Who's Who in U.S. Spanish-Language Publishing—The International Players

By Natalia Rodríguez-Martín -- Críticas, 10/15/2006

For a long time international publishing houses were the sole contributors to the Spanish-language book market in the United States. Spanish and Latin American companies have managed to stay in the market—some for over 30 years—by establishing U.S. offices or dealing directly with experienced distributors. The “Latin boom” of recent years motivated a new batch of publishers to participate in the U.S. Spanish-language book market, including many U.S. publishers, leaving the general perception that the international houses had fallen back. They do face more competition in this market, but these international companies have extensive backlists that often include high-profile Hispanic authors, and title by title, they still contribute the bulk of the books U.S. readers buy or borrow.

Bonded by their expectations and their efforts to reach every Spanish-reader in the country, this brotherhood of professionals working for foreign publishers continues to keep up with the ever-growing Spanish-speaking U.S. market. In this second installment of the Who’s Who in U.S. Spanish-Language Publishing series, Críticas talks to some of the people who, from the international houses, contribute every day to the Spanish-language book market in the United States.

Silvia Matute

An avid reader since childhood, Matute admits she had not really considered going into publishing until she got her first job at Planeta. “I just wanted to get into marketing,” she says. After three years, she was hired by Santillana, where she now heads the General Books Division. Matute manages both the adult and children's literature lines, making editorial, sales, and marketing decisions for the U.S. market, a job that she loves. “I get to be among books, I get to promote and sell what I really like best, something that I believe in...and I meet authors that I like.”

Santillana has been in the United States for the last 35 years, with a Miami-based office that selects imports and handles editorial work. In sales, the U.S. market currently comes in just behind Spain, Mexico, and Argentina. “We sell about 270 frontlist titles every year. About 60 are published here and the rest are imported,” says Matute. Santillana’s U.S. titles include adult books by Hispanic authors, and translations of self-help, health, sexuality, and parenting titles. “The editors in our Miami offices work with a team of translators, proofreaders, and editors located throughout Latin American,” says Matute. “This way we make sure that the language used has gone through the strictest of filters and that it is free of regionalisms and easily understood.”

On the downside: “This is a 24/7 job. You work all day and when you get home you keep reading. You never stop.” The competition: “Some [U.S.] houses are taking it seriously, publishing a variety of authors and titles. But most publishers are looking for an easy sale. They only translate best sellers, they do not promote the Spanish language version, and they are not careful with the translations. They are not really building a list in Spanish, they are just moving the title to the ‘Spanish language format.’” State of the market: “The demand is growing but the market is still very much underserved. A lot has improved in the last few years. Though more bookstores with larger Spanish-language sections exist, there are still many Spanish-speakers with no bookstore or library nearby offering the wide variety of Spanish-language titles they want.” The future: “I see more and more Hispanics trying to preserve their language and proud of their origins. That should ensure a healthy and growing market for many years to come.” Hot pick for fall: Julia Alvarez’s Para salvar el mundo (Saving the World, Algonquin, 2006).

Ignacio de Echevarría

With 15 years of experience under his belt, Echevarría heads the U.S. office of Fondo de Cultura Económica (FCE), founded 72 years ago by the Mexican government. He left his native Spain to pursue an MBA the U.S. Once here, Echevarría first worked for Santillana Publishing and Pearson Education before joining FCE almost three years ago. Echevarría, who defines himself as “100% sales-oriented,” enjoys dealing with clients, colleagues, “and even competitors” and gathering with the professionals of the Spanish-language industry in trade fairs and PR events. As General Manager of FCE’s San Diego office—which was established 16 years ago—he is in charge of deciding which books will be imported to the United States. “We have to make a very thorough selection in order to reach readers now that there is such dispersion of Hispanics all over the United States,” says Echevarría. “The market is out there but it’s difficult to take your product to the potential readers in quantities that make the effort worthwhile.”

In 2005, FCE reached an exclusive agreement with Lectorum for the U.S. distribution of its children and young adults books; the distribution of the adult titles is still managed by the San Diego office, which focuses heavily on public and academic libraries. According to Echevarría, U.S. sales—which make up only ten percent of company sales—are steadily increasing.

The future: “I believe the potential for the international publishers is very good as long as we realize that we cannot impose our criteria. We need to adapt to the needs of this particular market.” He explains that “This market demands works that reflect the reality of the U.S. Hispanic population. Third or fourth generation Hispanics raised in the Bronx may not relate to a book that illustrates life in Oaxaca.” Hot pick for fall: Elena Poniatowska’s Obras reunidas II (“Complete Works II”). [Read the review for Vol I.—Ed.]

Marla Norman

A pioneer in the Spanish-language industry, Norman started her career in publishing with McGraw Hill more than 20 years ago, working with children’s literature for one of the first bilingual reading programs in California. Eventually, she went to work for Santillana, where she made the transition from textbooks to trade publishing. Eight years ago, Norman moved to Planeta, where she has been Director of Sales for Planeta Publishing.

