Looking ahead to Chile’s turn as Frankfurt’s guest of honor in 2027, publisher Nicolás Leyton advises keeping the breadth of the Latin American context in mind.

By Jarosław Adamowksi | @JaroslawAdamows

‘A Lot of Opportunities’

Chile is set to be Frankfurt’s guest of honor market in 2027,  following Czechia’s 2026 program and this year’s Guest of Honor Philippines events.

Among those who spoke in Frankfurter Buchmesse’s Rights Meeting‘s series of events earlier this year, Nicolás Leyton, a co-founder of the Chilean publishing house La Pollera Ediciones, was among the most focused and articulate in terms of international translation and publication rights.

Publishing Perspectives has had a chance to speak with Leyton on the local Spanish-language industry he knows so well and on what being a guest of honor at Frankfurt can mean to his Latin American home market.

“The invitation for Chile to be the guest of honor,” Leyton says, “represents a lot of opportunities—not just for the rights market, but also for the entire publishing industry.

“For example, there are new technologies, ebooks, print-on-demand, audiobooks, and other services that can help modernize the industry.

“Some of these developments haven’t fully arrived yet in Chile and to Latin America, so I think that the guest of honor holds the possibility for the Chilean industry to be updated, to catch up with the new trends and technologies.”

‘It’s a Huge Territory’

Leyton points out that his publishing house was founded in 2010 and already has more than 130 titles published.

“We mainly focus on literature, both fiction and nonfiction,” he says. “We also publish translations of classic and contemporary authors from other languages, and we publish science and communication books.”

“None of the Latin American markets is very big but at the same time, we share a common language.”Nicolás Leyton

Recently, he says, his company’s bestselling books have included titles by the contemporary Chilean author Andrés Montero.

“We’ve already sold the rights to his works to be translated into other languages,” Leyton says, “including into Italian, Greek, Arabic, and also in English to a UK-based publishing house. We’re doing very well with our contemporary authors.”

In terms of challenges involved in publishing books in Chile, “I think the main problem in distribution,” he says, “is the lack of metadata.

“In the Latin America industry overall, as well as in the Chilean industry, we don’t have standard metadata for our books. This is why the necessary information is hard to find, not only for the people who buy books, but also for the people who want to conduct business in the book industry.”

For those ready to work ahead toward the 2027 Guest of Honor Chile program, Leyton recommends that they keep the broader picture—the Latin American context and its breadth—in mind.

“None of the Latin American markets is very big,” he says, “but at the same time, we share a common language.

“So you must aim not necessarily at just one country. Finding a partner for each country can be an option.

“Different publishing houses can then share the expenses of translations and rights. When it comes to buying rights, it’s a huge territory.

“So I think you need to be aware of the significant job that publishers must do here.”

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More from Publishing Perspectives on Frankfurter Buchmesse and its extensive guest of honor programs is here, more on Latin America and its markets is here, more on international translation and publication rights is here, our series of Rights Roundups is here, and more on Chile is here.

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