Much has been written about the rapid growth in the Hispanic population in the U.S. in the past decade. But what does it mean for Spanish-language book market in the U.S.? Although there is little hard data, the latest market study by industry consultants Kiser & Associates estimates Spanish-language book sales at $400 million in 2001—a jump of $100 million from the U.S. Department of Commerce's 1999 estimate.
While the rising involvement of U.S. and foreign publishers, as well as major wholesalers and retailers, suggests more growth in the last two years, Spanish book sales are still out of step with the total buying power of the 37.5 million Hispanics in the U.S., which currently averages $580 billion per year. But several recent initiatives by retail giants Barnes & Noble and Borders will help build an infrastructure that can meet the market's needs.
In a move that opens a major sales channel for books in Spanish, Barnes & Noble is launching a new online boutique, just in time for Hispanic Heritage Month (September 15 to October 15). Right now, those who visit barnesandnoble.com must navigate numerous pages on the English-language site before they can browse its more than 18,000 Spanish-language titles. But in the new arrangement, these titles will be more accessible in a store featured on the barnesandnoble.com homepage.
The boutique will also offer readers more access to authors through chats, interviews and Web site links. "Given that most of our authors live outside of the U.S., and our readers see them maybe once or twice in a lifetime, this is big news," said Marla Norman, U.S. sales director of Spain's leading publisher Planeta.
Meanwhile, on June 28, Borders opened its newest store in Pico Rivera, Calif., with bilingual signs and staff, and a Spanish-language section located prominently at the front of the store. Though the chain has stocked Spanish titles in its stores since the first Borders opened in 1971, their prime placement in the Pico Rivera store reflects not only the needs of the community—which is more than 80% Hispanic—but Borders's growing awareness of the Spanish-language market.
If the new store format meets expectations, Borders will replicate it in similar communities across the country. So far, the local response has been very positive, according to Ruth Miranda, the store's general manager. "We've had Hispanics from neighboring towns coming into the store. Many town officials from surrounding areas came to our grand opening in July and have been spreading the word," she said.
Publicity, Pricing and Rights
In a roundtable discussion conducted earlier this year by Críticas, a sister publication to PW that's devoted to the Spanish-language book market, publishing professionals representing every area of the business agreed that retailers play a key role in expanding the market for Spanish-language titles. "There's only one way for [Spanish-language book sales] to rise in the next few years, and that's to really master selling books in Spanish or of Latino interest to Latinos—and to others," said René Alegria, editorial director of HarperCollins's bilingual imprint, Rayo. "It's a matter of changing the mindset of the publishing industry to realize that Latinos are now close to a quarter of the country's population," he added.
At large chain bookstores, one of the biggest challenges is attracting Hispanic customers, said Diana Martinez Calice, who became director of Spanish products at the wholesaler Baker & Taylor in March, after a four-year stint as Borders's first Spanish-language buyer. "The problem at most Borders stores, and probably with Barnes & Noble, is that the Hispanic customer is intimidated to go into this huge bookstore where maybe nobody even speaks his or her language. The market's there, we just need to do a much better job of capturing it," she said.
But until the mainstream media gives coverage to the latest Spanish-language releases and authors, bookstores that expand their selection of Spanish-language books or hire a bilingual staff may still find it difficult to draw readers. Most Spanish book readers in this country follow mainstream English-language TV, radio and print media, which makes it very difficult to communicate with them directly about Spanish-language books, observed Silvia Matute, director of U.S. sales and marketing for Spanish publisher Santillana. Other roundtable participants cited a need for more reporting on individual Spanish-language books and authors, in addition to the stories about the industry that have run in the New York Times, Boston Globe, Miami Herald and Los Angeles Times in the past few years. There's also a gap between the Latino world and the mainstream, added Alegria, noting that he had "not really seen much coverage on what's happening in Spanish-language media as it pertains to books that are sold in the United States."
To counteract this lack of coverage, several U.S. publishers have chosen to experiment with simultaneous English and Spanish hardcover editions of works by big-name Latino and Latin American writers, such as Sandra Cisneros, Isabel Allende and Univision news anchor Jorge Ramos. Anne Messite, publisher of Vintage and Anchor Books, said, "If you can publish an author's work in English and Spanish and get the maximum coverage that catches every possible reader and customer, people are going to choose to read in each language for different reasons." As an example, she pointed to the success of the Spanish edition of Sandra Cisneros's Caramelo, which has sold more than 13,000 copies in hardcover since it was published with Knopf's English edition last September.
Another key issue is pricing, though editors and booksellers have differing views on what the Spanish-language market can bear. Rueben Martínez, who owns Librería Martínez in Santa Ana, Calif., and Teresa Mlawer, who oversees Manhattan's Lectorum bookstore, both pointed out that many customers are factory or migrant workers who cannot afford hardcovers or overpriced softcovers that sell for as much as $25. "There are some people that will buy a $50 art book, but the majority of readers spend $12.95 to $19.95," said Martínez. But Alegria countered that booksellers shouldn't underestimate the Latino community. "I don't think we should lump all Latinos together as this large group that doesn't have any disposable income," he said.
Given that many Hispanic readers in the U.S. hear about popular books and authors from their families in their native countries or through the Spanish and Latin American media, illegal international editions also pose problems for U.S. publishers. Most Spanish-language books are published first in Latin America and Spain, which means that illegally imported titles by foreign authors can find a ready market here before U.S. editions are published. For instance, in the two-month period that Gabriel García Márquez's memoir Vivir para contarla was available in Latin America and not in the U.S., most booksellers in the country stocked illegal editions.
As Santillana's Matute noted, the rights issue is largely a matter of timing. U.S. publishers can circumvent illegal sales of foreign editions by publishing their Spanish editions on the same schedule as international Spanish-language houses.
To avoid rights conflicts, there needs to be more dialogue among publishers, agents and distributors, the roundtable participants concluded. With the upcoming launch of the Spanish-language boutique on B&N's Web site, that dialogue will become crucial to avoid sales in the U.S. of international editions for which the publisher does not hold U.S. rights, as well as sales of U.S. editions to buyers in countries where the U.S. publisher does not hold rights.
In the end, overcoming rights issues and the other major challenges involved in publishing and selling Spanish-language books will also come down to improving communication among international and U.S. publishers; retailers and Spanish-speaking consumers; and the industry and the media. The Críticas roundtable was one step toward that end, while this summer's initiatives by Borders and Barnes & Noble suggest that other market players are moving in the same direction.
