Why don't French books sell abroad?

[HarryT]

An interesting item on the BBC News web site today:

French authors routinely appear in the English-speaking world's lists of the best novels ever - Voltaire, Flaubert, and Proust… sometimes Dumas and Hugo too. But when it comes to post-war literature, it's a different story. Even voracious readers often struggle to name a single French author they have enjoyed.

France once had a great literary culture, and most French people would say it still does. But if so, how come their books don't sell in the English-speaking world?

Is that our fault or theirs?

And how come the French themselves read so many books that are translated from English and other languages?
...

Full story at:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-25198154

[fjtorres]

Seems to me the article covers most of the likely reasons.

I would add that relying on traditional channels (agents and NYC publishing houses) puts them in direct competition with native-source content that doesn't require translation and is thus cheaper and doesn't risk losing the flavor of the original. Moving forward, they shouldn't expect much change: with non-bestseller advances inching lower, tradpub investment in new content isn't going to have much room for added up-front investment that may or not correctly capture the magic of the original.

Amusingly, the french's designated villain du jour is one of the few tradpub channels actively looking for mass market foreign works to bring to the anglosphere: Amazon Crossing.
http://phx.corporate-ir.net/phoenix....cle&ID=1428575

Given the explosion of quality native-english content (backlist and indie published) coming to market through the ebook disruption (and to a lesser extent POD) they shouldn't expect to find much appetite for translated mass market titles until one such hits a 50 Shades-style jackpot. And even then, they might be shocked by the prevailing contract terms offered by the corporate publishers.

They might be well advised to take matters into their own hands and do their own global english release via ebook and POD.

[Rizla]

A lot of it is pompous and dull. They forget to entertain.

[Freeshadow]

The costs and difficulty of literary translation are clearly part of the problem.

Had kennyc not recently posted an article about how how booksplosive Finland is?

Having started to read in english I was simply overrun by the perception of how many good books never made it into translation FROM en. Taking this as a base line (keep in mind how widely known english is) the amount of books never translated INTO english (take your pick of source languages here) has to be an astronomic figure.

[sun surfer]

It was somewhat alluded to here and there in the article, but I think it simply has to do with the perception of dominance of the English language to French now. In past centuries France and French were still thought of as very dominant, perhaps not quite as dominant as English once the U.S. exploded onto the scene, but enough to keep it in English-speakers' minds and keep them interested in the literature coming out of France. French cultural influence is still strong but has undoubtedly waned globally over the last century, and so people (led by publishers) unfortunately aren't as interested in new French authors anymore while they'll still respect the French classics. It's nothing personal imo; English has so much of its own literature churning out all the time that English-speakers can afford to be more insular with their literature (and the U.S. especially is). It is a shame though.

Originally Posted by fjtorres

...Amusingly, the french's designated villain du jour is one of the few tradpub channels actively looking for mass market foreign works to bring to the anglosphere: Amazon Crossing...

The article only mentioned Amazon in reference to French laws designed to keep bookstores open. I would say Amazon is the villain de la décennie for bookstores, no matter which country.

[Andrew H.]

Originally Posted by HarryT

An interesting item on the BBC News web site today:



Full story at:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-25198154

This is hardly unique to the French; it's not like the English speaking world is filled with German or Spanish or Russian or Italian literature, either.

Or film, for that matter. Or popular music...

This was as true 30 years ago as it is today, and has little to do with Amazon.

[HansTWN]

Originally Posted by Andrew H.

This is hardly unique to the French; it's not like the English speaking world is filled with German or Spanish or Russian or Italian literature, either.

Or film, for that matter. Or popular music...

This was as true 30 years ago as it is today, and has little to do with Amazon.

Yes, but the difference is the French seem to care.

[fjtorres]

Originally Posted by HansTWN

Yes, but the difference is the French seem to care.

Agonizing over it, apparently.

