In 2012, when Dago Sasiga and Greity Gonzalez founded La Pereza Ediciones with just $400, they were told they were crazy to start a Spanish-language publishing house. Twelve years later, their Gainesville, Fla.–based company has proven the naysayers wrong, publishing nearly 250 books and establishing itself as a significant player in the Spanish-language publishing market in the United States.

For Sasiga, originally from Nicaragua, and Gonzalez, who is Cuban, the decision to start the business came down to a simple observation: they saw a glaring need in the U.S. market for Spanish-language literature. “It’s our professional life,” Sasiga says. “But also, it is based on feelings, and what we like. It’s made for authors, and that is very important to us.”

La Pereza Edi-ciones, whose name translates to “lazy publishing,” is inspired by Paul Lafargue’s book The Right to Be Lazy, which encourages creativity through leisure. The company’s catalog is diverse, featuring fiction, poetry, essays, and children’s literature. It works with both established and emerging authors from the U.S. and Puerto Rico, Cuba, Guatemala, Panama, and Spain, including Cuban science fiction author José Miguel Sánchez Gómez, who publishes under the name Yoss; Costa Rican author Carlos Costas; Claribel Alegria from Nicaragua; Facundo Cabral of Argentina; and Ruben Varona of Colombia.

Among their bestsellers is a poetry book by well-known Spanish singer Joaquin Sabina, Ciento volando de catorce (which Sasiga concedes is a bestseller mostly due to Sabina being famous), and the novel Los locos mueren de viejos by El Salvadoran writer Vanessa Núñez Handal, which continues to sell 800–900 copies a year, years after its initial publication.

The company also publishes translations, sometimes working from French through English to Spanish. Recent releases include several books by Puerto Rican authors, including Golpes de Gracia and Afroalgorithms by Yolanda Arroyo Pizarro and Los Gestos Inútiles by Rey Andújar.

Twelve years after starting the business, Sasiga is validated by the growth he sees in the Spanish-language market in the U.S., noting a generational shift. “There’s a phenomenon where parents with Latin American roots want to teach their kids Spanish,” he says.

Meanwhile, La Pereza Ediciones has expanded beyond traditional print books, offering e-books and audiobooks as well. It distributes its titles in the U.S., Guatemala, Uruguay, and the Dominican Republic, with Amazon being its single strongest sales channel. “People used to buy on Amazon for comfort,” Sasiga says, but the company has also seen increased sales through its own website since the pandemic, as readers have become more aware of the publisher and the ability to buy directly. The company has also been an active participant in book fairs, including in the Dominican Republic, Guatemala, and Puerto Rico, as well as participating in this year’s FIL.

As for the future, La Pereza Ediciones is considering opening a Spanish-language bookstore in Gainesville targeting university students. “We’ve been thinking about this for a very long time,” Sasiga says. “Gainesville has students from all over the world and is growing. It would be a very interesting place to start this sort of stream.”

For Sasiga, who comes from what he describes as “a very poor village in Nicaragua,” becoming a publisher has been deeply personal. “I was the first person in my family to go to university, and I feel like books opened my world,” he says.

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