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Re: Latino Publishing
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From: Jason Low <jlow_at_leeandlow.com>
Date: Thu, 07 Feb 2013 14:41:16 -0500
Megan, What I was driving at when I said I agreed with what Lulu Delacre said regarding the civil rights issues facing Latinos in this country and how this influences acquisitions was less about the content and more about business. To quote Lulu:
"But since then, we’ve seen some events that may have influenced the eagerness of a publisher to acquire a Latino themed book. Do you remember California’s proposition 187? Or Arizona’s immigration crackdown? To this political climate you add the changing nature of publishing in
the twenty-first century and it is understandable, to a point, the reluctance of trade publishers to seek in earnest Latino titles."
Add to this the passing of proposition 227 in the late 90s which decimated bilingual children's book sales in California. These are all political acts specifically designed to limit the freedoms of Latinos. Now if you were an acquisitions editor, would you be going out of your way to publish more books for this segment of the population? From a business point of view you would most likely draw a conclusion that it is better to take a wait and see attitude. See how it all shakes out. Add this to my earlier comment about books sale benchmarks.
Awards like Belpre (and CSK) were designed as political statements. Their sole purpose is to bring attention to books that were routinely ignored by the mainstream awards. Publishing books about multicultural themes is a political statement because it is a deliberate act to inject ethnic representation into children's books. CCBC's statistics of books that contain children of color is a political act because it points to a void that should be corrected. At the same time, I also agree with you, Megan. What is political about a Latino coming of age story or a book about a Latino girl dealing with the loss of her mother? These are just universal stories that anyone can relate to. So yes, they aren't political but they are political, until a time when they are just regarded as stories about people.
Date: Thu, 07 Feb 2013 14:41:16 -0500
Megan, What I was driving at when I said I agreed with what Lulu Delacre said regarding the civil rights issues facing Latinos in this country and how this influences acquisitions was less about the content and more about business. To quote Lulu:
"But since then, we’ve seen some events that may have influenced the eagerness of a publisher to acquire a Latino themed book. Do you remember California’s proposition 187? Or Arizona’s immigration crackdown? To this political climate you add the changing nature of publishing in
the twenty-first century and it is understandable, to a point, the reluctance of trade publishers to seek in earnest Latino titles."
Add to this the passing of proposition 227 in the late 90s which decimated bilingual children's book sales in California. These are all political acts specifically designed to limit the freedoms of Latinos. Now if you were an acquisitions editor, would you be going out of your way to publish more books for this segment of the population? From a business point of view you would most likely draw a conclusion that it is better to take a wait and see attitude. See how it all shakes out. Add this to my earlier comment about books sale benchmarks.
Awards like Belpre (and CSK) were designed as political statements. Their sole purpose is to bring attention to books that were routinely ignored by the mainstream awards. Publishing books about multicultural themes is a political statement because it is a deliberate act to inject ethnic representation into children's books. CCBC's statistics of books that contain children of color is a political act because it points to a void that should be corrected. At the same time, I also agree with you, Megan. What is political about a Latino coming of age story or a book about a Latino girl dealing with the loss of her mother? These are just universal stories that anyone can relate to. So yes, they aren't political but they are political, until a time when they are just regarded as stories about people.
--- Jason Low Publisher LEE & LOW BOOKS 95 Madison Avenue New York, NY 10016 t. 212-779-4400 x. 27 f. 212-683-1894 e. jlow_at_leeandlow.com Learn more at leeandlow.com. Please consider the environment before printing this emailReceived on Thu 07 Feb 2013 02:41:16 PM CST
