Prospection of new titles fit for translation
The best way for British publishers to discover French titles is to maintain close and durable ties with French publishers. Large French publishing houses such as Gallimard, Stock, Actes Sud or Flammarion tend to make rights acquisition easier for British publishers, because they understand the British market very well. The submissions usually happen during book fairs or by email.
Other foreign publishers have a big influence as well. If a book has already been successfully published in various European countries, a British publisher will feel more confident taking the leap. Agents come second, and scouts are more occasional. Small, emerging independent British publishers – especially those keen on translation – tend to get more suggestions from translators whose projects might have been rejected by bigger houses. Once these smaller houses have managed to establish themselves and to define their editorial line, they will get more direct propositions.
Literature in translation is a loose network that also includes international literature bodies, language experts and academics. If the network is efficient, publishers hear about quality works before they get reviewed in the press. The importance of British press reviews comes further down the line, once the book is out, to help build the profile of a writer. As for reviews in the original language, they are generally taken with a pinch of salt: they tend to be too positive and not critical enough about the books they present.
There are also political factors influencing the way books are selected: although their overall quality is not questioned, they might not always be adapted to the translation market. For non-fiction publishers like Verso though, the London Review of Books or Le Monde Diplomatique remain important references.
The main change over recent years came with the internet and social media. Amazon is a new tool to keep an eye on what is being released in the world, and Twitter has become the most valuable way to explore the literary scene – especially since publishers feel books are becoming “second tier” culture, with constantly reduced space granted in the newspapers.
Evolution of marketing strategies
Although traditional in-store marketing devices are still used, the promotion strategy is increasingly media-based. Because blog reviews help make-up for the decreasing number of book reviews in newspapers and the closure of bookshops; many publishers hold a list of bloggers. Adding an introduction by an English writer to a book in translation is another way to get the public's attention. Marketing support from English PEN is also very valuable as it helps to bring the writer over and to organise events around the book launch. It is a plus if the writer speaks English, otherwise hiring an interpreter is required. Overall, the marketing strategy seems to focus more on the quality of the book than on the fact that it is a translation.
The online presence of publishers has increased, not only via the social media, but also with the development of their own websites. Selling directly from their website is a significant source of income, and a precious source of information: knowing who orders what enables publishers to set up a mailing list and to recommend specific books to particular interest groups. With the bookshop market declining, publishers need to get people interested in new ways. For non-fiction houses, this can mean developing a community of ideas through detailed author pages or free access to the books' introductions.
According to booksellers, people sometimes come to say they liked or didn't like a book that was translated, but few specifically look out for translation. Therefore Daunt Books and Waterstones do not consider translation as a genre and would not really make a difference in their promotion strategy. Daunt Books and Dulwich Books seem to gather books by culture as a topic rather than by country of origin. However, marketing translation can be effective: tables mixing up translated literature from various nations as themed tables have always been the most successful tables at Foyles.
Evolution of the role of the translators
Many publishers who were interviewed took the example of The Vegetarian by Han Kang, whose translator, Deborah Smith, was interviewed several times after winning the Man Booker international Prize. This goes to show there is a growing interest in the actual art of translating. There is indeed a growing number of events and seminars about translation in which the translator features as the first spokesperson for the book (especially if it is written in a language little spoken in the UK).
Publishers who are translators themselves tend to have a slightly odd relation to commissioned translators. Because they follow the book since the very beginning of the process, they have already pictured it a certain way by the time the translator gets in the loop. The final translation can be different from what they had imagined.
In the past, a lot of difficult fiction was translated by academic presses with limited editorial experience, making it little accessible. Today, everyone seems to agree that the quality and accessibility of translations published in the UK have greatly improved because British editors are gaining experience in this field.
One question that continues to divide publishers, however, is that of the translator's name appearing on the book's front cover. While they all recognise and highly value their work, some consider that having the translator's name on the front cover can be detrimental to the sales because the book will be presented as different. It varies from one book to another, from a translator to another. Sometimes it is contractually obliged, and in some cases the translator has enough of a name that it would really help a book (eg. Anthea Bell, Daniel Hahn).
More idealistic publishers believe that the translator's creativity has the right to be recognised almost as much as that of the author, because translating is creating a new art form. They argue that literature in Britain today is very focused on story-telling, and that there should be more focus on style and language. In philosophy or poetry, the name of the translator is more likely to appear on the cover, because his knowledge and capacity to interpret and recreate is crucial.
Estimated life span of a book in translation
Publishing is constantly throwing new authors to the public, and the UK has a strong focus on debut writers. After writing two or three books, if an author is not successful they might not get another publishing contract - when it is actually the moment when they are reaching maturity. Everyone agrees that there are far too many books published and far too little time to promote them. But not everyone agrees whether a book in translation has a chance to stay in British bookshops longer than a book originally written in English. A book usually has between three to nine months to sell before it is returned to the publisher. Shops with a dedicated translation section appear to keep these books on the shelf a little longer. Literary prizes which celebrate translation are extremely valuable, because if a book gets awarded it gets a second chance to be promoted.
The genre of the book can also make a difference. A foreign author of crime fiction who achieves a reputation in translation could have a better chance to stick around than the equivalent British writer, but when it comes to commercial fiction, there is apparently no difference. As for non-fiction, it seems that French philosophers and continental thinkers at large remain big sellers in the UK and have more longevity.
Link between commercial success and critical success
One type of success often attracts the other, but not always. The topic of the book, its title, cover and design, have a great role to play. British commercial novels usually struggle to get reviews and sell more by word of mouth and store promotions, while many literary novels get good reviews but are rather quiet and struggle to achieve good sales – the same applies to translated fiction.
