The state of publishing in Latin America/Spain

[macandal]

Here, in the States, we writers pretty much have to get an agent in order to get published. It is almost impossible to be published without one. That's all in general terms, of course, I know that exceptions occur and every once in a blue moon a writer will skip all formalities and go directly to a publisher who will publish his/her book, but if someone asked us how does one get published in the U.S., I'm sure we would all say that one needs an agent first. That said, does anyone know how is this done in Latin America/Spain? I don't think the agent system exists in LA/Spain the way it does here. I know some of the big names in Latin American literature (Gabriel Garcia Marquez, Carlos Fuentes, Isabel Allende, Mario Vargas Llosa) have agents (in fact, I think it is the same agent who represents them all, Carmen Balcells), but how does a newbie break through in Latin America/Spain? I tend to think that they do so without agents. I think they go the publisher route and, once they get noticed, they get an agent. I'm saying all this from information I've gathered after reading interviews with these writers and how their books (especially the first ones, when they were unknowns) got published. They only mention their agents in their later years, once they had gained recognition. I would love to hear what some of the members of the board may know regarding this subject. Thanks.

(Please also tell me if this is not the right place to post this question.)

[Lauri B]

Here, in the States, we writers pretty much have to get an agent in order to get published. It is almost impossible to be published without one. That's all in general terms, of course, I know that exceptions occur and every once in a blue moon a writer will skip all formalities and go directly to a publisher who will publish his/her book, but if someone asked us how does one get published in the U.S., I'm sure we would all say that one needs an agent first.

Macandal, that's just plain wrong: it's not once in a blue moon that unagented writers get published, and it's not almost impossible to be published without one. Where are you getting your facts?

[JennaGlatzer]

Hi Mac,

What kinds of books are you writing?

I sold 10 of my books without an agent, but I mostly write nonfiction. I know it's tougher to get novels published without an agent, but there really are many houses in the US that will look at unagented work (even if they say they won't).

Don't know the answers to your questions, but depending on what you write, I'll either bump this thread to the novels or the nonfiction board to see if others can comment.

[macandal]

I guess what I meant to say is that it is the norm to get an agent first who will help you get published, especially for fiction. It is my understanding that in Latin America/Spain the process is a little different, that's where my question came from. I didn't mean to say that you cannot get published without an agent but that having an agent perhaps makes the process easier.

[Jamesaritchie]

Macandal, that's just plain wrong: it's not once in a blue moon that unagented writers get published, and it's not almost impossible to be published without one. Where are you getting your facts?

Writers do get published without an agent, but it's certainly not the norm, at least when talking abut mainstream publishers. Most of the large publishers won't even look at submissions unless they come from agents, and many that do look still don't buy.

Having a maionstream publisher buy your novel without going through an agent is at least once in a pale blue moon.

[write4details]

Yes, it's possible to get published without an agent, but it is not the normal thing, and gets less so every day. OK? Now can we move on the question?

I know nothing about publishing in Spain, and every Latin American country has a different set-up, obviously. But there are generalizations that can be made.

It's a whole different ball game down here. Only 4 percent of Mexicans read novels. Honduras, Belize, Guatamala,Bolivia much less. Books are very expensive and in small editions. (US writers frustrated because their books don't make the cut because they would sell "only 50,000 copies" are often astonished to realize that books they look at in Latin American are run in editions of 10, 5 or even 3 thousand.

Like most businesses in LA, publishing is extremely corrupt and heavily linked to the government. It's not atypical to notice that writers who cultivate the proper political culture get published (and appointed to faculties and official boards and committees) where as those outside that sphere get nowhere at all. I am continually asked about how local writers can break into the US market in order to escape from this situation.

A typical route to publication might include university actitivites and posts. (In much of Latin America, schools are hotbeds of political activities...and I'm not just talking about protests and wearing ugly clothes: I'm talking about serious, armed politics. The Sendero Luminoso was originally a school club, most guerilla activity in Mexico, including the Zapatistas, is aligned with and funded by organizations out of the autonomous universities in Guadalajara and Mexico City.)

Much of the publishing comes out of these university owned or affiliated presses, which run off money from the whole art/culture control budget. There is a visible path by which one can work up from a student or teacher to a regionally published writer to somebody of interest to national publishers.

One thing to be noted here, since you mentioned Garcia Marquez, is that he is a very close fit to the political mold required. He's a drinking pal of Castro's for crissakes. He'd do well in Venezuela or Mexico as well. Not so much in Peru or Argentina.

This is not to say that a writer of his gifts is successful because of his politics...but it might be saying that if his politics were different you might not have heard of him.

Some of the Mexican writers you might have heard of attained national and international prominence from outside that structure. Laura Ezquivel, the author of "Como Agua Para Chocolate", for instance was in television. Several hot writers came up through film, which is a wider-open area, oddly.

The publishing industry is not a situation that requires agencies--they are as foreign to the set up as financial advisers or bond brokers. Once a writer like Ezquivel or Garcia gets to the point of selling internationally...which pretty means New York...an agent is needed and enters the picture pretty quickly.

I am not sure why you asked about his, and doubt this is helpful...but there it is.

[macandal]

Thanks write4details. I was just curious about how things are done in LA/Spain. It's funny you mentioned film and Laura Esquivel, Garcia Marquez was also working in film before writing One Hundred Years of Solitude. He wrote (with Carlos Fuentes, I believe) a good movie called Tiempo de morir (translated: Time to Die). I disagree with you, though, that a writer like Garcia Marquez, because of his politics, may not be well received in countries like Argentina or Peru. I was in Argentina last year and I can tell you he's very popular and widely read there.

I was asking because I was just curious, that's all. Like I said, reading interviews with these writers I mentioned, I found out that they were now agented but not back when they first started. After I posted my question, I went to the Alfaguara (http://www.alfaguara.com) web site (a Spanish publisher with branches in most Latin American countries and the U.S.) and they give you guidelines for submissions (agented or not).

[write4details]

Don't misunderstand me. I didn't mean that Garcia's politics would affect reaction to his work anywhere, only that his left-leaning would have been an asset to his rise to prominence in certain countries, but not in others.

[macandal]

I just talked to a friend of mine who's from Spain and knows a lot of writers there and he says that, these days, writers there are getting agents. He told me that writers in Spain are relying more and more on agents to get their works published. Some are still getting published without an agent but this seems to be changing.