Rosa Azevedo is the founder and coordinator of Snob, an independent bookshop in Lisbon, Portugal, and also runs Snob Publishing House, dedicated to publishing a selected portfolio of poetry, fiction and humanities books. Rosa Azevedo specializes in Portuguese and French literature, she took a master’s degree in publishing and delivers courses and workshops on literary topics. Rosa is cofounder and member of RELI, the Network of Independent Bookshops in Portugal, was part of the jury for Oceano Prize for Portuguese Language Literature for two years and of the jury for this year’s European Prize for Literature. Rosa fell in love with books as a child and her greatest joy is being able to work with and among books every single day.
You are a co-owner of a bookstore and a publishing house in Lisbon, you teach various courses and work in book editing. How has your interest or maybe passion? in literature developed?
Well, I’ve loved reading since I was a child. As I grew up, I realized I wanted to work with books. At first, I considered becoming a teacher, so I studied Portuguese and French literature. However, I eventually decided teaching wasn't for me. Then I worked at a large bookstore in Lisbon, where I discovered the world of publishing. After studying publishing, I spent many years working in various roles related to books. Now, I can say that I only work with books. I own a small bookstore and an independent publishing house. Additionally, I teach literature classes in my bookstore, offering them to the general public.
In 2014, together with some friends, you opened Snob, a bookstore in Guimarães, a city in the North of Portugal. How has this idea occurred and how long it took you to make it work and then profitable?
Actually, it wasn't my bookstore back then. It belonged to Duarte, my husband. He was the one who initially opened the bookstore in Guimarães. The idea was to create an independent bookstore in Portugal focused on general literature, philosophy, classics, and poetry — not technical books. I met him in 2014, but the bookstore in Guimarães wasn't successful. Together, we moved the bookstore to Lisbon and also started the publishing house. We've been in several locations in Lisbon, and now we have this place just for our bookshop.
How has this move changed the dynamics of the bookstore?
Guimarães is an amazing city, with many readers, but the challenge is that it's a smaller city. We need to have our own readers and community, which is very important. However, we also need more people. It's very hard to have an independent bookshop in Portugal. To survive, we participate in both international and national book fairs, which is the best way to earn the money we need. This money pays our bills, including salaries for those hired for the store and storeroom. So we also organize these book fairs to ensure our survival. It's very hard to survive today in Portugal with a small bookshop. Everyone faces the same problem, so we organize many events. This is how we survive. In Lisbon, it's easier because we have more people interested in attending events. We also have more public and more bookshops. Although Lisbon has become more competitive, it's manageable because we offer different books and events. People come to our events and then visit others, which is fine.
What kind of book fairs you attend?
We attend some international ones, especially those closer to us in Spain. And we participate in the national ones, city council-organized book fairs in some cities. Also, we organize many book fairs in our bookstore. For example, we host short-priced book fairs or specific themed events inside our place. We have a small patio where we can hold these events.
Although it is a generalist bookstore, Snob offers its clients a carefully curated list of poetry and hard-to-find books. What are these hard-to-find books?
We did not have this concept in Guimarães. It's something we brought to Lisbon. They are rare books, the ones that are sold out but people still want. We specialize in finding these books. The books you want but are no longer in print.
Are they secondhand books?
Almost all of them are secondhand. Even if secondhand has various ways of thinking. It can be an old book or a new book that is secondhand. Actually, in our bookshop, we have as many secondhand books as we do new ones. We are starting to have books that no one else has for sale. And then we begin looking for specific clients who appreciate those. Now, if you visit our bookshop, you’ll see they are all mixed together. The difference doesn't matter.
What does the bookstore’s public look like and how have you managed to attract it and turn it into a community?
The thing about our audience and having an independent bookstore in general is that it needs to be different. You need different books and different offers. So when we start offering a specific kind of book, we attract a specific kind of clients. People come in and say, 'That's a good choice. That's for me.' The important thing about an independent bookstore is also having books that you didn't know existed. It's new for you too, and that's important because otherwise, you'd struggle to compete with the big sellers and large online bookstores. We need to offer different things, and when we do, we find things we genuinely like and believe in, making them easier to sell. That's how we create our audience — people who like the same books we do. Then the audience starts talking about other books or bringing in other publishers. Because they met the bookshop and created this kind of community.
