Lost in translation: The Spanish-language puzzle

Associated Press ^ | May 31, 2009 | Hillel Italie

[reaganaut1]

The long-rumored e-book boom at last has arrived. But publishers still wait, and wait, for another supposed surge: Spanish-language titles.

Thousands of booksellers, publishers and authors gathered for BookExpo America, the industry's annual national convention, which ended Sunday. Along with much discussion about rapidly growing digital sales, there was disappointment, and some confusion, about the relative slowness of Spanish sales in any format.

Publishers have looked for years to the Hispanic market, which back in 2000 was spotlighted at BookExpo as one of great promise. The Hispanic population is at least 45 million, according to the U.S. Census Bureau, and ever more prominent, especially after the recent nomination of Sonia Sotomayor for the Supreme Court.

But Spanish-language sales remained small and sporadic. A handful of books — translations of such blockbusters as the "Harry Potter" series and "The Da Vinci Code" — might sell hundreds of thousands of copies. Otherwise, a Spanish work is lucky to sell more than 10,000, according to Simon & Schuster CEO Carolyn Reidy.

And the e-book market for Spanish titles is virtually nonexistent, publishers said.

Brian Murray, the CEO of HarperCollins where the Spanish-language imprint was cut during recent companywide layoffs, said the publisher was in a "holding pattern" on that market until the economy improves.

Although Simon & Schuster had success with the translation of Rhonda Byrne's "The Secret," Reidy said the market "just hasn't coalesced."

Publishers are as unsure of solutions as they are of causes. They debate the need, or the possibility, of a single breakthrough book with the impact of Terry McMillan's "Waiting to Exhale," which sold millions in the 1990s and awakened the industry to the size of the African-American market. And they wonder whether immigrants are more eager to learn English than to read in Spanish.

[reaganaut1]

The publishers are wearing their PC blinders. Hispanics who are educated, literate, and buy books -- know English!

[Le Chien Rouge]

I live in Texas and I know quite a few ‘Hispanics’ who don’t speak or understand a word of Spanish.

A lot of those 45 million have been in Texas and other states longer than MY family has been in the US.

[perez24]

What makes the publishers think that Hispanics who only speak Spanish can read Spanish?

[Don Corleone]

The language of this country still is and should remain ENGLISH...AMERICAN ENGLISH!

[T Minus Four]

And the e-book market for Spanish titles is virtually nonexistent

...but we'll spend money on government grants to study the issue, then pass legislation "solving" the non-problem, costing publishers lots of money, which will either drive up the cost for everybody else or cause the publishers to fold.

There. That's better.

Now, onto the problem of blind people not using ATMs much, in spite of the braille instructions posted right on the fronts.

[Altura Ct.]

That is a good point.

[bvw]

In Mexico the average school teacher reads TWO books a year. Hispanics are not big book readers.

Comics and comic novels, but not books.

[I Buried My Guns]

They have found the cure for the boring old novel:

Telenovelas!

[C19fan]

Latin America has produced many great authors but the reading is not particularly popular in Latin American culture. When I have visited Guatemala City I noticed the complete lack of book stores even in malls and shopping districts that the middle and upper classes shop in.
The first obvious reason is a huge proportion of the population are illiterate or just have an elementary school level of literacy. Many of the immigrants who have come to th US are illiterate even in Spanish.
As another poster mention generally people who are educated are likely to be literate in english.

[kabumpo]

Apart from that, there is no such thing as a “Hispanic market”. There are people from different countries with different cultures who speak Spanish. The corporate world keeps thinking that everyone who speaks Spanish is the same and likes the same things. The children of illiterate peasants are no going to want the same products as a college graduate from Argentina.