The Latino Market: Tongue Twister
You walk into the bookstore, past the tables of "Books for This Month's Holiday," and find your way to the Foreign Language section. Bring up your bébé in French; speak Chinese like a Tiger Mom; have a conversation in Russian that would warm the cockles of Putin's heart—it's all here. And if you already know a foreign language—Spanish, say—you'll also find novels and self-help books right next to "500 Spanish Verbs."
The juxtaposition of grammar and fiction is a little odd, but the titles—at least in Spanish—are anything but. "The Hunger Games," Fifty Shades of Everything, the latest by Rhonda Byrnes. There's even a golden oldie: "Cómo ganar amigos e influir sobre las personas" by Dale Carnegie. Pick up the Spanish translation of Dan Brown's "The Lost Symbol," and a worn phone card falls from between the pages—a card once used to call home (Mexico? Colombia? Guatemala?)—now used as a public bookmark. Nestled between the Dan Brown and the Dale Carnegie, there's a thick book by someone whose name actually sounds Spanish: Paco Ignacio Taíbo II. No phone card falls from between its pages.
Such a bookstore trip is a tangible encounter with a difficult truth for publishers: The Hispanic market is a tough nut to crack. Both Vintage Español, which published the Dale Carnegie, and Rayo, which published the Taíbo, know this well.
The challenges are many: the cultural diversity in the population; the different levels of acculturation to the U.S.; the varied linguistic abilities, ranging from the old woman who doesn't speak a word of English to her bilingual son to his English-speaking daughter who takes French classes in school.
Increasingly, the question of digital literacy becomes an important factor, as well—though not easily parsed, given that Hispanics utilize technology differently than the general population.
All of this makes it difficult for a publisher to determine the best course.
Early Optimism
In 2000, HarperCollins launched the Rayo imprint in anticipation of an Hispanic population explosion. Well before the 2010 Census, projections estimated that the Hispanic population would reach 50 million, that Hispanics would comprise the nation's largest minority group, and that the Hispanic population would reach 30 percent of the nation's overall population by 2050.
HarperCollins was one of the first publishing houses to realize there was potential there, and Rayo did well out of the gate. In 2004, it even expanded its team to include some boldface Latino editorial names who would shake things up alongside wunderkind founder Rene Alegria. In 2008, Rayo launched the Esenciales series, offering superb, critically acclaimed books by famous Spanish-speaking authors. With Taíbo's work, for instance, the Rayo imprint collected his beloved series of heady detective novels from the 1980s and '90s and released them in one thick volume. He's a classic Mexican author, the kind of guy who gets lionized on National Public Radio's "Morning Edition" even though the only news is that he's not writing anything new. The books were well-known, gritty, and now, in a nice package.
But simply because the population was growing in numbers didn't mean those numerous people would be buying books—or books of that kind. As of 2009, when Heather Fletcher wrote a Market Focus article for this very publication, it was titled "Inside the Hispanic Book Market: Publishers grapple with disappointing sales despite a booming population." Rayo certainly wasn't alone; the numbers just weren't adding up.
Publishing Perspectives' Emily Williams, in her piece "Whatever Happened to U.S. Spanish-language Publishing?" pointed to a Rayo editorial shakeup in 2009 as evidence of the industry's failure to succeed with Spanish-language publishing. The imprint as it was then known all but disappeared. Now the much smaller Rayo focuses mostly on the children's book market with some adult Spanish-language versions of popular English titles, like upcoming releases "How Did I Get Here," and "100 Simple Secrets of Great Relationships." Rayo founder and one-time editorial guide Rene Alegria has referred in the press to Rayo's post-2009 strategy as "the Telemundo of book publishing." (Rayo declined to comment for this story.)
The Rayo venture is just one example of publishers that were eager to capitalize on the Latin boom. But having a crack editorial team and an impressive list isn't enough. Along with all the challenges faced by English-language publishing, book publishers wanting to capture the Hispanic market face the most elemental question of all: Which language do we choose?
Se Habla Español?
"It's really a bilingual market," says Kirk Whisler, president of Western Publication Research (WPR), which publishes the National Hispanic Readership Study. "Sixteen percent speak Spanish-only, 16 percent speak English-only, but everyone else is bilingual. Looking at [the market] in terms of one language or another is not showing it the respect it deserves."
