Welcome to another edition of Shelf Awareness Extra!, which are special issues that focus on a particular subject and appear once a month. This edition focuses on multilingual bookselling and publishing. 

Shelf Awareness recently surveyed a group of booksellers who sell multilingual books--mostly in Spanish and bilingual Spanish/English editions--about the challenges and rewards of selling and marketing those books. Some of the booksellers carry a large amount of multilingual books. Others have a relatively small selection that they're slowly building. Here they tell what's worked and offer advice for those who want to venture into or expand in this area.

The Stores
¡Viva! Los Libros, Chicago, Ill., began as a mobile bilingual bookshop, bringing Spanish-language and bilingual books into Chicago neighborhoods, school events, and community spaces. That has grown into a bilingual and Spanish-language school book fair program serving schools in Illinois, Iowa, and New Jersey. Dual-language schools have emphasized to ¡Viva! Los Libros that they aren't usually offered a book fair where students can browse and choose in both of their languages. As co-founder Nina D. Sánchez says, "Watching a child realize that the whole shelf is for them is still the best part of the job."

About 95% of ¡Viva! Los Libros' inventory is in Spanish or in bilingual English/Spanish format. The rest of the titles are English-language Latine works. The store's experiences have led it to begin a publishing program. See more about that in the following story!

Cellar Door Bookstore, Riverside, Calif., has three shelves of Spanish-language titles, including work by Elizabeth Acevedo, Isabel Allende, Julia Alavarez, Isabel Canas, Javier Zamora, Fernanda Melchor, and many more. The store is adding more nonfiction titles because of demand. Founder Linda Sherman-Nurick notes, "We have lots of readers who come in seeking Spanish-language titles."

Taller Puertorriqueño, Philadelphia, Pa., is part of a Puerto Rican cultural center so it focuses on Spanish books, selling books only by Latine/Latin American authors, in fiction, history, memoir, children's books and more. About two-thirds of inventory is in English and most of the rest is in Spanish. The are also "a handful" of titles in Brazilian Portuguese.

Lisa Moser, bookstore manager at Taller Puertorriqueño, notes that "the only designated 'Spanish language' section we have is for fiction. The rest of the store is organized by genre with English and Spanish titles shelved together. If a title is published in English and Spanish, we always carry it in both languages. We sell a lot of middle grade & YA books to Spanish language learners, and fiction and nonfiction to customers whose first language is Spanish. Children's books are by far the most popular of our Spanish language books. We generally try to focus on books that are originally written in Spanish, not translations of popular English titles."

At Books & Books in South Florida, the majority of books sold are in English, but 10% of sales are books in Spanish, says Raquel Roque, collaborator and Spanish book buyer with many years of experience selling multilingual books. The stores also have a variety of other foreign-language sections, including French, Haitian Creole, German, Italian, Russian, Portuguese, Arabic, Tagalog, Korean, and Vietnamese. "We stress bilingual because that is the future of our readers," she says.

Judging by the Cover is located in Fresno, Calif., which co-founder Ashley Mireles-Guerrero calls "one of the nation's most diverse cities." So when the store opened in 2024, "we committed to stocking books that reflect our city's diversity, and for us that also meant books in Spanish, Hmong, Punjabi, and Chinese."

At first, the store's goal was to have 20% of stock non-English. It hasn't yet reached that level, but "we've consistently stayed around 10% bilingual or multilingual," Ashley Mireles-Guerrero says. "Some languages have become harder to find because they are out of stock, not being reprinted, or because tariffs have made it harder to order from overseas publishers. We currently have Spanish, Punjabi, Chinese, Japanese, Armenian, and Arabic on our shelves. And while we commit to purchasing Hmong titles whenever we can, our partnership with Fresno Unified clears us out nearly as often as we restock."

Events
In the past year, ¡Viva! Los Libros in Chicago hosted events with Justice Sonia Sotomayor and Yuyi Morales that together reached more than 2,500 Chicago children and families, and last month, it brought Lil' Libros authors Alejandro Ochoa and Nayeli Reyes to 18th Street Casa de Cultura in Pilsen for a bilingual storytime and early signing of Emilio and His Dream Circus.

At Taller Puertorriqueño, since the store focuses exclusively on Latine/Latin American authors, "by nature we attract a lot of Spanish speakers," Lisa Moser says. "As far as programs, bilingual children's story time has gotten a great reception." 

