Friday Column: On Translations or the Pursuit of the Domino Effect

(Today we have a guest Friday Column by author Neus Arqués. Neus lives and writes in Barcelona and holds an MA in International Affairs from Johns Hopkins University and a BA in Translation. She has authored the Catalan version of A Diamond as Big as the Ritz by F. Scott Fritzgerald (Barcelona: Edhasa, 1987) and writes fiction and non-fiction. Un hombre de Pago (Urano, 2006, www.unhombredepago.com) is her first novel. Contact Neus at uhdp@unhombredepago.com or recepcion@manfatta.com or on Skype at Manfatta.)

According to the Center for Book Culture, in the period between 2000 and 2006 a total of 12 fiction titles published in Spanish in Spain were translated into English. *

A mere two titles per year. This is a narrow eye of the needle for Spanish authors and their agents to pass through. It is probably why many Spanish authors try to have their work translated into other languages, hoping for a domino effect that will lead to publication in English. For what it is worth, this is my experience.

The Winding Road

In 2006 I published my first novel, Un hombre de Pago (A Man for Hire). My agent's strategy was to immediately move it in the European market. First, she approached publishers in smaller markets, such as Greece or Portugal. This would be the first tier.

If you succeed in overcoming hurdle one—and my novel has been fortunate enough to do so, with rights sold to Portuguese—then the agent targets more competitive markets, such as the Italian or German publishing industry. In the words of an Argentinean publisher: "Spanish is a marginal language as far as translation goes. It takes years to persuade an Italian or a French publisher that we have quality books to offer."

A Man for Hire has been sold in Russia. That is two languages, and two different tiers, but still not enough. My novel must attract the interest of other publishers in other markets to build more momentum toward eventual translation into a major European language, or even English.

In a recent interview, the über-agent Andrew Wylie showed that he is also a proponent of this multi-country approach: "I would say that having access to international markets makes it easier to realize the right value, market by market. So if you're selling in the United States in a vacuum, your ability to move things is limited."

The roads to translation are winding indeed. My fellow writer Jordi Nadal's book was curiously enough published first in Portugal and then in Spain. A sort of reverse domino effect: get published in translation to get into one's home market. Translation rights to his book have subsequently been sold to Greek and French publishers.

A Learning Experience

Having my novel translated into Portuguese and Russian gives me, among writer friends, "successful status": most of my fellow writers in Barcelona have yet to sign a foreign rights agreement. It must be noted that they are full-time writers and some of them do very well in terms of sales in Spain. When we meet and talk, with that mix of naïveté and competitiveness that seems to linger on each and every one of our conversations, translations become the unfulfilled promise, the second life that we all want for our novels, as a way to reach new readers.

I am a writer and a translator by training. Most of all, though, I am a reader. And here I confess to reading mostly in English, partly as a result of my education, partly because my mother-in-law, Barbara, is a bookstore owner near Seattle who feeds me a selection of the best and brightest. Funnily enough, a year or two after I read a U.S. novel, the book may well be displayed in my local bookstore in Barcelona (often with the same cover). In Spanish. The road for translations coming our way does not seem to be so winding. I am glad to see books I have enjoyed brought to the attention of Spanish readers. I would like mine to stand a similar chance.

Ideas, Anyone?

As a writer and a reader, I will do what I can to be translated into as many languages as possible, to reach as large as possible a readership. Here are my five ideas:

1. A Man for Hire's audiovisual rights are currently being negotiated. If my novel is made into a movie, I hope chances for international visibility will increase.

2. I have personally translated a sample chapter of the novel to make it easier for interested parties to judge its merits (if you are curious, I will gladly send a copy along).

3. I am considering translating the entire novel, which would diminish the expenses to be incurred by the interested publisher and would give me greater say over the translated work in the languages I read in.

4. I would be happy to attend any meetings or contact any professionals willing to give my book a chance.

5. I welcome and am thankful for your ideas and suggestions, should you care to share them with me.

I see this process as a learning experience. I feel that merit plays a part. So does fate. Just like in dominos.

____
* See http://www.centerforbookculture.org/context/no19/translations_5.html, as quoted in the International Pen Report on Translation and Globalization http://www.llull.cat/llull/estaticos/arxius/Traduccio_Informe.pdf

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Comments

[John]

It is really nice to know that your novel get translated into other languages.My heartiest congratulations for you, and all the best for your future endeavor..
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