Who’s Who in U.S. Spanish-language Publishing—The Christian and Spirituality Market, Part II

By Raya Kuzyk -- Críticas, 7/15/2007

This past May, Críticas looked at how U.S. publishers responded to the call for a greater number and variation of Spanish-language religious and spiritual books. Beyond the publishers, however, the Spanish-speaking community relies mainly on the libraries, online retailers, and small bookstores outside the mainstream that most ably service their particular needs. For the second of this two-part feature on Christian publishing, we turn to libraries and retailing for a more nuanced look at the Spanish-language Christian books market, one that better reflects the breadth of Hispanic American interests.

Libraries

Considering the mosaic of religious backgrounds Latin Americans bring with them when they emigrate, how are collection development librarians managing to meet their needs and demands? In a word, “broadly,” says Elissa Miller, former adult collection development librarian, Multicultural Services, at Arlington County Public Library, VA (she is now coordinator, New Branch Services, DCPL). Miller says she selected as indiscriminately as possible when purchasing Spanish-language religious and spiritual books for Arlington, noting that “New Age, spirituality, and religious traditions other than those of the United States” have always been popular there.

Spanish-language titles represent less than one percent of the Public Library of Cincinnati and Hamilton County’s (OH) holdings; approximately five percent of these fall into the category of religious or spiritual nonfiction, including translations of Stormie Omartian’s The Power of a Praying Wife and Bruce Wilkinson’s The Prayer of Jabez: Breaking Through to the Blessed Life, as well as translations of works by Charismatic Christian Joyce Meyer and medium John Edward. “We don’t have any Joel Osteen in Spanish at this point,” says collection development librarian Susanne Wells, but given the enormous popularity of the best-selling author and pastor’s books, she concedes that “perhaps we should.”

Radamés Suárez, Spanish-language collections/cultural arts librarian, Queens Library, often fields requests for books along the lines of Norman Vincent Peale’s El poder del pensamiento tenaz (Grijablo, 2003; The Power of Positive Thinking), and Mike Eitner, collection services manager, Denver Public Library, reports that anything by Osteen and fellow pastor/best-selling author Rick Warren is “extremely popular and well used.” Generally, the Denver PLs most heavily used Spanish-language spiritual titles are “those that present methods to improve your life based on the tenets of Christianity,” says Eitner. Materials on the spirituality of ancient cultures, such as the Toltec in Don Miguel Ruiz’s books, trail closely behind, along with books related to guardian angels.

You’d think that in a Latino-rich state like Texas, Spanish-language collections would be robust across the board, but our random survey of two libraries in the South Texas Library System shows that, as with so many other libraries, fiscal considerations impede the natural flow of supply and demand. The religious and spiritual books the Laguna Vista Public Library holds in its Spanish-language adult collection consist mostly of assorted bibles, since the library depends heavily on donated books. “We’re working on building up our Spanish collection,” says librarian Elizabeth Baldwin, “but money is a problem.” At the Ethel Whipple Memorial Library in Los Fresnos, according to one librarian, the Spanish-language religious collection is similarly paltry, though the staff does its best to accommodate patrons’ interests, which include immigration and visa issues, as well as books on health and spirituality.

The Lakewood Neighborhood Library, one of 36 branches in the Houston Public Library, has a significant collection, comparatively: 2.4 percent of its 1,753 Spanish-language titles are spiritual or religious in nature (a similar percentage—2.2—applies systemwide). And the top circulating titles of this type? A motley bunch: J.J. Benítez’s El misterio de la Virgen Guadalupe (Editorial Planeta, 1994; “The Mystery of the Virgin Gudalupe”); Giovanni Cereti’s Amor, amistad, matrimonio (Herder, 1989; “Love, Friendship, Marriage”); and Philip S. Berg’s Una entrada al árbol de la vida (Research Ctr. of Kabbalah, 1977; Astrology, The Star Connection), a primer on the science of Judaic astrology.

Bookstores, e-tailers, and big-box retailers

At Borders and Barnes & Noble, Spanish translations of English-language best sellers like Osteen’s Su mejor vida ahora (Casa Creación, 2005; Your Best Life Now) and Warren’s Una vida con propósito (Zondervan, 2003; The Purpose-Driven Life) command the front lines. But on a smaller scale, other titles draw. Juan Pablo Debesis, who manages the country’s oldest Spanish-language bookstore, Librería Lectorum in Manhattan, confirms the interest in angels reported at the Denver PL, particularly within the last five or six years. “It doesn’t matter what,” he says. “If it has an angel on it, it will sell.”

Lectorum, which carries upward of 10,000 books, divides its religious inventory into three parts: spiritual books (Toltec, Buddhism, Christianity, mysticism); traditional religious texts (the Bible, the Koran); and self-help (where Warren reigns). Aside from the Bible, the store’s most popular titles, according to Debesis, include Benítez’s “Caballo de Troya” (“Trojan Horse”) series, which has been selling strong through all its installments. “As soon as we sell them, people are asking for more,” he says. Caballo de Troya 8: Jordán was just released in Spain, and Debesis is already fielding requests for the ninth installment.

