Recovering literary originals, translating them to the Portuguese language, and releasing them to Brazilian readers. This is the work of Editora Wish, a Brazilian publisher that, since 2013, prints editions of rare books with unique design and illustrations.
Fairy tales, thrillers, fiction, and even biographies are part of the online store’s portfolio. Marina Avila, the founder of Editora Wish, shares a bit of the company’s story.
The first chapters of Wish
Wish was born from coursework in a publishing degree program. Excited with the results from the project, Marina decided to launch a publishing company, initially with 300 copies, and observe the aftereffects. “The copies were sold in the course of one year. We sold a few each day, which was enough to make me happy”, says Marina.
The second volume, financed through crowdfunding, brought new titles to the publisher. But it was with the challenging project to launch a true literary treasure that the company found its purpose. Around 2016, Wish introduced the book that originated a theatre and cinema classic. Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street, was published after another crowdfunding campaign.
“It was as of that moment that we decided what we really wanted to do: recover antique and rare literary works. Through the past seven years, Wish has grown in a very sustainable way with this purpose”, says Marina.
Today, the team formed exclusively by women selects unique literary works and relaunches them in carefully diagrammed and illustrated editions, worthy of a prestigious space on the shelves of collectors and literature enthusiasts.
The digital universe of printed books
Wish started selling online using a free ecommerce platform. Later, the company migrated to Shopify and, today uses PagBrasil’s Shopify app to process payments.
“What I really appreciate and have never experienced in another payment platform is customer support. If I have any trouble, I am able to reach out to someone. With other companies, you generally send out an email to Customer Service and never receive an answer, and that problem persists without resolution”, explains Marina.
In addition to the customer support, Marina also sees important value in Boleto Flash. “Boleto Flash facilitates our operations, as we can reserve the book for the customer at the same time”, she explains.
The subscription world
In April 2020, Wish anticipated the launch of a project planned only for the second semester: Sociedade das Relíquias Literárias, the publisher’s recurring subscription club.
With subscriptions starting at BRL 8, subscribers receive tales in a digital format every month. The initiative was launched earlier than planned to meet the demand driven by the Covid-19 pandemic – which was also responsible for the increase in ecommerce sales volume. “Thanks to the digital format and a more accessible price than of a physical book, readers, even during quarantine, will be able to access these editions”, comments Marina.
In addition to facilitating access to rare tales, subscribers contribute to collective financing, enabling Wish to publish more hidden treasures of the literature world.
