Recipes for Best Sellers by María Antonieta Collins

Ivette Manners -- Críticas, 8/1/2003

With both of her self-help diet books on Cr�ticas's best seller list for more than six consecutive moths, Univision news anchor Mar�a Antonieta Collins shares rank with literary giant Gabriel Garc�a M�rquez. 'I never expected to have this much success with my books,' says Collins, author of Dietas y recetas de Mar�a Antonieta (Mar�a Antonieta's Diets and Recipes, Grijalbo, 2001) and �Qui�n dijo que no se puede? (Who Said that it was Impossible?, Grijalbo, 2002), as she tries to explain her fans' curiosity about how she lost her weight and kept it off. Collins brought her 29 years of news reporting experience to describe how she gained and shed those pounds. 'I didn't consider myself a book author, but I knew I was a good news reporter. So I thought of writing my books like writing a big investigative story.'

'There are three important points to why her books sell so well,' says Moises Mart�nez, international sales manager for Random House Mondadori, Grijalbo's parent company. 'Collins is very charismatic, she writes directly to her audience, and she has a great relationship with her public.' The sales numbers show readers love Collins's colloquial writing style. To date, Dietas y recetas has sold 55,000 copies (45,000 in the United States, 8,000 throughout Latin America, and 2,000 in Puerto Rico), and �Qui�n dijo? has moved 40,000 copies (30,000 in the United States, 6,000 in Latin America, and 4,000 in Puerto Rico) since it was published in November 2002. Marketing played a big part in the success of Collins's books. 'Her books were distributed well in the U.S.,' says Mart�nez. 'We know books need to be prominently placed for Latinos to buy them.'

Add the fact that diet and health topics are very popular subjects in this country to the equation, and Collins becomes one of publishing's star Latino authors. Collins was happy to share her experience with the public. 'The English-language diet books translated into Spanish were not for me,' she says. 'Genetically, we [Latinos] are carbohydrate people and advising me not to eat didn't work. I love to eat!' Latinos wanted to know what did work for her. Her book tours were a success. 'We were a hit in the barrios and in the major bookstores,' says Collins, recalling when Barnes & Noble stores in Houston and Irving, TX, had up to 1,000 people waiting in line at her book signings. 'My books helped show the publishing industry that Hispanics buy books.'

'We've done extremely well with Collins's books,' says Raquel Roque, owner of Downtown Book Center in Miami. Roque's bookstore has sold more than 20,000 copies of each of Collins's titles. Dietas y recetas's launch took place just one week after the tragedy of 9/11, yet 700 people showed up. 'People were looking for something positive, and her motivation and support drew her viewers.' Readers know Collins from TV and feel she is part of their families, says Roque. 'They trust her and want to share their own diet stories with her when they meet her at book events.'

Collins is currently working on her third book, Cuando el monstruo despierta (When the Monster Awakes), which Grijalbo will release in October. Leaving behind the diet theme, the new book talks to parents of adolescents about the everyday dangers their children face and how parents can cope. 'This is a serious book that touches on problems that are not simple to solve,' says Mart�nez. 'And it is written in the same voice as her first two books, so we expect her readers to be just as pleased.'