What kind of genres you sale?
We have poetry. We're starting to be strong in philosophy and sociology. This kind of themes. And of course, in general literature. Our public likes to read fiction and non-fiction in this social area.
You are a member of RELI – the Portuguese Independent Bookstore Network. How has this association been created, how many members does it have and which is its main activity?
Actually, we created it during the pandemic. We were struggling a lot as independent bookshops. Portugal didn't have an association specifically for independents; we only had a booksellers association that included both big and small shops, which made it hard to represent our needs. Every two years, we have to change the board members. I've been involved since the foundation and served for four years, but since last year, I'm just a regular member, not on the board anymore.
Initially, we had around 80 members, but now we have 60 because membership requires payment, and many bookshops are still struggling financially. However, it's important to have a voice. If you have a problem or want to contest something, or if you need representation with the government — whether local or central — you need an association. This was especially helpful during the pandemic. The association has been crucial for supporting independent bookstores and ensuring their voices are heard. It's also encouraging to see new bookshops joining, even though some leave due to financial difficulties. Having a representation is absolutely fundamental. During the pandemic, it proved very helpful.
80 members is a lot!
Yes, it's a lot, especially considering Portugal is a small country with not so many bookshops. It’s important that people understand that representation is crucial. It's not just about sharing information via email or exchanging experiences, which is indeed valuable. Additionally, we're always connected. For instance, if you go to Portugal, I can say that I know all the booksellers there because we're constantly in touch with each other. That's very nice. I think this kind of collaboration would never happen otherwise.
I am not sure this kind of collaboration would work in Romania.
Yes, I've been talking to some Romanians. I have friends in bookshops here who mentioned that it's not easy, of course, because people have different ideas and ways of working. However, in general, I believe it's an amazing idea. Now, you need to let it work.
You also coordinate Snob Publishing House, an independent publishing house focusing on less known authors of short stories, novels, poetry, and essays. Which are the biggest challenging in having an independent publishing house on a market where there are many national and international editorial groups? Which are the main assets of a smaller publishing house?
The biggest challenge, I think, applies to everyone, but it's worse for small publishers. In publishing, you need to pay for everything before the book comes out. Then, you must wait and have confidence that it will succeed, which is very hard because sometimes it doesn't work. You don't have much money, especially when you're just two people running a bookshop and a publishing house. You need to be very confident that the book will sell.
We publish only the things we love because our business is very small. It's not logical to publish something just because it sells. We do the books as we want, as we manage, and as we have the money to do it. Publishing is expensive, especially since all our books are translations with copyrights. You need to pay for the copyrights and the translation. I often wonder why we don't publish Portuguese books from the last century [which are in the public domain, out of rights, e.n.] — it would be easier, but we don't do that. So, I think the main problem is money. We love to publish books that our community enjoys, and we sell them all over the country.
The advantage is that you're not dealing with a machine; you can do what you like. You create the book you want, both physically and conceptually, choosing every detail. It's amazing to see that the books we consider important actually become important.
Around the bookstore and the publishing house you also have a distribution company, through which you distribute your and other small publishers’ books. How do you manage to include these books in the big bookstore chains and to negotiate advantageous conditions?
We work with both independent bookshops and large bookstores. It can be quite frustrating. The market is saturated with publications, and people aren't always attentive. Small bookshops that believe in our work tend to buy our books, which is great. However, the big bookstores are a different story. We primarily deal with two major networks. I assume Romania doesn't have similar networks. Our chains belong to larger corporations, who do not do just books. But we have two significant ones. These two big chains vary in their approach.
Which are they?
One is FNAC. FNAC sells everything, but the other one is Almedina. Almedina was originally an independent bookshop, now it's a large chain. It's different from FNAC, even though it sometimes depends on the staff. My husband and I both worked at FNAC, so we know how they operate. It all depends on the people working there. Normally, Almedina takes all of our books, whether in smaller or larger quantities.
What is the discount that the big chains request?
