LINKS

* A report on the state of literary translations, from PEN

* Matthew Cheney on Doris Lessing

* John Freeman notes that there may be some slung-together Ryzard Kapuscinski books on the horizon:

I met the late Ryzard Kapuscinski's Polish editor in Frankfurt, who showed me his upcoming catalog, which is full of Kapuscinski books created out of Kapuscinski's lectures and interviews. There was also a book by Kapuscinski's translators from around the world about what it was like to work with him. These manufactured books are occasionally let downs, but some writers -- like Allen Ginsberg, Noam Chomsky, Lessing -- were/are great talkers, so good at giving interviews they turn a conversation into an artform of a minor sort.

Why bother with this nonsense when the bulk of Kapuscinski's works hasn't been translated from Polish into English yet?

* "Germany's Bookforum"

* And speaking of the Germans, guys, I find this a bit ridiculous:

And they are being lapped up by Grass's public, who thought they knew everything about him but are only now learning of his love of apple juice and his aversion to kitchen appliances, which meant cream had to be beaten with a hand whisk.

* Am I the only one to find the "counterintuitive" marketing of Franzen's paperback a big yawn?

* Chad Post says what many of us have guessed:

Publishers are bullshit artists, especially when it comes to print-runs and sales figures. (The typical multiplier for both is 4—seriously.)

This situation is even more bleak when you focus on literary fiction in translation. Sales rarely hit the five-figure mark, much more frequently residing in the 1,200-1,800 range, with sales of 400 copies or less not being all that uncommon. Why this is the case is a long, involved discussion with many variables, prejudices, and unprovable hypotheses.

What’s important to point out is that sales of 1,500 copies of a translation is very definitely not profitable. Including salaries, production, design, marketing, translation, author advances, distribution, and overhead costs, a translation generally runs a publisher about $35,000. Sales of 1,500 of a $24 hardcover would net a publisher about $18,000 in revenue. A ways short of the $35,000 invested . . . (Not many Investment Bankers out there support a ROI of -50%. At least not many who are still employed.)

Comments

[Max]

I had at one point thought that there were lots of Kapuscinski books waiting to be translated into English, but now I'm less sure that this is true.

His books were very separate from the writing he did for his "day job." And, to my knowledge, most of his books came out in English not long after the Polish versions were published (i.e. I don't remember hearing about Kapuscinski books in Polish that hadn't come out in English within a year or so).

I could be wrong though. (I hope I am. I'd love to read more Kapuscinski.)

[Scott]

Max,

I based my comments on the Wikipedia page for Kapuscinski, which lists 16 untranslated books. They could be wrong, but could they be that wrong?