MAIN NEWS HEADLINES
March 6 – March 13, 2008 Edition
Penguin Launches
Personality-Driven
Hispanic Imprint
NEW YORK, NY/3/8/08–Penguin Group (USA) last week announced it will launch Celebra, the first imprint to exclusively publish mainstream Hispanic personalities, with the much-anticipated publication of His Panic: Why Americans Fear Hispanics in the U.S. by world-renowned journalist Geraldo Rivera on February 26th The announcement was made by Leslie Gelbman, President of The Berkley Publishing Group.
Showcasing the appeal of today’s most fascinating Hispanic personalities, Celebra will publish books by well-known leaders in a number of fields, including entertainment, politics, health, and business. The goal of the new imprint is to publish books for mainstream readers that will also resonate with the vast population of Hispanics in the United States. Celebra will be run by Publisher Raymond Garcia.
Gelbman commented, “The launch of Celebra adds to our already rich and diverse family of imprints, putting us in a very strong position to reach mainstream and Hispanic readers around the world. Celebra has a terrific list of authors, from Geraldo Rivera to Perez Hilton to Gloria and Emilio Estefan, and books with broad appeal. Raymond Garcia’s unique vision for these books and his extensive experience in reaching the audience makes him the perfect person to lead this important new imprint.”
Garcia said, “I am elated to launch Celebra, a milestone in book publishing. Hispanics are no longer a niche audience, but rather an integral and seamless part of today’s mainstream America. Celebra will feature a list of marquee authors that I am both honored and humbled to publish. With Penguin’s excellent reputation for marketing and distribution, I’m confident we will make a significant impact.”
Kara Welsh, Vice President and Publisher of New American Library, commented, “We are thrilled to have Raymond Garcia launching this publishing program under the New American Library umbrella. Our sales, marketing, publicity, and design departments are excited to be working on the new titles.”
Garcia comes to Penguin Group (USA) from Harper Collins, where he served as Associate Publisher of Rayo. While at Rayo, Garcia worked with such authors as Jorge Ramos, Nina Garcia, Anthony Romero and New York Times bestsellers Jorge Cruise, Paulo Coelho, Isabel Allende, and Gloria Estefan. Before joining Harper Collins, Garcia was President and Founder of REG|strategic innovations, a fully integrated branding and design company with offices in New Jersey and Florida. With clients ranging from Time Magazine to Celia Cruz, the company’s primary functions were introducing Hispanic brands to mainstream markets as well as introducing mainstream brands to Hispanic markets.
In addition to Rivera, whose hard-hitting book will be a vital contribution to the current political discussion about immigration, Celebra’s lineup of authors includes international superstars Gloria and Emilio Estefan; internet gossip and self-proclaimed “Queen of All Media” Perez Hilton; Jorge Perez, the largest private real estate developer in the country; Markos Moulitsas, founder of the most popular political blog on the web, DailyKos.com; Eduardo “Piolin” Sotelo, the host of the top-rated Spanish-language radio show in the country; and People en Espanol, the number-one Spanish-language magazine in the US
Celebra will publish books in both hardcover and paperback with approximately one-third of its titles also translated into Spanish. The books will encompass a variety of genres, including celebrity memoir, self-help/how-to, cookbooks, and children’s titles.
