Brazil’s Bestseller Lists Have A Strong American Accent: Popular Authors Are Making Powerful Connections With South American Audiences

SELF-HELP AUTHORS ECKHART TOLLE, RHONDA BYRNE, MICHAEL LOSIER AND STEVEN CARTER HAVE BECOME BRAZIL’S MOST IMPORTANT VOICES AS SUCCESSFUL BRAZILIAN WOMEN SHIFT THEIR FOCUS TO EMOTIONAL GROWTH AND SELF-EMPOWERMENT

(May 4, 2009) – American author Steven Carter got the news on a Monday morning, early in 2008. His self-help classic "What Smart Women Know" was the #2 book in all of Brazil, outselling iconic Brazilian authors and making history along the way. The book remained on Brazil’s top-ten bestseller lists for 110 weeks and Carter found himself spending much of 2008 flying between Los Angeles and Sao Paulo enjoying a very unexpected and protracted ’Hasselhoff Moment’.

In 2008 and 2009 other American authors followed Carter’s success – Rhonda Byrne, Michael Losier, and Eckhart Tolle, just to name a few. Brazil’s swelling middle class had discovered America’s self-help masters and women were demanding the same words of support that fueled and supported the Women’s Movement in America thirty years ago.

The Los Angeles Times recently published a feature story on Steven Carter’s Brazilian success story. For the complete article, please go to: http://articles.latimes.com/2008/jul/26/entertainment/et-self26

It is now the middle of 2009 and Steven Carter has already had two blockbusters in Brazil. Yet Carter’s most successful book – "Men Who Can’t Love" – has still not reached Brazil’s bookstores. All that is about to change in the next few weeks as GMT Sextante, Carter’s Brazilian publisher, releases this American classic. "Men Who Can’t Love" is the book that introduced and defined ’commitmentphobia’ to American women in the late 1980’s, going on to sell almost 4 million books worldwide. But how will Brazil respond? Carter is cautiously optimistic.

Marcos Pereira, co-founder of GMT Sextante, expresses a quiet confidence in Carter’s future. Pereira has been watching closely as Brazilian women move into the marketplace in a new and different way. "The role of women in the Brazilian culture and economy has evolved" he recently told the Los Angeles Times, "If you think of the U.S. twenty years ago, I think this is happening now in Brazil. Women are rethinking their roles, enjoying their independence, embracing their success. And these books are providing an immensely valuable support system".

When Carter’s first book went platinum in Brazil he was taken by surprise. When "Men Who Can’t Love" hits the bookshelves in May Carter plans to be fully prepared. He has been studying the culture and its nuances with an incredible intensity, and he is currently studying Portuguese, hoping to make future media tours through Brazil a bit more seamless. Still, neither the culture gap nor the language gap seems to throw him. "I was worried at first" admits Carter, "but I now see clearly that the messages in these books are not lost in translation. There is a sea change in the culture of Brazil and women are embracing change. Women are ready for emotional, psychological, and spiritual growth and my books clearly support that choice".

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Richard Friedel

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C.A.S. Publishing

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