An earlier partnership between Open Road Media and Barcelona Digital Editions has finally evolved into a full-fledged ebook imprint for Spanish language titles, Ciudad de Libros. This imprint, which will make both translations of English titles into Spanish and original Spanish works available as ebooks, is born out of the catalogs of both Open Road’s backlist (for which the company has a strong following by making available as digital titles) and Barcelona Digital Edition’s works.
In a statement, Jane Friedman, cofounder and CEO of Open Road said: “We are strong believers in the power of the Spanish language market and are excited to unveil our initial list and connect our authors with Spanish readers across the world.”
Translation is still misunderstood by a lot of the reading market, as it is not as simple as plugging the text file of a manuscript into an app and generating a new language file. Not only are there nuances and character elements that have to come through, which can–at least for now–really only be done by a human speaker of both languages, but each region carries its own flavor of particular languages. A book cannot simply be translated in Spanish and appreciated by speakers in every different relevant country; in fact, some translation service providers are even breaking English down in US, UK, India, and Australia-specific editions.
Obviously, this makes translation not only prohibitively expensive for many publishers–other than the handful of language markets that can provide the highest financial return–but also a laborious process that makes these books slow to reach their intended audiences. While Ciudad de Libros titles will reach the Spanish language market with both translations and native-first titles, this attention to foreign language markets from a well-known publisher is a great step towards providing ebooks to international readers.
“We offer the Spanish reader the possibility to discover authors of various nationalities from the past and present via great books,” continued Blanca Rosa Roca, cofounder and president of Barcelona Digital Editions. “We’re thrilled to share the talent of these authors and do our best to assure they are never forgotten.”
Mercy Pilkington is a Senior Editor for Good e-Reader. She is also the CEO and founder of a hybrid publishing and consulting company.