Planeta Launches Imprint for Women, Buys Art Book Publisher

By Aída Bardales -- Críticas, 2/15/2007

Spain’s Grupo Planeta has launched a new imprint showcasing romance (historical and contemporary) and chick lit novels. ESENCIA got a jump start this month with Sex and the City best-selling author Candace Bushnell’s Mujeres en Manhattan (Lipstick Jungle), Nicole Jordan’s Seducción (The Seduction), and Laura Lee Guhrke’s Amor Prohibido (Forbidden Love). Literature by and for women is one of the fastest-growing market sectors in Spain. According to the Federación de Gremios de Editores de España (Federation of Spain’s Publishers’ Guilds or FGEE), the two genres make up four percent of Spain’s book market. ESENCIA will publish 17 titles this year under the leadership of General Manager Laura Falcó and Editorial Director Esther Escoriza. Miami-based Planeta Publishing will distribute titles in the United States, “kick[ing] things off with top-selling translations,” Planeta’s U.S. Sales Director Marla Norman told Críticas, and following with original Spanish-language works later on. “We think we’ve chosen the best of the genre” for the U.S. Hispanic market, she said.

Last fall, Planeta also acquired Lunwerg Editores, an artbook publisher in Barcelona. “We’re always looking for niches within the [U.S. Spanish-language book] market that might have potential,” said Norman. Lunwerg Editores publishes coffee table and art books with a focus on artists, museums, or photographers of Latin America and Spain, as well as translations of popular works including Yann Arthus-Bertrand’s Earth from Above. “The books are high-end production and, in many cases, include DVDs,” said Norman. Planeta Publishing, the publishing giant’s U.S. branch, will distribute Lunwerg’s titles in the United States this winter.