You can find a summary of the first part of this panel here. The second half of the panel was dedicated to questions from the audience, which I inevitably find to be less interesting than the moderated section but at least it's better than going to these things in a University setting where there is inevitably some douche who makes a five minute argument and tacks a question mark on the end. Anyway...
The first question asked was whether or not it was generally less difficult to make money publishing in Europe. Krüger said that it is also difficult in Europe. The book market is overcrowded just as it is in the US. They then brought the discussion back to translation specifically. Frank explained that most publishers in the US look at translation as a dead loss and also said that he doesn't think the problem is American provincialism but American triumphalism. He quoted Madeleine Albright describing the US as the world's "indispensable nation" and said that he thinks there is a feeling that if the US is the indispensable nation then so too must our literature be the indispensable literature. Entrekin pointed out that US publishers are in a difficult position because sales are much smaller for non-Anglo-Saxon writers. Maybe 2,000-3,000 copies in hardcover and you have to factor in the need to pay the translation costs. Freihow added that what is successful in one nation may not be successful in another and it is important for publishers to know their market.
The next question asked was one I didn't quite understand. It was something about how books published in translation or otherwise in Spain are then sold in Latin America and it doesn't seem to be the case that books translated in the UK are then sold in the US. Krüger was fairly dismissive of this saying that in the past Latin America had imported 80% of its literature from Spain but that happily seemed to be changing. He described it as a ridiculous post-colonial situation. It sounded like the issue was not a lack of exchange between the UK and the US in comparison to Spain and Latin America but the fact that there had been no real publishing industry in Latin America so even authors from there had to go to Spain to be published. Nelson added that in the 70s many Latin American poets were actually published in the US first, before they were even published in Spain.
There was also something about António Lobo Antunes. The fact that he is not popular in the English speaking world perhaps? That not enough copies are put out and this results in small sales? Krüger said that Antunes is actually very hard to sell in Germany as well. His company used to publish him and he was frustrated by his small sales so he went to a different company where his sales continue to be small. He then said something about him waiting to win the Nobel Prize now so that his sales will take off. But, he added, the ideas of the Swedish committee are bizarre (this is very true). This led to a conversation about making money off publishing in translation.
Entrekin said that winning the Nobel Prize does jump sales and used Kenzaburo Oe and sales of A Personal Matter as an example. It sounded like winning the prize can bring a writer to another level in status and then sales remain at a higher level because they are then considered a more important writer. That's my own interpretation though as opposed to anything that was said. Entrekin also returned to the subject of Antunes and said that his company also used to publish Antunes and he thinks that the difficulty in selling his books stems from the subject matter not the availability. Freihow than said that he expects novels in translation, particularly novels translated from English, to do better than a first novel by a Norwegian author, for example. So rather different than what you would expect in the US. Krüger said something to the effect of making money off the trash to put into good novels which seems a more general strategy to me then one just relevant to translation. Frank then said that it is possible to make money off books in translation but you have to expect to sell relatively few copies and know the market you are selling to, which is a niche one. I was glad he made a point of this since a high percentage of what NYRB Classics sells--particularly for a US company--is books in translation and they've been doing so for 10 years so I assume they have a business model that enables them to make money.
A question was then asked about the marketing of translated books. Nelson added that there are 300,000 books published per year in the US (this number seems high since in 2004 it was about 190,000 but I assume she knows better than I do) and asked how many are published in other countries. Krüger said that there are 10,000-20,000 fiction books published per year in Germany. I wish Nelson had provided the fiction numbers for the US or Krüger had provided the total numbers for Germany. Anyway, Krüger went on to say that readership is not growing. He also stated that the public imagination is constantly changing and used the popularity of crime novels in the US and not in Germany as an example of this. Freihow then jumped in to say that the market for crime novels is rising in all of Scandinavia. This led Krüger to note that the literary imagination is not popular right now. But Freihow, who seemed generally more optimistic to me, pointed out that The God of Small Things sold 70,000 copies in Norway so it seemed to him that we shouldn't say literature is failing. Krüger countered that there are more options now and that literature bestsellers are the exception. He also talked about how translating poetry is one of the oldest literary genres but doesn't sell.
