Translated literary fiction is selling better on average in the UK than literary fiction originally written in English, according to new research, with authors including Elena Ferrante, Haruki Murakami and Karl Ove Knausgaard driving a boom in sales.
Though fiction in translation accounts for just 3.5% of literary fiction titles published, it accounted for 7% of sales in 2015, according to a survey commissioned by the Man Booker International prize.
The research, conducted by Nielsen Book, looked at physical book sales in the UK between January 2001 and April 2016. It found that translated fiction sales almost doubled over the last 15 years, from 1.3m to 2.5m copies, while the market for fiction as a whole fell from 51.6m in 2001 to 49.7m in 2015. More.
See: The Guardian
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Indonesia
Local time: 20:19
English to Indonesian
+ ...
It's certainly a good news for fellow translators there. However, I believe that UK has good fiction writers too.
France
Local time: 15:19
French to English
This is partly driven by the fact that everyone learns English and therefore at least a bit about culture in English-speaking countries, whereas native English speakers don't learn foreign languages... See more
This is partly driven by the fact that everyone learns English and therefore at least a bit about culture in English-speaking countries, whereas native English speakers don't learn foreign languages much - why bother when the foreigners can all speak English!
So if an author does get translated, it's because they're jolly good, which means they enjoy success, which then encourages publishers to publish other translations. Looks like it's on a lovely upward curve as a result. ▲ Collapse
United Kingdom
Local time: 14:19
Member (2008)
Italian to English
So if an author does get translated, it's because they're jolly good...
Not exactly. It's because their agent has been able to sell them and get exposure for them.
There is a very great deal of good fiction being written in English, but not in the UK. In Ireland, India, Australia, and perhaps above all in the United States.
Poland
Local time: 15:19
English to Polish
+ ...
Additionally, there's a popular view in the Anglosphere th... See more
Additionally, there's a popular view in the Anglosphere that the quality of a translated work should be judged independently from the quality of the original — which promotes the sycophantic and deceptive ways of translation agencies and supplies them with an excuse to pile more work on the translator with no additional pay through a sort of cognitive reframing. Plus, perhaps largely for this reason, translators from the Anglosphere lean more heavily toward domestication and transcreation, and where the same approach taken by the same translator would degrade a better written book, by contrast, it can help save a poorer one.
[Edited at 2016-05-16 13:14 GMT] ▲ Collapse
United Kingdom
Local time: 14:19
Member (2008)
Italian to English
Fiction writing requires a certain skill set fiction translators may not have — and certainly not on par with a mature writer. However, writing quality declines along with the education system, whereas translators are still held to stricter standards than normal writers. In fact, they are often expected to fix bad originals. Hence it's possible translation reflects better writing and even storytelling (if not storybuilding).
Additionally, there's a popular view in the Anglosphere that the quality of a translated work should be judged independently from the quality of the original — which promotes the sycophantic and deceptive ways of translation agencies and supplies them with an excuse to pile more work on the translator with no additional pay through a sort of cognitive reframing. Plus, perhaps largely for this reason, translators from the Anglosphere lean more heavily toward domestication and transcreation, and where the same approach taken by the same translator would degrade a better written book, by contrast, it can help save a poorer one.
[Edited at 2016-05-16 13:14 GMT]
Interesting.
Here's an interesting analysis of how a bad (but very lucrative) Italian writer (Elena Ferrante) can be improved somewhat when translated into English:
http://qz.com/573851/elena-ferrantes-writing-is-better-in-english-than-italian/
Local time: 15:19
Italian to English
The article is about the sales of literary fiction, not all fiction. Literary fiction is a genre of fiction and though books in this category attract attention for prizes and literary merit, it is far from one of the top-selling genres.
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