Translated Fiction Continues to Gain Ground with Global Audiences

With the advent of digital publishing and the comparative ease of selling ebooks–at least as it compares to selling and shipping print editions–niche publishers are beginning to reach international audiences of readers with translated fiction, many of which were contemporary betsellers in their countries of origin. Publishers like Le French Book, which brings French bestsellers to US audiences after meticulous translation into English, and Spanish Publishers, which works in the other direction by bringing US titles to Spanish-speaking readers, are helping to break down some of the border issues by making otherwise undiscovered books available. While there are very specific copyright issues that have to be addressed when publishing a foreign title, the issue isn’t entirely insurmountable. Yet, according to an article by Christina Larson in Bloomberg Business Week that focused specifically on the small numbers of Chinese titles, the publishing industry is slow to pick up international works for translation and reprint in the US and UK. “In 2012, American publishers purchased translation rights for just 453 foreign titles, about three percent of the total books published in the U.S. Of those, just 16 were books first published in Chinese, according to records kept by Chad Post, publisher of New York-based Open Letter Books press.” Some of the reluctance to market books from China may have once had to do with the “exotic” view that many Westerners had of the region, largely due to little being known culturally, a sad state when the winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature was Chinese novelist Mo Yan. The reluctance to market works from traditionally underrepresented cultures may be changing as more publishers recognize the open nature of reading. Post is hopeful that more works from various regions of Asia make their way to US and UK readers, an outcome made all the more feasible by digital publishing. Translated Fiction Continues to Gain Ground with Global Audiences is a post from: E-Reader News

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