After all this Frank actually addressed the question of marketing to an extent, in terms of different cultural complexions. He talked about the way in which books are arranged in a bookstore. In the US that is divided by genre and then alphabetically by author. But he said that in France books are arranged by country of origin and in Italy by publisher. So there is a difference in presentation--the expectation of a more literate public that is interested in reading literature from different parts of the world or the editorial curatorship that one sees from various publishers.
The next question was whether or not publishing trash in translation in the US could help to make works in translation more popular. Entrekin said that it's something that's happening now with Scandinavian crime fiction and Freihow added that it's better to read trash than not read at all (a view to which I subscribe). Frank then said that there's a lot worse trash than crime fiction. Another view to which I subscribe; I don't like the dismissal of entire genres as trash because I think it's simply not the case.
Someone then asked if non-fiction was different since the focus of the evening had been on fiction. Krüger said that in Europe publishers don't distinguish between academic and general non-fiction but he thinks in the future there will be academic presses/supported systems as there are in the US. Freihow said that smaller countries like the Scandinavian ones are actually losing their academic literature because the authors write and publish directly in English. I thought these were interesting answers but wasn't convinced that they really addressed the question.
The final question of the evening was whether or not it was difficult to find good translators in the US. Entrekin said that it is easy to find translators for the major languages but a bit more difficult to find translators for smaller languages. Overall though, he thinks it is not that hard. What is hard, he said, is to make a living as a translator, and most of them work in academia. Frank agreed, and that ended the evening.
Showing posts with label publishing. Show all posts
Showing posts with label publishing. Show all posts
Saturday, May 03, 2008
Friday, May 02, 2008
Publishers Weekly: On Translation (Part I)
The PEN World Voices festival fills me with glee. Writers from all over the world talking about books and literature on panel after panel...what's not to like? There are a lot of events that overlap or take place during the workday, but I'm going to attend a bunch of panels and such in the next few days so I'm looking forward to that.
The panel I went to Thursday centered on translation which is, of course, a topic that one practically has to consider during a festival that features writers from all over the world who write in a multitude of different languages. This particular panel was not about the act of translating itself but the business of publishing literature in translation. Something we don't do much of in the United States.
The panel was comprised of Edwin Frank, the editorial director of NYRB Classics; Morgan Entrekin, the president and publisher of Grove/Atlantic; Michael Krüger, the head of German publishing house Hanser Verlag; and Halfdan Freihow, who founded his own publishing house, Font Forlag, in Norway. Sara Nelson of Publishers Weekly moderated.
The panelists all began by talking a bit about their involvement with translation and the amount of their publishing output that is literature in translation, with the American publishers speaking specifically of their companies and the European publishers more generally of publishing in translation in their countries.
NYRB Classics publishes 25 books a year and has been doing so for 10 years. They began as a reprint house, publishing books that were out of print in English, but they now also publish books that have never been translated into English before. As a side note, I love the NYRB Classics imprint: its ambition in terms of publishing choices, its list, its uniformity of design, pretty much everything about it.
Krüger said that Germany, "came late into civilization," and that German literature begins with Martin Luther's translation of the Bible. Translations have always been a big part of German publishing with over 50% of books published in Germany originating in foreign countries, and 60-70% being translations from Anglo-Saxon languages. He stated that the translation business is a prestigious one and the concept of the translator is highly regarded with translators now being treated like an author to a large extent.
Freihow said that at least half the books he publishes are in translation which he described as normal for Norwegian publishers. He then went on to make three points:
Entrekin described the backlist of Grove as the engine that allows the publisher to run and mentioned that it has a great core of literature in translation and that is a tradition he attempts to continue. At the same time, he explained, it is extremely difficult to sell literature in translation in the United States. Grove publishes 10-15 translated books per year. He explained that he thinks of publishing these books, as it was once described to him, as a kind of "psychic equity." The company is contributing to the conversation in a way that will improve perception of and support for the imprint.
