the books which were written by Divaldo Franco through psychography. At the present interview, he talks about his experience involved in the dissemination of Spiritism through books and thrown an event called Megafeirão do Livro de Santo André.  
 

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O Consolador: The recent event called 1st Megafeirão de Araras, which tool place in the city of Araras in November 2009 is a copy of the annual event which already happens in the city of Santo André. How the idea of hosting these massive book fairs did take place? 

The events which host these massive book fairs called Megafeirão are going on for 15 years in the city of Santo André. In 2010 we will be hosting the 16th book fair. This idea came from Miguel de Jesus Sardano who is the President and Founder of the centre Centro Espírita Bezerra de Menezes. He decided to host these book fairs in order to pay homage to Chico Xavier, our most revered Medium, in April 1995. Since these events have been getting bigger and bigger, we started to call them Megafeirão do Livro (translation: Massive Book Fair).  

O Consolador: Can you please tell us more about the structure and the logistics of the event? 

It is an event which involves more than 300 people, if we count all the employees, volunteers and publishing houses representatives. There are more than 120 publishing houses, 150.000 different copies which are referring to more than 6.000 titles.  

O Consolador: What are the biggest challenges faced in Santo André and now in Araras? 

The logistics side is quite challenging, as well as getting a good percentage of discount for each item. In the city of Santo André our biggest challenge was space. We hosted it at an Institution called Amélia Rodrigues which is quite big, but not enough to attend the demand we had. In the city of Araras this was not a challenge for us, as there was much more space for the event. 

O Consolador: How has the receptivity been within the spiritist movement? 

We have received many complements from the movement due to the organization, discounts given and the amount of titles available. 

O Consolador: Have you done any research with the events you hosted? 

Most of the people who take part on these events buy the books for themselves or to give them as presents.  

O Consolador: How many publishing companies have taken part on these events?  

In 2009 100 publishing companies took part on this event.  

O Consolador: How many books are being sold and showed at these events? 

In 2009 we sold 39.000 books in the city of Santo André; over 6.000 titles were showed in this event. In the city of Araras we sold around 7.000 books; exposing over 4.000 titles.  

O Consolador: Has the experience involving lectures been positive within the events? 

We never had lectures before. We did it at the first time in the city of Araras, which was really successful.

O Consolador: Do you believe this event has helped to disseminate new publications? 

I believe this has helped not just to disseminate new publications, but also to disseminate the spiritist doctrine. 

O Consolador: Do you plan to expand these events to other regions?

We are studying the possibility to host this event at other regions, since we have received several invites from different cities.  

O Consolador: Can you please give us your final words? 

The mission of our Institution – Spiritist Centre Dr. Bezerra de Menezes – is to disseminate as best as we can the spiritist doctrine. That’s the reason why we organise the event called Megafeirão, which is not for profit. We offer spiritist, spiritualist and self-help books at reasonable prices so that more and more people have access to the spiritist literature.