Rather commercial publishers believe that if a book that sells well is literary enough, it might get good reviews. Rather literary publishers see critical success as a first step: if the book gets good reviews, it might then have commercial success. Both agree that although readers these days seem to be less influenced by reviews and more by personal recommendations or word of mouth, this impression is in fact the result of powerful behind-the-scene marketing campaigns.
Within non-fiction, at the high intellectual level, the author's celebrity and credibility are very important but are not the only factors of success. For example, The Philosophy of Walker by Frédéric Gros, published by Verso, achieved great sales. Although the author is not very well known in the UK, the subject worked: the relationship between philosophy and walking. Moreover, if a book receives critical acclaim it might get adopted by an academic course and gain momentum for there.
Trends in the acquisition of French titles
Globally, there are more titles in translation being published than before. Yet, the proportion of French titles remains equal. Publishing houses usually have a quota of translated titles in their list. This quota is often limited (around 10%) so the quality of the book is more decisive than its origin. Moreover, starter writers require a sort of “curatorial publishing”: special care is given to the quality of the translation. This makes it difficult to launch more than few translated debut novels a year. The personal preferences and language skills of an editor also necessarily influence the list of the house.
Gallic Books, the only publisher specialised in French fiction, noticed how over the last ten years all publishers have diversified their lists and acquired at least a few French titles. As a result, Gallic had to diversify themselves and open their list to titles in other foreign languages.
In non-fiction, new European voices are emerging. A generational change is in the process, so while the big names of French thinking are still a reference point, they are getting older. They are of course replaced by some younger French voices, but not so many. Other countries such as Germany, Spain and Italy are developing new thinkers who are catching the attention of British publishers.
French genres that work best in the UK
Although is is not necessarily the way they are being marketed, books that have a sort of French sensibility seem to do well with British readers. The Elegance of the Hedgehog by Muriel Barbery, for example, was a huge success eleven years ago at and still is. However, big success can sometimes create confusion: Patrick Modiano has been published by many different publishers in the UK, so for a British reader who has never heard of him before, it is difficult to know where to start. This could explain why he sells well but not as much as he could have after winning the Nobel Prize in Literature in 2014.
Some publishers believe that readers turn to translation to find something they can’t have with their own authors, and hence try to stay away from subjects that are already very much dealt with by British authors. However, most agree that recent French crime fiction proves very successful in the UK (especially Pierre Lemaître, Fred Vargas, Michel Bussi). Crime provides a nice entry point to translated books, a way of trying the authors: everyone reads crime fiction, whether it is marketed as crime fiction or not.
There is a consensus that traditionally, French fiction is more intellectually energetic than British fiction. Yet, publishers pointed out that the very French “autofiction” style of novels, like those by Emmanuel Carrère, introspective and reflective, does not translate so well in the UK – unless it gets very romantic or even erotic. Authors who write about the process of writing and about being an author are not very appealing to the British market, and stories dealing with the colonial past of France do not seem to be a priority for the British publishing landscape either: Britain has its own imperial fall out to deal with.
On the other hand, contemporary French writers who are well integrated into the international literary scene, such as Maylis de Kerangal, are seen as holders of great potential in translation. Historical stories about the legacy of WW2 still work very well is because of the “shared European legacy” aspect. Thought-provoking authors, such as Michel Houellebecq, are also very appreciated by British publishers, who seem to long for less academically structured discussions, and for more engagement with the world we live in today.
From a bookseller's point of view, this demand for topical and controversial books brings new challenges. It took a year for Houellebecq's book Submission, for example, to be available in English. Many people were curious to read the book during the “buzz” that followed its publication in France, eager to join in the discussion and form an opinion, but there was no translation ready at the time.
When it comes to non-fiction, the French “intellectual exceptionalism” seems to no longer be a tenable position. There is still an expectation from the “glory days” of a certain level of language, that can be a little daunting. British readers would like to talk about the present moment much more, and the present moment that isn't just French: they expect more universal histories, more cosmopolitan books, like Thomas Piketty's Capital in the Twenty-first Century.
How could we help to provide more information on recent/available French titles?
British publishers are eager to meet with more people from France, not only on a “speed-dating” formula or at book fairs, but also via book launches, lectures with authors and critics or bookshop visits, in order to get a wider picture of the whole French publishing scene. Individual discussion and personalised exchange are more efficient than a series of meetings with rights directors. The latter tend to only go through their list of new titles, while some independent British publishers would be more interested in their backlist.
Translated samples of about ten pages are also very useful, even for editors who can read French, because they will need to show it to the rest of their colleagues. Our yearly paper of selected extract only presented a few titles that we were very involved in, and seemed more focused on what France wants to share of its production than on what Britain wants to read. A broader range of tastes would be therefore be appreciated. For instance, the Institut Français could present what it thinks are the best books of the rentrée, interesting and with potential, across different categories: genre, established writers, those getting there… It could also organise an afternoon once a year to present the latest developments in French literature.
Finally, bringing authors over and pairing French and British authors for themed discussions is perceived as incredibly useful in terms of demystifying and breaking down boundaries.
Report completed for the Book Department of the Institut Français du Royaume-Uni, July 2016.
Thank you to all participants:
Publishers - Gallic Books, And Other Stories, One World, Granta & Portobello Books, Orion, Fourth Estate, Bloomsbury, Verso, Peirene Press, Harvill Secker, as well as Pushkin Press and MacLehose Press (interviewed by Milene Josse)
Booksellers - Daunt Books, Dulwich Books, Waterstones, Foyles