Nelson then mentioned that only 3% of the books published in the United States are in translation and asked the European publishers where the books they publish originate. Both Krüger and Freihow said that around 50% are from the United States and England and Freihow also said that half of those are the big bestsellers. Freihow then went on to speculate as to why translated work doesn't sell in the US. He feels that it can't be the subject matter, which is the same regardless of where the work is from, nor can it be the foreign names since the US has such a diverse population that we're used to unusual names. It seems to me though that the problem starts before the readers even make a choice on what to buy though as Entrekin said the booksellers don't order books in translation and the reviewers don't review them. They say they don't have space on their shelves or inches in their columns. He also pointed out that in the post-WWII era, many of the books that did get translated were very intellectual, non-narrative, and difficult to read, which could have turned readers off. He said that he does think it's getting easier to sell translated books and that this is in part because of the sort of books that are being written and published.
The next question related to funding for translations and the fact that an agent had recently told Nelson that it was difficult to sell American books in Europe due to current politics. Krüger answered that he doesn't find any anti-Americanism in publishing and feels that American books have more influence in Germany than they did, say, 50 years ago. Entrekin said that it is more difficult to sell books in Europe than it was in the 80s but he thinks it is partially a market correction after the very high number of books that were being sold there at the time and partially the result of an influx of writers from all over the world. So basically that the American books are now being drawn from a bigger pool than they were previously. Freihow said that part of the issue is "greedy agents" driving prices up and a lack of translation support from the US. Krüger pointed out that even small European countries provide 3 or 4 million dollars a year to support translations and many of the translations published are funded largely by the government. He doesn't understand why the US can't do this. Frank ascribed it to that eternal sore spot: the lack of government funding for the arts in the United States.
On a slight tangent, Krüger said that he feels we need to translate contemporary work because translating old thinking means going back. Freihow then spoke about the export business as a threat to translation because people read the books in English instead of waiting for the translation to be published and then local publishers lose out. This is something I actually was aware of because I've heard the foreign sales people at my company speak about it. Apparently this is particularly the case in some of the Scandinavian countries so it wasn't surprising to hear Freihow mention it. Personally I tend to think this is a good thing, because it seems to me that it is always better to read something in the language in which it was originally written if it is possible to do so. I can understand why publishers wouldn't love it though. This led to a brief discussion of global publishing and of titles being released in multiple countries/languages at roughly the same time. Krüger said that trash travels extraordinarily fast while non-trash is very slow. Freihow then added that the publishing business tends to overestimate the importance of time. The interested reader doesn't care if a book is brand new.
The audience was then invited to ask questions. I'll write about that a bit later, because this is long and I'm tired with a long Friday stretching out before me: I've got work, another panel I'd like to go to, and then the ballet in the evening.
The panel I went to Thursday centered on translation which is, of course, a topic that one practically has to consider during a festival that features writers from all over the world who write in a multitude of different languages. This particular panel was not about the act of translating itself but the business of publishing literature in translation. Something we don't do much of in the United States.
The panel was comprised of Edwin Frank, the editorial director of NYRB Classics; Morgan Entrekin, the president and publisher of Grove/Atlantic; Michael Krüger, the head of German publishing house Hanser Verlag; and Halfdan Freihow, who founded his own publishing house, Font Forlag, in Norway. Sara Nelson of Publishers Weekly moderated.
The panelists all began by talking a bit about their involvement with translation and the amount of their publishing output that is literature in translation, with the American publishers speaking specifically of their companies and the European publishers more generally of publishing in translation in their countries.
NYRB Classics publishes 25 books a year and has been doing so for 10 years. They began as a reprint house, publishing books that were out of print in English, but they now also publish books that have never been translated into English before. As a side note, I love the NYRB Classics imprint: its ambition in terms of publishing choices, its list, its uniformity of design, pretty much everything about it.