So that's the thing. I give 40% to my distributor, but they want more. It was really irritating because in the beginning, we were always saying: I will give you 40%, and they ask for 50 or 60%. I said no, I'm sorry, I'm going to give the same that I give to all the small bookshops because I'm a small bookshop, and so they agreed. But I know they ask more from other publishers, and they accept because they make these discounts to the clients. They cannot make a 30% discount to the client if the publisher gives them only 40%. And sometimes they do the discounts on my books, but it's on their expenses.
After you obtained a degree in Portuguese and French Literature, you took a master's degree in Text Editing. Is there a specialized Faculty or Department on publishing in Portugal? Are the young students interested in studying this?
Yes, we have two public faculties who have these master programs, and a private one. It's not many, and it's not amazing because we learn lots of things, but it's not very practical. Actually, to learn how to publish a book, we have to work on it. But it's very important that they have a degree. I talk with a lot of students because they ask us for an interview or to make an internship or something like that. I think all the kids that are there have the same feeling I had back then: they want to work with books. Some of them become translators because it's a very challenging market to enter. Of course, you can create your own publishing business, but you face all the problems associated with it. However, even if we publish a lot, there aren't many people working in the publishing houses. Each person in a large publishing company is responsible for numerous books.
For two years, you were part of the jury of the Oceano Prize for Portuguese Language Literature, established in Brazil in 2003. How have these experiences been for you and which is the impact of this award on the winners’ international career?
I enjoyed being part of the jury for he Oceano Prize. It's one of the most significant literary prizes in Portugal. In Portugal and Brazil, it's important, of course, for the authors, but especially for the Portuguese-language market: for example, for a Portuguese author, can be published in Brazil and it sells more, of course. Normally, in Oceano, we have many Portuguese entries, but far more Brazilian ones. This is because Brazil is much larger. And they have something I admire in Brazil: everyone writes amazing and unusual things.
You have also been Portugal’s representative in the jury for this year’s European Prize for Literature. How is the process of selecting the winner there, which are the most important guidelines in evaluating the nominees?
It's amazing. It was my first year, and I'm completely in love with the idea of this prize because they don't give you anything predefined. The jury decides the guidelines. We decided that our guidelines would focus on literature. It's important to note that because it takes into consideration the entire Europe, you have countries that are very different. Some are struggling with political problems, while others are not. So we needed to decide, and it was amazing. We decided that it was all about literature. We talked about it, and when we gave the prize, we stuck to it. It was amazing because it was like three days just talking about literature.
Everyone says that prizes are corrupted and people aren't looking at literature, but in this case, we were talking about literature. I was talking with people from around Europe who were different from me — different ages, different backgrounds — but we were all very connected. It was all about literature. You didn't care who or what the country was. Of course, it's not easy. We gave the prize to an Italian author, but we also gave special mentions to Ireland, and Belgium. We weren't comfortable with that because all the Eastern part was left out, and we were struggling with that. But then we stuck to what we had decided: we were talking about literature. These are the three best books literature-wise.
But of course, it was hard because we're human. It took a lot of thought and discussion about books and politics, but it was very good and we were all very satisfied with the result.
Now that you are in Romania, at the other side of Europe, how would you describe the Portuguese book industry having this far-away perspective?
It’s a long story. Studies indicate that we read more, but I’m not sure if that’s true. We buy many books, but don’t necessarily read them. We are a small country, yet there are so many books published that success becomes nearly impossible. All publishing houses, big or small, independent or not, face difficulties because of the big volume of books. This kind of book-selling works similarly in other European countries: the first three months are crucial in the big bookshops. Publishers prefer long-term sales, but it’s challenging when books are returned after three months. But in a small bookstore, after three months, the book might as well not exist. We need to focus less on publishing vast quantities and more on respecting, reading, and appreciating books.
Despite these challenges, we are a country of poets and readers. Our job, especially as bookshops rather than publishers, is to connect directly with the public and encourage reading. We want people to read. It’s a problem, but it’s also an opportunity. We should publish less and focus on quality and appreciation. Our role as bookshops is crucial in connecting with the public. We aim to inspire people to read.
[The meeting with Rosa Azevedo took place at Bookfest Book Fair in Bucharest, on the occasion of Portugal's participation as guest of honor. The interview was recorded in English and transcribed.]
[Photos: Facebook page Portugalia, invitat de onoare la Bookfest 2025.]