Meanwhile, bilingual online retailer MyLibros.com’s most profitable books under its “religion and bibles” rubric include C. Torres Pastorino’s Minutos de sabiduría (Editorial Diana, 2005; Minutes of Wisdom), Beth Moore’s Orando la palabra de Dios (Editorial Unilit, 2001; Praying God’s Word), and Bart D. Ehrman and Herbert Krosney’s El Evangelio perdido (National Geographic, 2006; The Lost Gospel).

For a more striated glimpse into Americans’ religious interests on the whole, however, let’s consider the sales figures of Christian bookstores in particular. Industry statistics gathered by the Christian Booksellers Association (CBA) and the Evangelical Christian Publishers Association (ECPA) on the average percentages of book category sales by revenue for the typical Christian retail bookstore show that titles under the category “Christian living”—what we here refer to as spiritual living—accounted for 35.7 percent of sales in 2005; inspirational, 15.6 percent. Christian fiction (see below) made up 14.9 percent of sales, biblical studies ranked at 10.4, and church and ministry rated 5.2.

There are just a handful of Spanish-language Christian bookstores in the United States—mainly in New York, Florida, Miami, California, and Texas. One, the Fort Meyer’s-based Librería Cristiana Hosanna, aptly demonstrates the growing interest in Christian Spanish-language books in the last decade. On its founding ten years ago, it occupied 700-square-feet. A mere year later, it had outgrown that location and moved to a new space measuring 1000-square-feet. The following year it again relocated, to a 2700-square-foot space. By 2005, it had earned prime real estate alongside its enormously successful English-language counterpart, Christ Centered Book & Music.

But Spanish-language bookstores (and libraries) in Latino-populated areas are only some of venues Christian and spiritual books’ publishers aim to reach. At big-box retailers like Wal-Mart and Target, Latin Americans flock to spiritual living fare—mostly as a result of simultaneous marketing of English and Spanish-language editions of the same book. But generally, Latinos prefer to buy from specialized retail stores—e.g., bodegas, drugstores, and video stores serving Spanish-speaking communities. These venues can only really be tapped via a personal visit or through regional distributors with a novelty-shop focus, making U.S. distribution of Spanish-language materials rough going. Add religion and the process is further divided among the many pockets of the Hispanic church community—pockets U.S. retailers increasingly try to breach for their word-of-mouth marketing.

And so the rules of the book-selling game have changed, with retailers now setting up shop in the place they’re most likely to find readers interested in spiritual books: the church. Church retailers have set roots with such frequency in the last several years that in 2005, Strang Communications debuted a publication catering exclusively to them. The Church Bookstore, published eight times per year as a supplement to Christian Retailing, distributes to more than 3400 retailers selling Christian products.

Houston’s Lakewood Church—the largest church in the United States—most clearly illustrates these venues’ capacity for growth. Lakewood Church and its bookstore appendage were a stone’s throw away from the Lakewood Neighborhood Library before an explosion in attendance prompted a move in 2005 to a 16,000-seat sports arena just a few miles southwest of downtown Houston. Now 7000-square-feet larger than before, the bookstore earns revenues in the multimillion dollar range. Manager Ted Terry estimates that the bookstore conducts more than 70 percent of its transactions over the weekend, when church attendance can reach 45,000 (the store sits opposite the sanctuary’s main entrance so that congregants can file straight in after service). Reflecting the ethnic population of Houston, whose Hispanic residents account for one third of the state’s residents, 900 of the store’s 2000 titles are in Spanish, with additional space devoted to Spanish-language music, Bibles, and children's books.

Houston has other church bookstores catering to Latinos—e.g., The First Baptist Church’s Garden Bookstore—but being of a Pentecostal tilt, Lakewood carries titles on the Holy Spirit, prophecy, and other Charismatic topics. Though books by and merchandise relating to Lakewood founding pastor Osteen are the real crowd pullers, the store’s Spanish titles appeal to many of the 6000 to 7000 congregants who attend fellow Lakewood pastor Marcos Witt’s weekly Spanish-language services. In 2005, the store’s best-selling Spanish title was Witt’s Enciende una luz (Casa Creación, 2000; Turn on a Light); today, it is his Dile adiós a tus temores (Atria, 2007; How To Overcome Fear).

The phenomenon of the megachurch is spreading, and where there are megachurches, there will inevitably—by definition, even—be megachurch bookstores. Two states dominate. In California, there are 178 (among them, Warren’s Saddleback Church in Lake Forest); in Texas, there are 157. So it only follows that Hispanics make up a significant part of their congregations. In one 2005 study, 31 percent of megachurches claimed their congregations had a minority presence upward of 20 percent.

Looking ahead

As Hispanics’ place in the United States is affirmed through population influxes and social contributions of all kinds, and as Hispanics further secure their religious hold in this country, American libraries and retailers will feel more comfortable and confident maneuvering through the Spanish-language Christian marketplace. Until then, U.S. libraries will keep doing their best to address their unique populations’ interests while staying on budget. With Lakewood Church Bookstore manager Terry projecting sales this year in the $3.1 million range, however, the country’s brick-and-mortar Christian bookstores might be faced with an even bigger challenge: out-servicing the book-selling facility of the Church.