Who’s Who in U.S. Spanish-language Publishing—The Christian and Spirituality Market
By Raya Kuzyk -- Críticas, 5/1/2007
The Census Bureau predicts that in just 43 years, Hispanics, the fastest-growing minority group in the United States, will account for a quarter of the country’s population. According to the Selig Center for Economic Growth, this is the first year that Hispanics control more disposable income than any other U.S. minority group. An increasing number of Spanish-language readers are making up America’s general market, and they are an upwardly mobile set at that.
| Who's Who in U.S. Spanish-language Publishing This is the fourth part of a series on the key players in the U.S. Spanish-language book market. Previous articles include "High Demand, Short Supply, and the Market's Savvy Buyers" on collection development librarians,"The Faces Behind the Books," on U.S. editors, and "The International Players," on publishing figures abroad. |
Accordingly, mainline publishers are doing their best to court this burgeoning demographic, and superstore chains like Barnes & Noble and Walmart have expanded their Spanish offerings. And, with religion so much the fabric of Latino life, Christianity and spirituality are further impacting the U.S. Spanish-language publishing landscape. In the first of this two-part feature, Críticas looks at how publishers are meeting the growing demand for Christian and spiritual titles.
Awakening and enlightenment
In 1995, Random House inaugurated its Spanish-language imprint, Vintage Español. Six years later, HarperCollins unveiled the bilingual Latino imprint Rayo. And in 2005 alone, Simon & Schuster imprint Atria Books launched a new Hispanic and Latino publishing program; Minneapolis-based Lerner Publishing debuted the Spanish-language imprint Ediciones Lerner; Nashville-based publisher Thomas Nelson’s first Spanish-language imprint, Caribe Betania, reorganized under the moniker Grupo Nelson; and the Miami office of Planeta Publishing announced its plan to distribute four additional imprints from Spain. In parallel to their awakening to the demand for more Spanish-language books, publishers were heeding another call, one for greater spiritual output. According to a survey by the Hispanic Churches of American Public Life, 70 percent of U.S. Hispanics are Catholic and nearly a quarter are Protestant. The majority of these Protestants—85 percent—are Pentecostals or evangelicals. With each subsequent generation of Latino immigrants, the number of Catholics has decreased (by 12 percent between the first and third generations) and the number of Protestants has increased (by 14 percent), and publishers are scrambling to keep step.
In 2001, with its first Spanish Summit (San Luis Obispo, CA), the Parable Group—which helps independently owned U.S.-based Christian stores with their marketing—cultivated a fertile terrain by making that meeting one between a national Christian Booksellers Association (CBA) retail-marketing group and Spanish-language product suppliers. Two of Thomas Nelson’s imprints, Editorial Caribe and Editorial Betania (now part Grupo Nelson), today publish biblical reference and inspirational titles, respectively, in trade and mass-market formats to penetrate the Hispanic market at all price points. Last year, Spanish-language publisher Santillana USA relocated Arnoldo Langer, its nonfiction acquisitions editor, from Mexico City to Miami as part of an expansion plan that included publishing ten new health, spirituality, and self-help titles in the United States (two dozen are expected this year). And though many Catholic publishers produce Spanish-language titles in the form of tracts and pamphlets, these aren’t ideal for general trade. Liguori Press’s Spanish component, Libros Liguori, is just one Catholic publisher that has responded with some smart in-house adjustments, among them: hiring a managing editor in 2001 (now José Antonio Medina), and revamping its catalog to include more marketable Spanish-language fare.
 Jim Powell |
Jim Powell, president of Christian Trade Association International, Colorado Springs, attributes the Spanish-language market’s growing demand for Christian books to two factors: economics and cultural adjustment. Not only are American Hispanics often “more affluent than their brothers and sisters in Latin America and able to purchase more books and Bibles,” he says, but emigration to America necessitates “an adjustment in their lives that also impacts other aspects of their lifestyle. One potential change is that they reconsider their religious affiliation.”
Radamés Suárez, cultural arts librarian of Queens Library’s Spanish-language collections, similarly theorizes that nowadays, “people are looking for answers to their questions, help for their ever-complicated lives.” This is especially true, he says, of immigrant communities that “have to deal with the insecurities wrought from living in new surroundings that may seem strange and even hostile to them.” [Stay tuned for more on Christian Publishing—The Librarians and Booksellers, in Críticas Connection this August.—Ed.]
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Vida has also won numerous awards—the Evangelical Christian Publishing Association’s Book of the Year Award, twice, for Rick Warren’s Una Vida con Propósito (The Purpose-Driven® Life) in 2004 and Una Iglesia con Propósito (The Purpose-Driven® Church) in 2003; and was named Publisher of the Year by the Spanish Evangelical Publishers Association at the Expolit 2006 ceremony in Miami, where it was also awarded Gold status (100,000-plus units sold) for Warren’s Purpose-Driven® Leadership and Platinum status (250,000-plus units sold) for his Purpose-Driven® Life, which has sold more than 1 million copies. Says Vida VP and Publisher Esteban Fernández of the traction of Una Vida con Propósito: “To have this title featured for several months within the top ten in Christian and non-Christian best sellers lists, it’s remarkable.” And though various other Christian and spiritual books have sold well for Vida, Fernández admits that Warren’s “has performed overwhelmingly above the rest and will be hard to replicate.” In this climate, however, he’s optimistic, declaring it “not impossible.” |
The Golden ChildOne major likeness between the English- and Spanish-language book markets is the immense popularity of the so-called “spiritual living” genre, an amalgam of self-help and religion whose hearty decade-long reign suggests real staying power. Spiritual living’s top dogs include Rick Warren, Joel Osteen, Joyce Meyer, and John Maxwell. Their books hit a key nerve in the self-help book market in both Spanish and English: they’re spiritual enough to appeal to the devout and ambiguous enough in their religious underpinnings to draw secular readers.
