Series 0ne

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?