Of the hundreds of thousands of books published in the US in 2024, only forty-eight of them were works in translation. Regardless of genre, only 3 percent of books published annually are translations, though it is usually less. The US market already seems oversaturated with original English titles, but what value can translated texts give us?
Globalization of the English language is always changing the translation industry. In many European countries where bilingualism is the norm, publishers are finding less demand for translations. Readers are choosing to read the original English texts rather than waiting for a translated edition. In the US, only 20 percent of citizens are bilingual, meaning that most of the population relies on translations in order to consume international works. If English translations are not made available, US readers will be left out of international cultural exchanges through literature.
Book scouts, translators, and publishers are the gatekeepers of English translations. Book scouts monitor their country’s book market and make recommendations to their clients to translate. Translators can also pitch translation proposals to publishers. Ultimately, it’s up to the publishers who must find the cultural and monetary value of the project. Translations cost more to produce because royalties must be paid to both the author and translator, but many countries offer grants to offset these costs.
There are a few independent publishers in the US whose mission is to publish translations, such as Two Lines Press, Archipelago, and World Editions. With so few publishers dedicated to this cultural exchange, only a limited number of books can be chosen for translation, and analyzing their qualities can give us insight into the gatekeepers’ decisions to choose these titles.
To start, let’s take a look at what languages are most frequently translated into English. In the past three years, French literature was most often translated, followed by Spanish, German, and Japanese. However, the original language doesn’t always determine the country of origin. There are many different countries around the world that speak French and Spanish, and while the majority of French translations do originate from France, more Spanish texts are translated from Central and South America than from Spain. Similarly, more books are translated from Portuguese from Brazil than Portugal, showing that there’s more connection between these markets and the US.
Book scouts and publishers will also value authors with established careers. In a sample of 230 books translated in the last three years, 75 percent of authors had won prestigious literary awards and 4 percent (that had not won awards) were considered bestsellers. Another category of classic literature that has cultural and historical significance, labeled as literary canon, made up 3 percent of titles. Surprisingly, 4 percent were by debut authors. Twenty authors had previous works that had been made into TV/film adaptations. This shows that authors with literary awards are more likely to be translated than those who reach bestseller status or who have film adaptations.
Genre is another aspect that publishers consider to ensure a book’s success in the US market. One third of the sample titles were categorized as literary fiction. Surprisingly, almost 10 percent of fiction titles were short story anthologies. Other notable genres included historical fiction, mystery, and thrillers. Popular genres in the US are fantasy, science fiction, and romance, which were largely absent from this sample. This could be because other cultures have different concepts that may not perform well in the US (such as the different ideals of romance) or it’s possible that there are so many English titles in those genres that they are also flooding foreign markets.
This data is only the beginning of investigating the trends of English translations for the US market. With social media, readers have far more access to the global book market and publishers should use this opportunity to provide more access to international books.
Back Matter
Source: https://www.american.edu/cas/news/multilingualism-on-rise-in-us-illusion-or-reality.cfm
Source: https://www.rochester.edu/College/translation/threepercent/about/