New Age is also prospering, especially since many New Age topics tap into mystical aspects so inherent to Latin American culture. A recent survey conducted by New Age Retailer magazine shows that 23.4 percent of New Age store customers are Hispanic—remarkable, given that they make up 14 percent of the U.S. population. Migene González-Wippler, a prolific writer on the subjects of religion and mysticism, is an especially widely read New Age author.
Minnesota-based New Age publisher Llewellyn began offering Spanish-language titles as early as 1994, and by 1995, its angel titles were doing well in particular, selling ten times as many copies in Spanish as in English (today, dream interpretation is the rage). The Spanish-language division of another New Age house, Inner Traditions in Rochester, VT, has also been reaping healthy profits, with books on numerology and the Afro-Cuban religion of Santería leading the charge.
 Larry Downs |
 Tessie DeVore |
What constitutes a Christian best seller in Spanish? For Tessie DeVore—executive VP of Strang Communications’ Spanish division, Casa Creación in Lake Mary, FL, and president of the Spanish Evangelical Publishers Association (SEPA)—it’s a title that sells more than 50,000 copies internationally. For Grupo Nelson’s Downs, a sale of 5000 to 7500 copies within the United States would spell success; two of Grupo Nelson’s authors who meet this criterion: Max Lucado and John Maxwell. Such a sale is most likely to happen, he says, with simultaneous Spanish- and English-language releases.
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The Best Sellers
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Indeed, while numerous Spanish-language works by Latin American authors find success here, the Spanish-language religion publishing industry subsists predominantly on translations of English-language best sellers in the CBA market. That’s because the marketing and promotion has already been sweated out on U.S. soil; the release of a Spanish translation timed as closely as possible to an English-language original’s initial media push is for the best route to bestsellerdom.
That’s not to say U.S. publishers aren’t interested in acquiring foreign authors. Twenty-five to 35 percent of Casa Creación’s books are by Spanish writers; while two of the publisher’s English-language best-selling authors are Osteen and Don Colbert, its most popular original Spanish writers include Marcos Witt and Danilo Montero.
Exact sales figures, as it happens, are hard to come by. DeVore calls the tracking of Spanish sales “almost prehistoric,” but concedes there have been improvements. A recent promising turn is an agreement struck by Bookstore Manager, a provider of technology solutions for the Christian retail industry, that allows CBA and its data-collection program, CROSS:SCAN, to gather sales data from independent Christian retailers using Bookstore Manager’s inventory-control software.
U.S. publishers aren’t the only ones vying for a share of the Spanish-language religious market in the States: there are also the international publisher-distributors with U.S. sales offices that handpick potential U.S. best sellers from affiliate companies as well as international publishers that collaborate with local distributors. “Every Latin American country right now has at least one Christian-Spanish distributor,” says Casa Creación’s DeVore, “and we do business one on one.”
Latin America and Spain
The desire for Christian Spanish materials internationally is equally strong. For instance, U.S. Spanish-language Christian publishers head in droves to Miami’s annual Spanish-language Christian book fair, Expolit, which draws participants from the entire Spanish-speaking world, largely to gain insight and entry into the international market. Depending on whether a book is U.S.-driven, Puerto-Rican-driven, or more internationally driven, DeVore estimates that Casa Creación sells about 50 to 60 percent of its titles within the United States and the rest in Latin America. Publisher Editorial Portavoz (Grand Rapids, MI), which specializes in religious titles and distributes through Pan de Vida (Montclair, CA) and Ingram Industries’ Spring Arbor (La Vergne, TN), has reported similar figures, supporting a 2000 SEPA survey that found the sale of religious books and Bibles was split almost evenly among U.S. and foreign buyers.
The influx of Hispanic immigrants into the United States will undoubtedly bolster American sales of Spanish-language Christian books, but recent changes in this country’s publishing marketplace may mean a shift in Latin America and Spain’s favor, with the international market on the rise.
In February of this year, Zondervan announced the sale of Vida’s Portuguese-language division, along with distribution and publishing rights, to an affiliate of Argentina-based Producciones Peniel (it will retain its Spanish-language half). And last month, Grupo Nelson announced its alliance with Spain’s RBA Editorial Group, which will help usher the likes of John Maxwell and Stephen R. Covey into Spain’s general market.
But getting in on the international action isn’t always so cut and dry. Since Osteen’s much-publicized move from Hachette’s FaithWords division (formerly Warner Faith) to Simon & Schuster imprint Free Press in 2006, Free Press has been open to bring its own Spanish-language version of Osteen’s next book, Become a Better You: 7 Keys to Improving Your Life (Oct. 15), to the United States and Latin America.Casa Creación, which licensed Osteen’s Su Mejor Vida Ahora (Your Best Life Now) through FaithWords, jumped in on the bidding for Latin American rights, but according to DeVore, the figure got too “astronomical” and the risk too great. “We do well in Latin America, but we had worldwide Spanish rights for his last book,” she explains. “The only thing they were selling was Spanish international rights, not U.S. or Puerto Rico.”The prize Simon & Schuster was offering up was certainly tempting, says DeVore, but “they were asking too much money for what was essentially a piece of the pie.”
The market for Spanish-language religious and spiritual titles is quickly evolving; its borders are being refixed even as they are coming down. And though American and Latin American publishers are distinct in their demographics, their interest in each others’ consumer bases is avid enough to majorly close the domestic and international divide. With Christian and spiritual books more easily available to Spanish-speaking peoples worldwide, we’re not just talking about a refiguring of the demographic landscape, but a retilling, in both publishing practice and religious identity, of its soil.
Raya Kuzyk is a writer and editor living in New York.
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