Neeltje van Marrising has her hands full since she began working as Director of the University of Puerto Rico Press [Editorial UPR]. The country’s most important publishing house is being rebuilt after it was run into the ground by the previous administration.

Van Marrising, who previously worked for Editorial Santillana, has taken over in a situation where the press had accumulated a deficit of $4.8 million (through the 2013 fiscal year) and with the numbers against it: revenues from book sale had suffered a significant reduction of 37.5% during 2012 and 2013.

“La Editorial is one of the institutions that has brought the most luster to the University, and it was not being given its rightful status,” van Marrising noted in an interview with this newspaper [Noticel].

With a budget of a quarter million dollars for the editorial function, the goals are clear: this year, the press will publish between five new books and ten eBooks; the following year the numbers will be doubled.

The idea is not only to increase publications. The “La Editorial” store has about 600 accumulated book, the oldest, from 1980. The plan is to increase the aggressiveness of sales through electronic publications, the “La Editorial” page, bookstores, and large stores, she said.

After being appointed, the first thing she did was meet with employees of the office, who have had between 15 and 37 years working in editing and publishing academic books. To win over the enthusiasm and confidence of the employees—after all those years of low accountability— has become the main challenge. [. . .]

For full article (in Spanish), see http://www.noticel.com/noticia/173850/se-renueva-la-editorial-de-la-upr-galeria.html