Kiser & Associates, the Spanish book industry consultants, recently completed a year-long study to determine the reading habits and media preferences of the growing U.S. Hispanic population. Until now, no nationwide study had ever focused specifically on Spanish-speaking households—the demographic of most interest to Spanish-language book publishers.

"We know there are millions of Spanish speakers in the United States, yet as an industry we know surprisingly little about them," says Karin N. Kiser, executive director of Kiser & Associates. The consulting group embarked on this research for basically two reasons. For one, it had received several requests from publishers and wholesalers wanting a profile of Hispanics who read in Spanish. Unfortunately, few of them were willing to sponsor such a huge research project, despite the obvious competitive advantage such a profile would offer. The researchers also wanted to discredit the notion that 40 million Hispanics means a market of 40 million Spanish readers. A surprising number of U.S. publishers have jumped into the Spanish-language book market within the past five to 10 years with little more to go on than census figures showing a growing Hispanic population. Kiser & Associates found this disturbing.

"Without specific information about end-consumer demographics, purchasing patterns, and media consumption, these newcomers will continue to publish in a vacuum, filling the pipeline with Spanish-language books and translations without fully understanding what their potential customers want to buy and where they want to buy," says Kiser. "So in an effort to discover the true size of the Spanish book market, we decided to fund the project ourselves."

The researchers began by separating Spanish-speaking households from the larger group of U.S. Hispanics. Forty million Hispanics, for example, represent approximately 11 million Hispanic households. Although estimates vary, roughly half of these households are assumed to be Spanish dominant, which means a market of 5 million Spanish-speaking households.

After designing and testing a written questionnaire, Kiser & Associates sent it to more than 50,000 randomly selected Spanish-speaking households across the United States. Households were identified as Spanish-speaking through a proprietary formula of demographic and geographic criteria derived from census data, survey data, public records, credit data, and mail-order buyer information. The researchers verified the formula through a market research telephone audit.

Survey recipients were asked to describe what they liked to read—books, newspapers, or magazines—how often they read, how many books they buy, how they learn about new books, where they buy them, and why. Participants were also asked whether they have difficulty finding books in Spanish, how often they visit the public library, and what subjects interest them most. "I think both publishers and Hispanic marketers will be surprised by the results," says Kiser.

The study found that 86% of households who responded purchased at least one book a year, while 29% bought 10 or more adult books in Spanish a year. Those who purchased the most Spanish-language books lived in Miami, Los Angeles, El Paso, TX, and Hialeah, FL (in that order). The numbers seem to confirm what has generally been considered the approximate size of the U.S. Spanish-language book market: more than $350 million dollars.

More than half of the survey respondents read a Spanish-language magazine at least once a week, and 87% watch Spanish-language television daily. Other notable findings: Only 5% of respondents listed a published review as a factor that determined their decision to purchase the last book they read. This signals that while reviews serve a vital role within the trade—they help booksellers decide which books and how many to stock—they're probably less useful in driving consumer sales.

The 110-page report—called "The Elusive Consumer: Who Are the Readers of Books in Spanish in the United States?"—includes the survey's results, an overview of the U.S. Spanish-language book market, a profile of top Spanish-language book buyers, a list of Spanish-language magazines most commonly read by Hispanics, as well as a breakdown of the zip codes with the highest concentration of Latinos in the United States. For more information about the research project or to purchase a copy of the report, contact Kiser & Associates.