With editorial offices extending across Latin America, Spain’s Grupo Planeta publishes 150 to 200 new titles monthly, and the U.S. office takes full advantage of the rich resources by offering about 30 of those titles in the United States every month. Last year, Planeta Publishing launched its own English-language line with the release of six new titles. “Six or seven years ago, if we sold a thousand copies of a book, we were jumping up and down. That was exciting! Now I would consider that okay for a new author, but for big titles, we are expecting [to sell] 30,000,” says Norman. Her career in the book industry has come full circle: Norman has just finished writing her first novel (in English) and has started looking for a publisher herself.

The perk of the job: “I feel particularly proud of having contributed to [the market by] introducing talented new and up-and-coming authors, and see them find an audience in the United States, such as Carlos Ruiz Zafón. [Though] now he is huge and well-established, just three years ago he was unknown.” What works: “Our strength is fiction because we have such a great group of authors in Planeta,” says Norman.“Current best-sellers are Milagro en los Andes (Miracle in the Andes) by Nando Parrado and La sombra de Poe (The Poe Shadow) by Matthew Pearl.” The market: “The numbers have grown and that makes the market interesting for the U.S. publishers, but although they have the biggest share we are still selling more books every year. Their involvement hasn’t hurt us at all. They are reaching segments of the market that we couldn’t. They are making people more aware, of the Spanish-language sections in the chain bookstores. In some ways, they are opening up doors….” Hot pick for fall: Paco Ignacio Taibo II’s Pancho Villa and Antonio Muñoz Molina’s El viento de la luna (The wind of the moon).

Ulises Roldan

With a background in marketing and advertising, Roldán has been working for Grupo Editorial Norma—the publishing division of the Colombian multinational Carvajal—since 1995, when the San Juan office was established. Roldán manages the sales of a backlist of about 2000 titles—imported from Colombia, Mexico, and Spain—to big distributors in the United States. Roldán explains that for international houses, one major “disadvantage is that the U.S. publishers are already familiar with the know-how of the distribution channels for all segments of the book market, not only Spanish-language.” However, he believes that “doesn’t mean [domestic publishers] are finding it easy to understand the Spanish-speaking market. Their strength is the distribution but they may not be so successful in coming up with the product that the readers are demanding”

The ups: “I love what I do and I live it with passion. It is really fulfilling to see one of your books on display in a bookstore. I feel I am giving back a little of their own culture to every one of our readers.” The future: “[I suspect] Hispanics are still concerned about publicly reading in Spanish because they fear being accused of not having assimilated into the American culture. This is slowly changing, but the day it is okay to buy a book in Spanish, the market may grow significantly.” On his wish list: “To publish U.S. Latino authors and introduce them to the international market, the opposite to what is the common practice now,” says Roldán. “I would also love to create an association of Spanish-language publishers to help establish better distribution. That would be a beautiful project.” Hot pick for fall: Brian Latell’s Después de Fidel (“After Fidel”).

Margarita Guerrero

From her office in Barcelona, Guerrero handles the U.S. exports of the Spanish division of Random House Mondadori (RHM), the publishing powerhouse resulting from the joint venture between Random House (Bertelsmann AG) and Italian publisher Mondadori. A college graduate in French and English Studies, Guerero worked in PR and advertising until she was hired by Galaxia Gutenberg and got involved in the publishing world. “Because of my training in languages,” says Guerrero, “I love books, reading them, selling them, dealing with them [in every way].”

Since 2001, the year when the company’s exports to the United States began, RHM has come to incorporate a myriad of publishing houses: Areté, Debate, Debolsillo, Galaxia Gutenberg, Grijalbo, Mondadori, Plaza & Janés, and Editorial Sudamericana. Guerrero is also in charge of coordinating the export efforts with the rest of the group’s offices in Latin America. “We have an agreement with Random House Inc., our NY-based sister company, for the distribution of our Spanish-language books through Random House Spanish, for which we are the main providers”, says Guerrero. In 2006, as many as 250 new titles were added to Random House Spanish’s backlist. “The selection of titles is made in conjunction with all the regional offices around nine months beforehand and taking into serious consideration the opinion of the team of Random House Spanish since they know first hand the U.S. marketplace.”

The market: “Four to five years ago, the market demanded romantic novels, self-help, and spirituality, but now the doors have been opened to new interests, such as translations of English best-sellers, whether commercial fiction or literary.” On her wish list: “I would like to see Spanish-language books become well-established in all sales channels and have a presence in every bookstore.” Hot picks for fall: Ignacio Ramonet’s Fidel Castro, Autobiografía a dos voces, (“Fidel Castro: Autobiography in two voices”), Andres Oppenheimer’s Cuentos Chinos (“Tall Tales”), and Marta M. Succarat´s La vida sentimental de Eva Perón (“The Sentimental Life of Eva Peron”).