Working with the Community
Nina D. Sánchez notes, "Rather than waiting for families to find us, we sell wherever our community already gathers: our brick-and-mortar co-location in Chicago, our bilingual school book fairs, community pop-ups at festivals and Día de Muertos celebrations, Libros y Lager (a book night for grown-up readers at a local brewery), classroom and school library curation for educators, and literacy events that bring Latine authors and illustrators face to face with the children who will grow up with their books."

Beyond that, ¡Viva! Los Libros emphasizes "showing up at community-led events, building relationships with neighborhood schools, and partnering with community-led and community-serving organizations so we understand what their multilingual learners and families actually need before we offer anything. From there, we share our free and donation-based literacy programs and the ways our business can support their work, and whenever possible our marketing and outreach materials are available in both Spanish and English, so no family has to translate their way into a relationship with us. Giving back has been part of our model from the beginning, and in the six years since we opened, we have donated more than 4,000 bilingual and Spanish-language books to children and youth through community organizations. As members of the community we serve, we see it as our mandate to build relationships rooted in reciprocity, identity, and language affirmation."

Cellar Door Bookstore has always been "very involved with our LatinX community," Linda Sherman-Nurick says, "but now through resistance to immigration enforcement, mutual aid groups, Migra Watch and more, we have even more. We do have a Spanish book club, which has been steadily growing and is all in Spanish. It is more about providing books in Spanish for a community who has always looked for them than having to market them."

At Books & Books, speaking with the community is key, Raquel Roque says. This includes "reaching out to libraries--public and academic; schools, starting with elementary schools all the way through university level; chambers of commerce; where the community hangs out! We are relentless that way!"

Roque also notes that there's a lot of interest from native English speakers. "Whether learning the language or being more comfortable in their native language," she says, Books & Books customers "appreciate our effort as booksellers. Inclusivity is the KEY!"

Judging by the Cover has "a direct partnership" with the Fresno Unified School District and orders multilingual titles for them. "We've also worked directly with non-profits that serve non-English-speaking Fresnoans," Ashley Mireles-Guerrero says. "This has helped spread the word about the books we carry. We also create Spanish advertisements for events that will have a bilingual author or where the books are also available in Spanish, and partner with our local Radio Bilingue to reach the Spanish-speaking audience in Fresno. Each community has its own networks around their languages. We've found connections that help us get the word out in those languages."

She notes, too, that a lot of customers are enthusiastic about the store. "Our city has been starved of multilingual literature, and they are always so excited to see what we can bring in for them. I've also been pleasantly surprised by how little we have to do to get the word out; once a community knows we have books for them, the word spreads pretty quickly on its own."

Learning About, Sourcing, and Pricing Multilingual Books
Nina D. Sánchez of ¡Viva! Los Libros is encouraged that more U.S. publishers are releasing Spanish editions, "yet those editions often arrive months or even years after the English original, as though Spanish-speaking children can wait their turn. Bilingual editions remain especially scarce, so families who want both languages are usually forced to choose between an English book and a Spanish book, which simply isn't how bilingual and multilingual people live, think, or love one another at home."

For Sánchez, buying trips to Mexico and visits to the Guadalajara International Book Fair are important for learning about Spanish-language children's literature. ¡Viva! Los Libros sources titles from U.S. and international suppliers and prices the books "comparable to the broader market" with no additional markup in order to keep titles affordable.

Cellar Door Bookstore focuses on books originally written in Spanish and specifically books from Mexico, Central America, and South America. "Publishers are doing more of this now, but I have looked into going to Latin American publishers for more," Linda Sherman-Nurick says. She adds that the store has found it "incredibly difficult" to find large print books in Spanish.

Like other U.S. booksellers, Lisa Moser of Taller Puertorriqueño has found a lot at the Guadalajara International Book Fair, where she was "totally overwhelmed." The two biggest publishers Taller Puertorriqueño orders from are Planeta and PRH Grupo Editorial. "Other languages can be more challenging to find and/or have a smaller selection."

Moser notes that seeking a specific title can be difficult. "For example, an English translation of the popular Brazilian thriller The Secret Dinner was recently released. A customer asked if we had it in the original Brazilian Portuguese, but it's not published in the U.S., and I was unable to find it anywhere except as an e-book on Amazon."

Moser adds that she sells books from U.S. publishers at retail price while the titles she's bought at Guadalajara she increases "to account for the high cost of shipping and the scarcity of the book."

