Samuel Lamanite Editions

Samuel Lamanite Editions is a US-based publisher of books in Spanish and Portuguese for members of the LDS Church. Our goal is to help make books and literature for LDS Church members widely available to those who speak Spanish and Portuguese.

Unfortunately, this goal is quite difficult, given that currently just a few stores carry LDS materials in these languages and that even fewer publishers produce LDS materials in these languages.

The situation is complicated because of the cost of translation and the relative incomes in most Spanish and Portuguese-speaking countries. Simply put, consumers in these languages can’t afford to pay the cost of translating works into their language, so we believe they are better served by materials originally produced in these languages.

Given the situation, Samuel Lamanita Editions seeks to do the following:

1. Publish and distribute at least 5 works in Spanish and Portuguese each year. From what we see, this would double the number of works produced in Spanish each year and increase five-fold the number of works published in Portuguese.

2. Make both our own publications and those of other publishers available in North America, through traditional bookselling channels as well as through LDS bookstores. Because Spanish is significantly larger than Portuguese in North America, our efforts will favor Spanish over Portuguese.

3. Seek works originally written in Spanish or Portuguese. While we are open to publishing translations, we believe that both church members and the Church in Spanish and Portuguese-speaking countries will benefit most from materials originally written in these languages.

4. Seek alternative publishing and distribution methods to meet the needs of speakers of these languages, given that they rarely have the means to pay for international shipping or for the costs of local bookstores.

5. Work with publishers and booksellers in Spanish and Portuguese-speaking countries to get works distributed in those countries.

Obviously we will not be able to do all of this ourselves. We need partners in Mexico and Brazil, in Chile, Spain and Colombia, and even here in the United States. We need authors, booksellers and even other publishers.

If you believe you can help, please contact us!