent to the world. But we will only be able to do that if we find a publishing house that is fully committed to the truth.” That message is in a book called “O Zelo da Tua Casa,” (Your House’s Zeal), which addresses a number of issues concerning our Spiritist Centre. 

What are your best memories from your time at the publishing house?

It’s to know that we have gone through the worst and that, despite the economic uncertainties that we’re all facing, little by little things are going back to normal. We have been resuming our normal activities and we’ve been able to fulfil our main goals.  

Here’s the Allan Kardec Publishing Company’s contact details:

Online bookshop: link-1

WhatsApp: + 55 (19) 99537-9953

Instagram: @editoraallankardec