U.S. Publishers Wake Up to Growing Spanish Market

Ruben Ramirez moved to New York from Colombia in 1990 and opened a tiny bookstall that catered to Hispanic readers.

A few years later, he more than quadrupled his space when he moved to a storefront one block away, nudged along by a simple fact: "Hispanic people like to read," he said

That is a reality U.S. publishers are slowly waking up to. With the 2000 census showing the Hispanic population in the United States ballooning 58 percent in a decade, publishing houses have joined the rest of corporate America in targeting a demographic group whose needs were once met almost exclusively by its own entrepreneurs.

Publishers have been establishing imprints devoted to the nation's 35.3 million Hispanics, who by some estimates have spending power of more than $500 billion a year.

For Ramirez, who started out ordering mostly from publishers in Colombia, it's gotten easier to find books that are not only published in the United States, but also speak to the experiences and dreams of his mostly immigrant clientele.

"Every day there are more American publishers in Spanish," he said. "Now we receive a lot of catalogs and brochures.

Random House and HarperCollins are just two U.S. publishing giants that have launched Spanish imprints recently. That's helped move Spanish-language books into airport bookstores in major American cities, and into mainstream bookstores such as Barnes & Noble Inc. and Borders Group Inc.

Bookstore owners and publishers say their Hispanic audience is snapping up self-help, how-to and spirituality books, along with best-sellers by authors such as Gabriel Garcia Marquez and Isabel Allende.

"It's all been happening in the last year and a half," said Adriana Lopez, the editor of Criticas, a monthly review of Spanish-language publishing. Put out by Publishers Weekly, Criticas was launched in March 2001 and reviews books for a subscriber base of 50,000 librarians, booksellers and readers.

Lopez said she hears from librarians all over the country -- from farm communities in Colorado, Idaho and Ohio, as well as urban centers in California, Texas and elsewhere -- asking how to start or enhance Spanish-language collections.

"What really drives the market is the librarians," she said. "They're willing to spend lots of money to fill the needs of their patrons."

CATERING TO U.S. HISPANICS

The surge in Spanish-language publishers has helped fill a void for books that are relevant to U.S. readers. Prior to the increase, 90 percent of the books available in Spanish in this country were published overseas, said Lisa Alpert, the publisher of Random House Espanol.

"The question is, are those the right books for Spanish speakers in this country?" she said.

Alpert's imprint, launched in March 2001, has done particularly well with nonfiction. Two of her best sellers right now are a computer how-to manual, "Computadoras Para Todas" and an astrology guide, "Inteligencia Astrologica."

Now, she is working on a book about parenting that addresses how to raise a family in the United States while keeping Hispanic culture alive. The imprint, owned by Random House parent Bertelsmann, publishes about 20 books a year.

Alpert said there is money to be made by catering to the fastest-growing ethnic group in the United States. She declined to disclose sales figures, but said, "We're very happy with our sales. We're a little ahead of where we hoped to be."

But Alpert and others said the United States, which has the world's fifth-largest Spanish-speaking population, still lacks the network of agents, editors and publicists who can help discover new authors and promote Hispanic literature.

There are encouraging signs. Last August, Bookspan introduced Mosaico, a Spanish-language version of its highly successful Book-of-the-Month Club. With about 15,000 subscribers so far, Mosaico is helping to institutionalize the view that Hispanics are a significant community of readers.

Popular titles from the current catalog include one by Univision news anchor Jorge Ramos about how Hispanic immigrants are reshaping U.S. culture.

At last week's BookExpo America, an annual industry trade show, "publishers were very excited to talk to us," said Craig Davis, Mosaico's marketing director.

NURTURING LITERARY TALENT

But Rene Alegria, editorial director for HarperCollins' Rayo imprint, sees much more work to be done. He views Rayo as a "think tank" as much as a publisher. One of his primary goals, he said, is to raise his industry's awareness of the Hispanic community and its needs and talents.

Rayo, which was launched in September and aims to put out about 12 new books a year, focuses on fiction, often written in English by U.S.-born Hispanics. Most of the books are published in both English and Spanish.

"Culturally, we find ourselves as American as anyone else at times," he said. "And yet, at times, we're not. That kind of friction can breed wonderful talent."

Alegria's words may provide hope to young authors like Luis Valencia, who was standing outside Ramirez's bookstore on a recent Saturday morning, hawking copies of his self-published short story collection, "El Corazon Perdido y Otros Enigmas," or "The Lost Heart and Other Enigmas."

Valencia, 42, was born in Colombia and now earns his living as an architect in New Brunswick, New Jersey. After finishing his book, he shopped it around to publishers, including some of the new imprints, but no one was interested. So he and some friends raised about $12,000 for an initial printing of 2,000 copies.

When he's not designing buildings, practicing yoga or working on a soon-to-be-released spoken-word recording, Valencia sells his book on the streets of Hispanic neighborhoods in New York, New Jersey and Connecticut.

Customers are very supportive, he said. "They express their gratitude. They always have words of encouragement for me.

"For every five people I talk to, one buys a book," he said. If Valencia could somehow talk to all 35.3 million Hispanics in America, he'd sell about 7 million books. That's a best-seller by any standards. Lauren Weber (Reuters)