La Mala Suerte Ediciones

Habla Español? Our friends, new Spanish publishers La Mala Suerte, are ramping up their publications list with Spanish translations of books originally printed in English.  Regardless that Spanish has the second-largest number of native speakers in the world (Chinese is first), at 450 Million people, the truth is very few motorcycle publications bridge the language divide. My own books ‘Cafe Racers’, ‘The Chopper: the Real Story’, and ‘Ton Up!’ have been translated to French, but never Spanish, for whatever reason: perhaps because the right publishing partner had not yet appeared?

I met La Mala Suerte co-founder Marina Cianferoni when she lived in Italy, and had written a comprehensive thesis on motorcycles in film.  I asked her to help with a chapter on choppers in film for ‘The Chopper: the Real Story’ (along with The Vintagent’s future Editor for Film, Corinna Mantlo), and she was soon drafted as a judge for the Motorcycle Film Festival.  Marina announced several years ago her intention to create a Spanish-language publishing house after a move to northern Spain, and she’s fulfilled that promise first with the publication of Melissa Holbrook Pierson’s ‘El Vehículo Perfect0’ , the perfecto first book for a new publishing house dedicated to motorcycles.  They have also translated Matthew Biberman’s ‘La Leyenda de Big Sid y la Vincati’, and up next is Brian Belton’s amazing, no-holds-barred biography ‘Faye Taylour: la Reina del Speedway.’

As for the future? “We are currently working on the publication of the third book in Spanish – the biography of Fay Taylour – and on the fourth, the tour of the world by Elspeth Beard.   The Italian editions both of Elspeth’s and Biberman’s books are expected to be available early next year, if we have luck with the money, you know, this is the worst moment to start an activity… Actually I feel extremely coherent with the name La Mala Suerte!!!”

It’s likely a title or two of my own will finally be available en Español:  if you support Spanish-language motorcycle books, visit La Mala Suerte, and give them a little love: they’re doing a good thing.