Raquel Roque says that ordering multilingual books has become "super easy nowadays. Any bookstore can reach out through Schoenhof's, Ingram, IPG, although unfortunately Baker & Taylor, Bilingual Books and Lectorum--big players for years--are now out of business." She notes that "Ingram has taken the lead, especially through IPS (Spanish) but Ingram Spark has made it possible for them to offer French, Arabic, German titles." She adds that Gardners is also "a good source."

At Judging by the Cover, "Spanish titles are easy for us to vet," says Ashley Mireles-Guerrero. "Both my partner and I can read and understand Spanish. Languages outside of Spanish are a little harder. Our partnerships with community nonprofits help us find titles that are well translated, culturally appropriate, and of interest to our readers."

She praised some "incredible U.S.-based publishers" that issue children's books in multiple languages and the ones publishing increasing numbers of Spanish-language titles for adults. She's "a huge fan of Con Todo Press, Bitty Bao, Lil' Libros, Lee & Low, Primer Sueno, Riot of Roses, and Barefoot Books because I know their titles are consistently good quality and the non-English books are always available and being reprinted."

The store has also worked with several small presses in India to get Punjabi books, which in Fresno are more popular than books in Hindi. The store has connected with some Mexican publishers through local poet laureate Aideed Medina. "For the titles we import, I will try to bring them in once or twice a year, since it requires a little more work," Ashley Mireles-Guerrero says.

Pricing varies. On imported books, Judging by the Cover sometimes adds a small premium to cover costs, "but we're also a mission-based store that believes books should be affordable," Ashley Mireles-Guerrero emphasizes. "I have reduced our margin or absorbed some costs in the past to get book prices down to an affordable rate for non-profits or schools." Most often there is an MSRP in dollars that she uses.

Pitfalls
Nina D. Sánchez says she was "genuinely shocked" to learn that many Spanish-language books, including those published abroad, are translations from other languages. This "pushed me toward a more rigorous assessment of cultural relevance and alignment with anti-bias and anti-racist pedagogy rather than accepting the language on the cover as proof of anything."

General Advice
Nina D. Sánchez's advice to booksellers beginning to stock multilingual titles: "Before you order a single title, get to know the communities in your town or city in more than a general way, including which languages they speak, which countries and regions their families come from, and how language actually lives in their homes, because that knowledge is what allows you to curate with care instead of guessing. Be thoughtful about how these books are merchandised, so they become part of the store rather than a separate shelf in the back, and look closely at your relationships with the people and organizations most deeply connected to these multilingual communities. Then ask how your shop can support the work they are already doing while bringing visibility to the resource you now offer, since the bookstores that do this well don't just stock non-English books--they become places where those families feel they belong."

Linda Sherman-Nurick emphasizes that the market is bigger than many people think. "There are so many people who would like to see more books in Spanish, both native Spanish speakers and those who are embracing the idea that citizens of this country would do well to be fluent in a language other than English, as do citizens of most other countries. I would encourage any bookstore to try it."

For beginners, Raquel Roque recommends starting small, saying, "Watch your budget according to your space and start only with distributors in the U.S."

Ashley Mireles-Guerrero offers this advice for newcomers to multilingual bookselling: "Do your research. Find what your local community is looking for and also consider what audiences you can actually reach. Early on, we wanted to carry some books in every language read in Fresno, but we found that some communities are already getting their own books from different sources, or we didn't have a direct line to connect with them. Because both my partner and I are Latine, members of REFORMA, and children's book authors, the Spanish children's section was our first step. When the Fresno Area Hispanic Foundation, of which we were members, partnered with the Punjabi small business network, we also began making connections in that community and expanded. The school district partnership was our next big expansion for our language section; we are getting great info and great orders from their multilingual education department. You can't just add languages and expect people to find you. You need a real connection to the community you are trying to serve."

The following is a selection of publishers, distributors, and others with information about multilingual titles, resources, and guides . 

ABA
The American Booksellers Association offers an extensive booksellers' guide to Spanish-language books, Books in Spanish: Sourcing and Ordering Guide. It offers tips on getting started, reaching out to the community, determining the types of books the store should carry, children's books, spreading the word, connecting with other bookstores that carry Spanish language books, how to support the books, apply for grants, and more.

Barefoot Books
Barefoot Books offers many children's titles in bilingual format, pairing English with a variety of languages, including Spanish, French, Arabic, Creole, Bengali, Portuguese, and Chinese. Check out its titles here.

Charco Press 
Charco Press, which focuses on contemporary Latin American literature, publishes some of its translated titles in the original language and simultaneously through the Originales program.