John Byrd, of Cinco Puntos Press, is inclined to agree. Though it's tiny, El Paso-based Cinco Puntos (named for the founders' Five Points neighborhood) has a list of accomplishments that would make any publisher courting the Hispanic market green with envy: It's been inducted into the Latino Literary Hall of Fame, whose mission is to promote literacy and literary excellence in Latino communities. It's received grants from el Fideicomiso para la Cultura de México-Estado Unidos, an initiative founded in 1991 between the Mexican National Foundation of Arts and Culture and the Rockefeller Foundation to foster cultural collaboration between Mexico and the U.S. It was given a special Southwest Book Award for outstanding achievement in bringing national recognition to regional literature, and it even made waves in national news when the NEA canceled its grant to publish a book by Chiapas revolutionary Subcomandante Marcos.
Despite all these Latino book-world bona fides, Cinco Puntos Press doesn't publish Spanish-language books. "We've experimented a little with Spanish-only publishing," says John Byrd, CEO, via email, "but it wasn't very successful for us. Our market really seems to prefer the bilingual format." Byrd says he doesn't have any statistical information to back that up, but he does know that teachers keep thanking him for publishing bilingual books. "It makes them feel like they're getting twice what they paid for."
Cinco Puntos' location—right on the border with Mexico—makes a big difference. When Byrd's parents, Bobby and Lee, started the press 27 years ago, they did so to raise awareness of border issues. Things have changed since then, Byrd says—soon we'll "all" be living on the border: "In some ways, you could say that we're living in the future here in El Paso. The big demographic shifts that are predicted in the coming decades are old hat here on the border. We're already living them."
And that includes language. "El Paso is a bilingual town. If you walk down the street, you're just as likely to hear people speaking English as Spanish. You might even hear both in the same conversation. Making books that reflect that seems natural."
And it's not just in El Paso. That kind of mixed conversation—what linguists call code-switching and everyone else calls Spanglish—manifests in many ways. "It's interesting, the reading trends within the Latino market," Whisler says. "They'd prefer to read that novel, or spiritual book, in the language they grew up speaking. But if it's a how-to book, they'll gravitate toward that in English."
Such subtleties aside, Spanish-language readership is up. The most recent National Hispanic Readership Study—which measures book-buying habits of Hispanic newspaper-readers—shows a 66 percent increase in book purchases between 2000 and 2010, and an 88 percent increase for books in Spanish.
Random House's Vintage Español has been quite successful publishing solely in Spanish. Seven of Amazon's top 10 bestselling books in its "Foreign Language & Literature" section are Vintage Español, and chain bookstore shelves are heavy with the imprint. Vintage Español Director Jaime DePablos says that when it comes to Latinos, they consider their target audience to be native Spanish speakers—which is a small market. "Out of the estimated 40 to 50 million Hispanics," DePablos says via email, "we estimate (emphasis on 'estimate') that there are no more than 7 to 8 million potential native Spanish readers. If you then factor in economics, education, etc., you get the difference between an English bestseller, which can easily sell a few million copies, to a Spanish bestseller, which will very rarely surpass 100,000 copies."
So why not market to those who aren't native Spanish readers? "Hispanics born in the U.S. grow up and are educated in English," DePablos says, "and tend to have a harder time reading in Spanish."
Child's Play
Interestingly, the largest publisher and distributor of Spanish-language books in the country is the children's publisher Scholastic, so perhaps Latino kids of the future will be buying Vintage Español books. According to Jazan Higgins, Vice President of Cross Company Strategy at Scholastic Trade Publishing, the Scholastic En Español imprint publishes 50 to 70 books a year.
"A small percentage are bilingual—about four to five a year, and the rest in translation," Higgins says, via email. "Meanwhile, in English, one of our ongoing initiatives is to grow the number of Latino authors across our list. Recent publications include the just-launched Border Town series by Malin Alegria; 'The Revolution of Evelyn Serrano,' the first novel by Sonia Manzano (the actress who plays Maria on Sesame Street); 'Choke' by Diana López in fall 2012; and on our Summer 2013 list, 'Take a Chance, Chica' by Angela Cervantes."
Scholastic was also a sponsor this year of the Latino Book Awards. All of this is very canny, given the youth of the Latino demographic.
"With a burgeoning population of Latinos whose median age is in the early 20s, and the majority of the population under 15 and growing, the greatest area of activity [in Latino publishing] we're seeing is in education," says Nicolás Kanellos, Director of Arte Público Press, the largest purveyor of bilingual children's books. In explaining why the market is so fertile, Kanellos throws out a list of big cities—New York, L.A., all the usual suspects. "The major school systems in the major cities are over 50 percent Hispanic," he says. That's a lot of kids who need books.
