Filed under: n.p.d
The other task maybe is to make reading as interesting as film or TV, with many other new emerging media vying for our attention, maybe the book isn’t immediate enough, afterall who has the time to read. And again how do you make foreign fiction sexy?
Talking to the guy in my local Waterstones book shop, having translated fiction on the cover wasn’t a good selling point, it gives and idea that the book is going ot be hard work before you even start it, this was again confirmed by my boss’s wife who while in areading group and always on the look out for something new to introduce toothers, finds that translated books if not translated well, often feel clunky and off putting and so we have the saying “lost in translation”
In another LBF seminar on the highs and lows of translation, the translator talks of being faced with the dilema, does he do a straight translation of the work, or does he use his creative licence, and how will this will be received by the reader, is it an enjoyable experience, some times he is even working alongside the author, and sometimes the author doesn’t want to be associated with the translation at all.
When we first think of the word foreign, there are a whole host of positive and negative connotations that could spring to mind, harnessing the right ones is the tricky part.
Filed under: n.p.d
I’ve found from my research, a very small percentage of books that are in the english language are from foreign authors, wether its the hassle of dealing with another link in the whole process i.e. a talented translator, which is another added cost, or the unpredicatable aspect of wether they will do the story justice, or that this may take some time to turn around.
I listened to the keynote speech at the London book fair and while the panel explained at great lengths the significant contribution publishing and the creative industries play in our economy, when I african guy stood up at the back to complain there wasn’t enough books from foreign authors, to which the panel:
The value of publishing on society
Gail Rebuck CBE, The Random House Group / Tony Baldry, MP / Professor Sir John Enderby CBE / Margaret Hodge, Misister of State, DCMS
All were left pretty speechless, it seemed that maybe it was a closed shop, from the publishers point of view they want to make money from whats going to sell, and foriegn authors are a pretty small market.
So the challenge was how can we create a foreign fiction brand? who would buy this? and how could we reachan audience in an already saturated book market, is there room for something new?
