Learn Hardcore Spanish (Spain): Trabajo en una editorial que publica novelas y poesía para jóvenes. - I work at a publishing house that publishes novels and poetry for young people.

Trabajo can only be “I work” (1st person singular), so yo is not needed.
You normally add yo only for emphasis or contrast:
- Yo trabajo en una editorial, pero mi hermano estudia.
  I work in a publishing house, but my brother studies.

So Trabajo en una editorial… is the most natural, neutral way to say it.

Can I also say Yo trabajo en una editorial…? Is it wrong or just different?

It’s correct, just a bit more marked in tone.

Trabajo en una editorial… = neutral, plain statement.
Yo trabajo en una editorial… = often adds emphasis:
- correcting someone: Yo trabajo en una editorial, no en una imprenta.
- making a contrast: Yo trabajo en una editorial y ella en un banco.

So you can say it, but Spanish speakers don’t put yo in every sentence the way English uses I.

Why is it en una editorial and not para una editorial?

Both are possible, but they focus on slightly different ideas:

Trabajo en una editorial
Literally: I work *in/at a publishing house.
Focus: the *place / company where you work.
Trabajo para una editorial
Literally: I work *for a publishing house.
Focus: the *employer or who you work on behalf of, not necessarily the physical place.

In everyday Peninsular Spanish, for “I work at X company”, trabajo en X is very common and completely natural. Trabajo para X is also fine, especially if you want to stress who pays you or that you might work remotely / as a contractor.

Does una editorial mean the same as English “an editorial” (an opinion article)?

No, it’s a false friend.

In this sentence:

una editorial = a publishing house / publishing company, the business that publishes books.

In Spanish:

la editorial (feminine) → the publishing house
el editorial (masculine) → an editorial article in a newspaper (an opinion piece)

So here, with una editorial (feminine), it clearly means a publishing company, not an opinion article.

Why is editorial feminine here (una editorial)? It ends in -al, which often looks masculine.

Grammatical gender in Spanish is partly arbitrary and must be learned word by word.

As a noun meaning publishing house, editorial is feminine:
- la editorial, una editorial, esta editorial
As a noun meaning an editorial article, it’s usually masculine:
- el editorial, un editorial

The ending -al does not reliably indicate gender. You have, for example:

el hospital, el animal, el festival (masculine)
la catedral, la señal, la moral (feminine)

So you just have to remember: la editorial = publishing house.

Why is it que publica and not que publican?

The relative pronoun que refers to una editorial (singular), so the verb must also be singular:

una editorial que publica…
a publishing house that publishes…

Novelas y poesía are objects (things published), not the subject doing the action, so they do not control the verb agreement.

If you said que publican, the subject of publican would logically be novelas y poesía (they publish), which doesn’t make sense here. The one that publishes is the editorial, not the books.

Could I say Trabajo en una editorial donde publican novelas y poesía para jóvenes instead?

Yes, that’s also correct, but the nuance changes slightly.

que publica:
Emphasizes the company as the subject:
- a publishing house *that publishes novels and poetry for young people.*
donde publican:
Literally: where they publish, with an implicit “they” (people there / the company).
It feels a bit more impersonal:
- I work in a publishing house where they publish novels and poetry for young people.

Both are natural in Spain. The original version (que publica) is a bit more precise grammatically, because the subject (la editorial) is explicit.

Why novelas y poesía and not novelas y poemas?

The choice is about focus:

novelas y poesía
- poesía = poetry as a genre, seen as an art form / type of literature.
- Suggests the publishing house works with novels and poetry in general.
novelas y poemas
- poemas = individual poems (countable pieces of writing).
- Focuses on specific poems as items.

In a general description of what a publisher produces, novelas y poesía (novels and poetry) sounds very natural, like saying: we publish fiction and poetry.

Why isn’t poesía in the plural (poesías) here?

Because here poesía is used as an uncountable / mass noun meaning poetry (as a literary genre), similar to English:

They publish poetry (not poetries).

You can see poesías in plural, but it has a different feel, usually:

talking about different types / styles of poetry:
- las poesías de distintas épocas
or (more old‑fashioned / literary) to mean poems:
- Recitó unas poesías en clase.

In modern everyday Spanish, for individual pieces we more often say poemas, and for the art form we say poesía (singular, uncountable), as in the example sentence.

Why is there no article in para jóvenes? Why not para los jóvenes?

Both are grammatically correct but have different nuances:

para jóvenes
- No article → speaks generally: for young people (as a target audience).
- Very natural in advertising / descriptions of products or services:
  - libros para niños, cursos para adultos, ropa para mujeres
para los jóvenes
- With article → sounds more like a specific group / category, almost like for the youth (as a social group).
- Slightly more formal or rhetorical, and less typical in this kind of simple job description.

In a neutral sentence describing a publisher’s target readers, para jóvenes is the most natural option.

Why does jóvenes have an accent on the ó?

Because it breaks the normal stress rule.

Syllables: jó-ve-nes (3 syllables)
Words ending in a vowel, n, or s are normally stressed on the second‑to‑last syllable.
Without an accent, jovenes would be pronounced jo‑VÉ‑nes.
But the real word is pronounced JÓ‑ve‑nes, so Spanish writes an accent mark (jóvenes) to show this irregular stress.

So the accent tells you where to put the stress: JÓ‑ve‑nes.

Why does poesía have an accent and how is it pronounced?

Poesía has 4 syllables: po‑e‑sí‑a.

In writing, í has an accent to show that í is the stressed vowel.
Without the accent (poesia), by default you would stress the e (po‑É‑sia), and ía might be read as a diphthong.
The accent mark creates a hiatus: e and í are in separate syllables: po‑e‑sí‑a, and the stress goes on sí.

Pronunciation: roughly po-eh-SEE-ah, with the strongest stress on SEE.

In English we often say “I’m working in a publishing house…”. Could I say Estoy trabajando en una editorial… in Spanish?

You can say Estoy trabajando en una editorial, but it usually implies the work is temporary or in progress now:

Estoy trabajando en una editorial este verano.
I’m working in a publishing house this summer (just for now).

For a permanent job / general fact, Spanish strongly prefers the simple present:

Trabajo en una editorial.
I work in a publishing house.
(and this also covers “I’m working…” in the habitual sense)

So for describing your profession, Trabajo en… is the normal choice.

Could I move para jóvenes and say Trabajo para jóvenes en una editorial que publica novelas y poesía?

You can move para jóvenes, but the meaning changes:

Trabajo en una editorial que publica novelas y poesía para jóvenes.
= The novels and poetry are for young people.
Trabajo para jóvenes en una editorial que publica novelas y poesía.
= Sounds like you work for young people (on their behalf), and, incidentally, that work happens to be at a publishing house.
It could be understood as some kind of social / educational role.

In Spanish, word order is fairly flexible, but moving a phrase like para jóvenes often changes what it seems to modify. In the original sentence, its natural place is right after novelas y poesía, because it describes the target audience of the books, not who you work for personally.