Arte Público works with schools and libraries to develop bilingual teaching materials. But when Kanellos says bilingual, he doesn't mean half the book sounds like a New Yorker wrote it and the other half reads like the King of Spain chimed in. "We specifically bring children's books with cultures as expressed and manifested 'in the U.S.'" The books reflect the lives of Latino children living here now, and though it isn't possible to write different versions of each—one for Chicanos in Texas, another for Cubans in Miami, a third for Nuyoricans—"we market all of our books [across] the nation. Latino kids learning to read in grades K-3 should have exposure to how kids are in San Antonio."
Though Kanellos is disheartened by school budget cuts and library closures, he sees something positive on the horizon: "The future," he says, "is going to be digital."
A New Age
In 2008, Aurora-Anaya Cerda opened an online bookstore, La Casa Azul. Not the best time to start selling books of Latino interest via a website, you might think. In fact, Cerda did so well, she was able to open a bricks-and-mortar store two months ago in Manhattan. "So far it's been wonderful," Cerda says. "We've had a great response from the Latino community and from non-Latinos who find out about the store."
Cerda knew something that non-Latinos—from pundits to politicians to people on the street—have a hard time believing: Hispanics are online.
Of Latinos 16 and older who were born here, 85 percent go online and 80 percent have cell phones. The numbers drop for foreign-born Latinos, but there are still more than half who are connected—and there are pragmatic reasons for this. A lot of people have family far away; having a blog or a Tumblr or a Facebook page allows them to stay in touch.
They also use technology differently. Hispanics text more than any other ethnic group, for instance, and are more active in social media—whether it's linking to something, posting a video, updating a blog, or "Liking" a band. Downloading a book while checking a Twitter feed doesn't seem like much of a stretch for people who download games and music in higher numbers than any other group. Latinos may have less home Internet access, but they make ample use of the access they do have.
And something is definitely happening. In February, Spanish-language publishing juggernaut Santillana USA announced a 78 percent increase in ebook sales between November 2011 and January 2012—that's just for the U.S. and Puerto Rico. A company spokesman thought it might be because of all the tablets that went on holiday sale. Whatever the reason, it opens possibilities.
Arte Público has numerous digital projects going, including a vast, virtual collection Kanellos describes as "all of the written culture of Latinos from the colonial period to the 1960s." The database is about half-digitized right now, and can be accessed at libraries—mostly academic ones—that subscribe to it.
But that's rarefied air. Kanellos predicts a wholesale conversion even of public school systems. "What we see in the future, school systems will do away with textbooks and give students something like iPads. Digital is just exploding."
It's also helping publishers to promote their titles, which isn't always easy in a niche market with small budgets.
Vintage Español director Jaime DePablos says, "Due to the relatively small size of the market, advertising is generally too expensive for us. Facebook and tools like Google Ads have made this noticeably easier for us to reach readers."
John Byrd of Cinco Puntos says he's also using digital tools. "The nice thing about social media is that it gives you data to work with so you can start to see what works and what doesn't. Writers are always impressed with how much we can accomplish on a lean budget."
Whisler points out that when people say "digital," they might also be talking about buying a book online. "Amazon has become a favorite," he says. "If you have someone in North Carolina, [that person might not] really have alternatives, but there's a large population in North Carolina."
Being digitally connected doesn't solve everything, though. Kanellos says publishers of books marketed to Latinos face challenges Anglo publishers don't: "There's a backlash against Latino culture in the U.S. In Arizona, our books were taken out of children's hands."
And large publishers face learning curves. "Every mainstream publisher has gone through an evolution if they're doing business with the Latino market," Whisler says. When he was working as a consultant with a publisher in Minnesota, he found that out. "I got a call from a Spanish-language editor, she was Latina. She said, 'This may sound like a dumb question, but are there actually Latinos that write?' She was so isolated up there in Minnesota! I laughed and said yes and they wound up bringing on Latino authors who did very well for them."
And then what?
"Later, they changed their direction."
Well, at least they have company. BB
Liz Spikol is the editor of Curbed Philly and a contributor to Tek Lado and Philadelphia Magazine's The Philly Post. She can be found on Twitter: @lspikol.