Red Dress Ink, one of the first publishers to recognize the potential in chick lit, is hoping Spanish-speaking women will be just as captivated by the genre as their English-speaking peers.
This month Red Dress, an imprint of Harlequin, is releasing seven of its titles in Spanish. More will follow later this year or in early 2005, depending on the response to the initial list, said Margaret O'Neill Marbury, executive editor of Red Dress. The books, all of which were originally written in English, were chosen because they sold well and because their protagonists are seen as having, "a slight 'everywoman' appeal," Marbury said.
"One of the nice things about the books that we've acquired is that the characters do speak to a large audience and they're universally relatable," she said. The trade paperbacks also adhere to the standard conventions of chick lit—the women are young, single urbanites searching for love and career success.
To reach its intended audience, Harlequin will target traditional bookstores and mass market outlets, in particular Wal-Mart, in areas that have a high concentration of Hispanics, said Blanca Tovar, senior product manager for Spanish programs at Harlequin. "Wal-Mart is very aggressive in capturing the Hispanic market," she said. "They already have sections dedicated to Spanish books."
To promote the books, Red Dress will run ads for them in the back of its English-language titles. The hope is that Latinas who prefer to read in English will see the ads and pass the word to those who favor books in Spanish. Harlequin will also market the books directly to its 5,000-name list of e-mail addresses of women who read in Spanish gleaned from customers of the company's Spanish-language romances.