Krüger said that Germany, "came late into civilization," and that German literature begins with Martin Luther's translation of the Bible. Translations have always been a big part of German publishing with over 50% of books published in Germany originating in foreign countries, and 60-70% being translations from Anglo-Saxon languages. He stated that the translation business is a prestigious one and the concept of the translator is highly regarded with translators now being treated like an author to a large extent.
Freihow said that at least half the books he publishes are in translation which he described as normal for Norwegian publishers. He then went on to make three points:
- Translation and the importation of voices is invaluable, particularly in a small country like Norway, to insure that the country does not become linguistically or intellectually isolated. Books that have been translated should be treated as part of the literature of the language they have been translated into.
- Translators are at the forefront of linguistic development due to their need to search for metaphors, etc.
- He feels that it is important to pay above the going rate for translation.
Entrekin described the backlist of Grove as the engine that allows the publisher to run and mentioned that it has a great core of literature in translation and that is a tradition he attempts to continue. At the same time, he explained, it is extremely difficult to sell literature in translation in the United States. Grove publishes 10-15 translated books per year. He explained that he thinks of publishing these books, as it was once described to him, as a kind of "psychic equity." The company is contributing to the conversation in a way that will improve perception of and support for the imprint.
Nelson then mentioned that only 3% of the books published in the United States are in translation and asked the European publishers where the books they publish originate. Both Krüger and Freihow said that around 50% are from the United States and England and Freihow also said that half of those are the big bestsellers. Freihow then went on to speculate as to why translated work doesn't sell in the US. He feels that it can't be the subject matter, which is the same regardless of where the work is from, nor can it be the foreign names since the US has such a diverse population that we're used to unusual names. It seems to me though that the problem starts before the readers even make a choice on what to buy though as Entrekin said the booksellers don't order books in translation and the reviewers don't review them. They say they don't have space on their shelves or inches in their columns. He also pointed out that in the post-WWII era, many of the books that did get translated were very intellectual, non-narrative, and difficult to read, which could have turned readers off. He said that he does think it's getting easier to sell translated books and that this is in part because of the sort of books that are being written and published.
The next question related to funding for translations and the fact that an agent had recently told Nelson that it was difficult to sell American books in Europe due to current politics. Krüger answered that he doesn't find any anti-Americanism in publishing and feels that American books have more influence in Germany than they did, say, 50 years ago. Entrekin said that it is more difficult to sell books in Europe than it was in the 80s but he thinks it is partially a market correction after the very high number of books that were being sold there at the time and partially the result of an influx of writers from all over the world. So basically that the American books are now being drawn from a bigger pool than they were previously. Freihow said that part of the issue is "greedy agents" driving prices up and a lack of translation support from the US. Krüger pointed out that even small European countries provide 3 or 4 million dollars a year to support translations and many of the translations published are funded largely by the government. He doesn't understand why the US can't do this. Frank ascribed it to that eternal sore spot: the lack of government funding for the arts in the United States.
On a slight tangent, Krüger said that he feels we need to translate contemporary work because translating old thinking means going back. Freihow then spoke about the export business as a threat to translation because people read the books in English instead of waiting for the translation to be published and then local publishers lose out. This is something I actually was aware of because I've heard the foreign sales people at my company speak about it. Apparently this is particularly the case in some of the Scandinavian countries so it wasn't surprising to hear Freihow mention it. Personally I tend to think this is a good thing, because it seems to me that it is always better to read something in the language in which it was originally written if it is possible to do so. I can understand why publishers wouldn't love it though. This led to a brief discussion of global publishing and of titles being released in multiple countries/languages at roughly the same time. Krüger said that trash travels extraordinarily fast while non-trash is very slow. Freihow then added that the publishing business tends to overestimate the importance of time. The interested reader doesn't care if a book is brand new.
The audience was then invited to ask questions. I'll write about that a bit later, because this is long and I'm tired with a long Friday stretching out before me: I've got work, another panel I'd like to go to, and then the ballet in the evening.
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