Lucía Laratelli

Lucía Laratelli
President, Urano Publishing (Miami, FL)

When Laratelli arrived to the Miami in 1989 to pursue an MBA, she planned to return to Peru after graduation. However, a job at HarperCollins changed her mind. “I fell in love with the publishing world and decided to stay.”Laratelli has been at the helm of Miami-based Urano Publishing since 2002, two years after the Spanish publisher Ediciones Urano first decided to open a U.S. office. Today, U.S. sales for Urano Publishing have reached approximately 15 percent of total sales. The Miami division goes beyond importing books from its parent company in Barcelona. “We do not only distribute for [other] publishing houses,” explains Laratelli. “Urano utilizes its infrastructure to offer [publishers] complete management of their U.S. business including marketing, sales, and logistics.” Urano offers its U.S. market know-how to Spanish publishers Tusquets, Obelisco, Sirio, and Roca, all of which it also distributes. According to Laratelli, books are carefully selected for the U.S. market; Urano does not change design or content of the imported titles.

What works: “Self-help and fiction.” Urano has hit a goldmine with the Spanish-language rights for Dan Brown’s books and has followed-up the trend of the history-based thrillers with best sellers such as Elizabeth Kostova’s La historiadora (The Historian) and Raymond Khoury’s La orden del Temple (The Last Templar). “Our sales have shown us that our market today and in the near future has to focus on the translations of U.S. English-language best-sellers.” Hot pick for fall: Gregory David Roberts’ Shantaram.

Yuri P. Chávez

Yuri P. Chávez
General Manager of Editorial Océano, Inc. (Miami, FL)

Chávez entered publishing as a specialist in electronic products (first at Silver Platter and subsequently with the Thompson Group) and later moved to the more traditional printed book. He joined Editorial Océano Inc., the U.S.-based business unit of Spanish publisher Grupo Océano, in 2002. Océano Inc. started off in Miami four years ago with the aim of commercializing its line of digital products; in 2005, it began to import books from its editorial offices in Spain and Latin America. “We mainly sell reference titles to public libraries systems,” says Chávez. “We are now working with some companies that carry out door-to-door sales, but that still is a minimum percentage of our sales.” The books are brought in mainly from Barcelona and the final destinations, according to Chávez’s own research, are usually Florida, Illinois, New York, New Mexico, Texas, and California. An Ecuadorian immigrant himself, Chávez is proud of the rise in cultural diversity of the Latino community in the last two decades. “I love the fact that the Spanish language is gaining strength in this country and that I can make my own contribution to the change.”

What works: “[Our] encyclopedias on different Latin American countries. Also health and children’s books.” The challenges: “This market is still an enigma. U.S. publishers are mainly [publishing] nonfiction titles by authors well-known in [the United States], such as television celebrity Jorge Ramos,” explains Chávez. “[Océano is] still focused on our traditional business but we will probably have to adapt.” Chávez cites one common problem: “César Chávez is not known outside U.S. borders but he is well-known here… [yet] he is not mentioned in our reference books, which is a real concern.” Chávez adds that this is a typical “disadvantage and at some point we will have to act on it.” Prospects: “Politics will be crucial in determining the future of the [Spanish-language book] market. Under the current administration, public libraries have suffered cuts in funding. A political change in social services would bring more funding to the acquisition of material, given that the Spanish-speaking community is growing.” Hot pick for fall: Manual Merck de Información Médica General (Merck Manual of General Medical Information).

Santos Rodríguez

Santos Rodríguez
Editor and founder, Nowtilus (Madrid, Spain)

A passion for computers first brought Rodríguez into publishing. A recent Chemistry graduate on his way to completing a Ph.D., Rodríguez was offered a job by Germán Sánchez Ruiperez, editor and founder of Grupo Anaya, who had then started to explore the possibilities of educational software and books for PC users. In 2002, Rodríguez—an editor with an entrepreneur’s flair—decided to start up his own publishing house in Madrid; two years later he decided the project was mature enough to give the U.S. book market a try.

Nowtilus, which specializes in titles for mass consumption, signed a exclusive contract with the distributor Masesmas. “Masesmas already has a wide experience in marketing for mass retailers and they are the ones who choose the titles suitable for export to the United States.” Although many international publishers often prefer to work with different distributors, Rodríguez is a firm supporter of the concept of exclusivity. “In such a competitive market I have come to understand that if you don’t decide to work exclusively with a distributor you won’t find someone who really commits to your books,” he explains. “As a small publisher, I cannot deal directly with U.S. clients and follow the whole distribution process. I have to trust someone to do it for me.” Although the sales are still relatively small, Rodríguez considers the experience satisfactory in terms of the U.S. Spanish-language book market. “I think that each publisher has played a very important role in its success. I have personally taken this opportunity very seriously, attending book fairs, keeping in touch with the players in the market, and I believe that when you are very tenacious, it pays off. Unfortunately, as the market develops this perseverance will probably be less important than your strategic positioning in the distribution channel.”

The key: “For the small publisher the only weapon is innovation, creativity, inventiveness. This is not an exact science; you can always come across good authors, ideas, or topics that do not depend on the size of your company. You have to find smart ways to stay in the market as it develops.” Best-seller: Breve Historia (“Brief History”), a series of books on historical topics in pocket size.” Hot pick for fall: Pedro Terron’s La brújula del peregrino (the first of seven titles in the fiction saga Calixti).