¿Cómo Se Dice ‘Opportunity’?

Best Genres

So where should one turn to gain leverage in the market? Simon and Schuster put its money primarily on the Latino market. In fact, its Atria Books imprint is releasing a brand-new Latino line of books in order to bring greater Latino voice to market and, ultimately, into the mainstream. Its headlining title is “Malinche” by Laura Esquivel.

“All of the books in this line are [published] in English, with some also being published in Spanish,” says Castillo.

Also popular in the Latino and Spanish markets are nonfiction, practical books on subjects such as how to buy a house in the United States, how to fix your credit and how to obtain citizenship.

“Self-help books are a popular trend,” says Castillo. “So are memoirs and novels from well-known European or Latin American authors. For instance, ‘Like Water for Chocolate,’ also by Esquivel, was a New York Times Best-Seller.”

Castillo reports that Atria is publishing 33 books this year for the Latino and Spanish markets.

Michael Norris, editor of the weekly industry newsletter, Book Publishing Report, and trade analyst for the industry market intelligence company, Simba, reported on the Hispanic market in a book titled “Emerging Trends in Publishing: The Hispanic Market.” He agrees that self-help is an extremely popular genre for this population, as are mystery and religion.

“Some might be surprised by mystery, but this is a genre that is huge and popular in just about every market,” he says.

Another segment where sales are almost guaranteed is education. Wesley was instrumental in developing Me+Mi Publishing—a publisher of bilingual books for children.

“I know a majority of Spanish-language books are sold into the education market because it’s a captive market. A lot of teachers need books to help kids transition to English, and educators found the best way to do that is to start with the language of familiarity and connect known terms to English translations.”