By Edward Nawotka

This week’s issue of PublishNews Brazil, a collaboration between Publishing Perspectives and Publish News, brings you all the latest news from the booming Brazilian book market, including:

Brazilian Publishers Embrace Paperbacks in Bid for Readers: Cosac Naify is among the Brazilian publishers launching paperback lines and is part of a new trend of publishers embracing less expensive editions.

Brazilian University Presses Flirt With Free, Open Access Books: SciELO Books is a pilot project for University Presses to offer free books around Brazil, and has put 250 titles online, with a goal of 500 by the end of the year.

By 2022, Unesp Plans to Offer 25% of Catalog for Free: Editora Unesp currently offers 148 free e-books, or less than 10% of its catalog of 1,600 titles; by 2022 it plans to have 25% available for free.

And don’t forget to catch up on these recent stories:

May 2012 Bestsellers and the Race to the Top: On the Brazilian bestseller lists for May 2012, books by Brazilian authors are climbing the list and account for five of the top ten books, and 32% of the top 50 books.

Portugal Telecom Lit Prize Reveals Long List: Portugal Telecom sponsors Brazil’s most important prizes for books written in Portuguese. The long list was recently announced, with the short list announcement to follow in September.

GfK to Launch Book Sales Reporting in Brazil Before Nielsen: Brazilian research company GfK plans to collect book sales data from retailers in Brazil, and will launch before Nielsen BookScan. PublishNews is the only other service that collects book sales data directly from retailers.

Don’t already subscribe to the free weekly email? Sign up here.