Reflections on the Publishing Scene

Some Aspects of Book Translations

Richard Abel

In an ideal world, the publishing of book translations would be seen as serving the estimable purpose of con- tributing not only the useful but also the unique intellectual and aesthetic fruits of each of the world's societies into what is now the world's common cultural treasury. In such an ideal world, book publishers in each of the world's principal language groups would, as a matter of routine, be seek- ing out, through their international in- formation exchange networks and in- ternational booktrade rights fairs, those books published by colleagues in other languages addressing subject matter within the ambit of their par- ticular subject-publishing niche. Little in the way of the positive additions to the world' s cultural wealth would lie forgotten in the back alleys and dusty attics of the world village if such a systematic survei l lance of the world's literature were an element of every serious publisher 's habitual routine.

Given that we, in fact, live in a less than perfect world and, more notably, a world characterized by limited fi- nancial resources and genuine limits on personal time and energy, lamen- table voids and oversights in the transfer of knowledge regularly occur. I was first struck by this failure back in the days when I was selling schol-

arly books to academic and research libraries around the world. Our ap- proval plan was able to deliver books in all the major European languages to any library. Yet, in many of the dis- ciplines in which they collected very heavily, few libraries wished books in languages other than that of the coun- try in which the library was located. This was, at that time, particularly no- table in English-language libraries. Often when I asked the reason under- lying this decision, I was told that little of value was being published in other languages.

Now to some degree, thanks to the leading role in STM research that the English-language countries enjoyed immediately after World War II, this view possessed some merit. Yet we were routinely sent scurrying by one library or another to find a particular STM title in another language which was nowhere available in the English- language world and upon which one important project or another, we were told, critically depended. Which rather gave the lie to the singular primacy of the self-sufficiency of the English-lan- guage publishing world. This peculiar parochialism seemed not to be repli- cated in other parts of the world. There, the lack of financial resources seemed to be the leading restraint.

Has this pattern changed with the

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growing recognition of the virtually total interdependence of the modern world? To try to make at least a pre- liminary assessment, I solicited the help of the publishing associations of the major book-publishing countries of the world in providing information on the translation activity in their lan- guage area--translations both into and from their languages. Usable data from Germany, Great Britain (from J. Whitaker, The Bookseller), Italy, the Netherlands, Sweden (which includes data on the other Scandinavian coun- tries), and the United States (from R.R. Bowker, Publishers Weekly) was sup- plied, though information on transla- tions out of any language was sketchy or shaky at best. It must be noted that the heavy traffic in exchanging co-edi- tions and selling of rights between the United Kingdom and the United States makes numeric conclusions of any kind relative to these two countries suspect, for double-counting is un- avoidable. The likelihood of double counting is increased in the case of translations, for they typically incur heavy front-end editorial costs, mak- ing them obvious candidates for risk- spreading by enlisting an overseas co- publisher.

In reviewing the data on translations from about 1970 to 1991, in most cases, one can only be struck by how little the percentage of translated works as a percentage of total book production in these countries, which represent a very significant fraction of the world's total book output, has varied over the years.

The ratio in the United States has hung at around 3 percent of total title output with great consistency. The comparable ratio in the United King-

dora has also shown a remarkable constancy at about 3.3 percent. The U.K. trade consistently publishes a greater number of translations than does the U.S. trade, but it publishes a larger number of titles in total as well. But as pointed out earlier, U.K./U.S. numbers are such that any firm con- clusions about comparative ratios and relationships are hard to defend.

The case on the Continent is much easier, though not without uncertain- ties in interpretation. Some slight in- crease in the percentage of translations as a function of total title production is discernible in Europe--Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, and Sweden-- of 10-15 percent over a 10-15 year pe- riod. That is a 2-3 percent increase in the total number of translations rela- tive to total yearly title output. But the percentages (which are approximate) have remained remarkably constant:

Country Translations (as percentage of total yearly

title production)

Germany 13% Italy 26 Netherlands 23 Sweden 26

However, when total quantities of book units sold are looked at, the pic- ture changes markedly. Total sales of popular fiction and juvenile titles greatly exceed those of all other cat- egories of titles. The two categories of popular fiction and juveniles account, in all cases, for the largest percentage of the various subject categories of translated titles. The consequence, of course, is that the total number of translated books sold soars as a func- tion of the total numbers of books sold.

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So in the case of Sweden, used as an example since the data from this country are the most complete, 77 percent of all popular fiction books sold in recent years are translations, largely from the English language, and disproportionately of U.S. origin. It is clear, then, that this is another example of the extraordinary dominance of the international world of entertainment presently enjoyed by U.S. mass media products. Incidentally, many countries that are being inundated by English- language mass market entertainment are sufficiently concerned to be con- templating steps to both stanch this flow and subsidize domestic authors and books.

A couple of other conclusions are readily evident. Most obvious is the continuing dominance of the worlds of research and scholarship by the En- glish language. This explains, in part, the continued low ratios of translated titles in the United Kingdom and the United States relative to the levels in other language groups.

But with this said, it seems that these comparisons confirm the oft-repeated observations that a certain provincial- ism or parochialism is associated with

the peoples of the English language group. It seems self-evident that genuine cultural contributions are roughly equally proportioned among people. So roughly as many contribu- tions can be expected to be made per thousand people in France, Germany, or wherever as are made per thousand in the English-language societies. Yet this conclusion is not reflected in the exchange of translations. English-lan- guage publishers do not, in short, seem to be working the foreign-language arena with the vigor of their counter- parts in other countries.

Lastly, it is clear from the low levels of book consumption, in all subject fields save popular fiction and juve- niles, particularly in the United States, that English-language publishers tend to turn from the high-cost, uncertain translated book to the more certain domestic manuscript.

English-language audiences surely deserve better access to the work of non-English authors than they are now receiving. Several financially viable and exciting English-language pub- lishing houses could be constructed around an aggressive and intelligent translation strategy.