Cinco Puntos Press http://www.cincopuntos.com
Bobby bbyrd@cincopuntos.com, and Lee Byrd are Cinco Puntos Press. Bobby was born in 1942 in Memphis, TN. His desire to live in the desert resulted in his attending University of Arizona in Tucson. In 1969, he moved to South Colorado then to Albuquerque and Las Cruces, NM. He moved to El Paso with his wife, Lee, in 1978. His daughter, Susie, had lived in fourteen different houses before they finally settled in El Paso. At the time, Bobby and Lee were technical writers.
Cinco Puntos Press http://www.cincopuntos.com became a reality in 1985. Bobby had published another book of poetry and asked his publisher how he had started his publishing house. Bobby thought the process sounded easy enough. “I shot myself in one foot as a poet and shot myself in the other foot as a publisher,” Bobby says. But he and his wife wanted to make a living doing something they loved, which was writing. Through publishing, he believes that a person draws on their immediate surroundings. In El Paso because of their involvement in different community groups, they decided to publish books addressing the most prevalent local population: the Latinos.
Publishing has enabled him to broaden his areas of knowledge and involvement. “Poets tend to stay in one area of expertise,” he explains, while the business of publishing encompasses a variety of issues and expertise. Since becoming a publisher, he has developed a deeper understanding of the diversity and complexity of the U.S./Mexican border situation. “Publishing, like writing, is a self-revelation,” he says.
In November 1998, the NEA http://www.nea.gov had approved funding for the publication of The Story of Colors / La Historia de los Colores: A Bilingual Storybook from the Jungles of Chiapas, written by Subcomandante Insurgente Marcos of Mexico’s Zapatista Army of National Liberation and illustrated by indigenous artist Domitilia Domínguez. Cinco Puntos bought the rights from the Mexican publisher, Colectivo Callejero, which had published the book in Mexico. The writings of Marcos, Byrd reminded, were in the public domain. Marcos had given up copyright.
The NEA budgeted $7,500 for the publication. But after a call from New York Times reporter Julia Preston on March 8, 1999, NEA chairman William Ivey, personally canceled the part of the grant that supported the publication of this book. He was worried, Ivey told the press, that NEA funds might end up in the hands of the Zapatistas. The next day, because of Bill Ivey, Cinco Puntos Press and The Story of Colors were on the front page of The New York Times.
“It was a strange media frenzy, a true boon to Cinco Puntos. But real ideas and issues got lost in that frenzy, the most important of which is the indigenous struggle for autonomy and land in Chiapas,” Byrd was quoted. You can read more about this incident on their website at http://www.cincopuntos.com/storyofcolors.ssd
Mr. Byrd believes that the growing diversity among writers is encouraging, but “If publishers are seeking out Latino authors, their books won’t be coming out for a couple of years.” For a long time, publishers believed that Latinos came from mostly low income families, but now they are discovering that there is a much larger middle-class population in the U.S. Many of the larger publishers are awaking to this fact by the successes of small presses like Cinco Puntos Press.
Middle class Latinos are book buyers who are interested in their culture and interested in maintaining it for their children by reading books written by Latinos, Byrd points out. They don’t want books with a European slant nor do they choose to read translated-into-Spanish books from the dead white male cannon perspectives.
New York does not have to look for Latino authors, Byrd says. They have been here and are growing in numbers. Publishers, book sales representatives and bookstores owners need to understand this thirst for the Latino culture in literature to be able to sell books to Latinos. Latinos go into stores where they feel they are treated respectfully. Boutiques and gift stores that also sell books will more likely carry books for Latinos and he has found have been more successful than bigger bookstores.
In 2001, Mr. Byrd attended the National Association of Bilingual Education http://www.nabe.org conference in Phoenix, AZ. He found many librarians and school teachers in the Phoenix area were desperate for bilingual books suitable for classroom use.
The University of Arizona, http://www.uapress.arizona.edu/home.htm, The University of Nevada http://www.nvbooks.nevada.edu and many small presses are starting imprints for Latino writers. Small Press publishers are hungry for Latino writers. However, most small presses have an existing niche audiences and markets. They map out their literature territory and stick to it. It is important for Latino writers to do their homework and investigate various small presses before submitting their work. For a writer to be published by a small press that does not usually do that type of book can be disastrous for both the publisher and the writer.
The future for Cinco Puntos Press looks promising. “It is true that they have been publishing more and more children’s literature, but they will continue to publish fiction and non-fiction, even poetry, from the American Southwest and the Border region. They consider these perspectives essential to the American psyche” Byrd writes. They do encourage Young Adult writers and offer a Young Adult Annual Prize for new authors. For more information on the competition, check out: http://www.cincopuntos.com/youngadults.pdf
When writing, you have to follow the rules, Byrd advises. Investigate the publisher before submitting your work. Understand that publishing is a long drawn out process. The reason for manuscript rejection may not be that the manuscript is bad, but that the publisher may feel unable to sell the book once published. Poetry does not sell well in Byrd’s opinion. He feels non-profit publishers are best for poetry because they are subsidized.
While the amount of books being sold has remained the same, the number of books being published has increased tremendously. There is more competition now then ever before. Byrd warns not to expect miracles and not to quit the day job. He emphasizes the need to read and he respects writers who are interested in what he calls the “beast of literature.”
“Read then write,” Byrd says.
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