The program was undertaken to expand what Spanish language readers have on offer in the U.S.--the market is overwhelmingly classics or English language works translated into Spanish, so Originales was an attempt to do what Charco does with its translation program as well: bring the best of the vast and diverse world of what's being written now to readers in the U.K. and the U.S. Charco means "puddle" so whether in Spanish or English, the books are there to bridge that gap.

Con Todo Press
Distributed by Lakeside Book Company, Con Todo Press is a Latina-owned publishing company that creates children's books that celebrate Latino leaders and culture and to help fill the gap in the publishing industry, where Latina/o/x stories are vastly under-represented. Its titles are in Spanish and English.

Groundwood Books/House of Anansi
Groundwood Books has several collections of translated, bilingual, and multilingual titles. Its Spanish Collection contains Spanish translations of the press's bestselling books, as well as books with text in both English and Spanish.

The press also has a growing collection of books that support Indigenous language revitalization. One example is a new poetry collection from author Jorge Argueta, Tay naja nitajtaketzki achtu tik Nawat / ‌Mis primeras palabras en nahuat / My First Words in Nahuat‌. The book was written in English, Spanish, and Nahuat, the language of the Nahua people, who are an Indigenous population in El Salvador.

Independent Publishers Group

IPG distributes a range of Spanish-language publishers and has a Spanish catalog.

Ingram

Ingram Content Group has built a multilingual catalog that includes millions of titles and is working with publishers to improve the availability of these titles. It's also seeking foreign-language publishers interested in making their titles more available in the U.S.

Inner Traditions

Inner Traditions has an extensive Spanish language program, which includes the Spanish editions of Inner Traditions titles as well as titles from Grupo Gaia that it distributes in the U.S. It also has a dedicated catalog Inner Traditions en Español.

Lee & Low
Lee & Low offers a range of guides and tips on multilingual titles, including:

• Recursos en Español (Resources in Spanish)
• The Kit de herramientas para libros biográficos (Set of tools for biographies)
• The bilingual Guia de Lee & Low Books para leer en casa con familia/The Lee & Low Guide to Reading at Home with Children.
• Multilingual Educator Q&A with Guadalupe García McCall: Author, Professor, and Educator
• Using Picture Books to Teach Multilingual Learners: Strategies from Lee & Low Books
• Supporting the Superpower of Multilingualism in Young Children Webinar

Macmillan Children's Publishing Group
Macmillan Children's Publishing Group's many imprints offer numerous bilingual titles. Check out these collections on Edelweiss:

MCPG Spanish-Language + English/Spanish Bilingual Titles Edelweiss Collection

MacKids School & Library Latine Voices for Kids and Teens Catalog (pages 14-17 for Spanish language and Spanish/English bilingual editions)

Macmillan Bilingual Titles Edelweiss Collection

Seven Stories Press
Seven Stories Press has two Spanish-language imprints: Editorial Siete Cutentos and Ocean Sur. It also publishes bilingual books under the Seven Stories Press imprint and has translated some of its children's titles published under the Triangle Square Books for Young Readers into Spanish.

In its Spanish-language books catalog, Seven Stories notes that it features titles in Spanish by Angie Cruz, Roque Dalton, Ernesto Che Guevara, Subcomandante Marcos, Paco Ignacio Taibo II, and Ariel Dorfman, among many others. It has also listed Latin American interest English language titles by award-winning authors including Guadalupe Nettle, Rodrigo Blanco Calderón, Clyo Mendoza, and Iván de la Nuez. See titles here.

¡Viva! Los Libros

¡Viva! Los Libros, the Latine-led bookseller in Chicago, Ill., has developed a publishing operation that focuses on what it calls bilingual-by-design books: stories developed in Spanish and English at the same time, from the first word, so that neither language is a translation of the other and both carry the same cultural depth, narrative care, and room for the Spanglish and translanguaging our kids actually use at home. Its debut title, SOMOS / We Are, is a bilingual board book for children ages 2–5, available in November. Three more titles are currently in development.

In addition to books, ¡Viva! Los Libros has free and low-cost resources for the families and educators doing the daily work of raising bilingual readers:

• The Bilingual Pathways Guidebook, a community workbook for families and educators, already circulating in Chicago homes and classrooms
• El Español Empieza en Amor, a bilingual family workshop on home reading practices, offered to schools and early childhood partners
• Discussion guides, read-aloud videos, and classroom activities developed with dual-language educators, released as open resources alongside each title