"I am suffering, really suffering, because Anglo-Saxon agents are just ignoring the French book market," Christophe Ono-dit-Biot tells me.

Of course, it could be the thought of lost dollars and pounds they mourn.

[Kumabjorn]

This reminds me of a different phenomenon, a fair amount of Swedish authors, and let's face reality, they're never going to be global barnstormers, are quite popular in Germany and their works appear in German just a month or so after being released in Sweden. However, there is nothing coming the other way. I'm not overly familiar with the German literary scene but if I want to read someone like Oliver Pötzsch I have to get hold of the original because no Swedish translation is available. Perhaps some of our German members can shed some light on this discrepancy?

[kennyc]

Originally Posted by Freeshadow

Had kennyc not recently posted an article about how how booksplosive Finland is?

Having started to read in english I was simply overrun by the perception of how many good books never made it into translation FROM en. Taking this as a base line (keep in mind how widely known english is) the amount of books never translated INTO english (take your pick of source languages here) has to be an astronomic figure.

.

[Freeshadow]

Originally Posted by Andrew H.

Or film, for that matter. Or popular music...

Re film: Hollywood rather goes and copies (not even really a remake) a good movie than localising the original. (as seen with "Nightwatch"- wasn't it even redone by the same director with US actors) I wonder why, really. Some kind of "there be dragons" mentality?

Would the average American be so shocked by the fact that there is life outside the American continent? (apart from the isles of Britannia and Australia and of course the sandy outer regions of the disc where Arabia is)

Re music: That's, I think, something different:
As music styles do sound differently, so do languages.
(there even is a NAME for that branch of linguistic studies - which I can't remember since years
In some cases trying to use a specific language combined with a specific musical style is the acoustic equivalent of "round peg in a square hole" As much as diversity in styles becomes more and more unwelcome so the limits in lyrics-wise salvageable languages harden.

Originally Posted by Kumabjorn

This reminds me of a different phenomenon, a fair amount of Swedish authors, and let's face reality, they're never going to be global barnstormers, are quite popular in Germany and their works appear in German just a month or so after being released in Sweden. However, there is nothing coming the other way. I'm not overly familiar with the German literary scene but if I want to read someone like Oliver Pötzsch I have to get hold of the original because no Swedish translation is available. Perhaps some of our German members can shed some light on this discrepancy?

Scandinavian and especially Swedish crime stories seem to be a crime sub-genere of its own in Germany. That's where the specific demand comes from.
Being no reader of crime stories in general I cannot say why it is so - what the attributes of the 'Swedish school' in treating the canvas of crime are, but there must be something distinctive enough for the readers that marketeers can work with

[HomeInMyShoes]

Much ado about nothing in my mind.

Why, when they are so many great Canadian authors -- Atwood, Richler, Munro, Davies -- have I only read 37 books by Canadian authors and more than 100 from the United Kingdom and almost 200 from the United States?

I care about how much Canadian I read and I've started to read a little more and in 2015 I'll start making a more concerted effort to fulfill the CRTC's broadcast guidelines for Canadian content.

[Billi]

Originally Posted by Freeshadow

Having started to read in english I was simply overrun by the perception of how many good books never made it into translation FROM en. Taking this as a base line (keep in mind how widely known english is) the amount of books never translated INTO english (take your pick of source languages here) has to be an astronomic figure.

I've once read that German is the language with the highest number of books translated into. Maybe we are very open minded!

[Billi]

Originally Posted by Kumabjorn

a fair amount of Swedish authors, and let's face reality, they're never going to be global barnstormers,

And easy to please too! Many here love nordic and especially Swedish crime stories.

However, there is nothing coming the other way. Perhaps some of our German members can shed some light on this discrepancy?

I would guess that the German market is just big enough that the costs for translating form a reasonable part of all book producing costs.

[Tarana]

A lot of it is pompous and dull. They forget to entertain.

Both my former BIL and my college buddy's wife say the same thing. Neither have found more than a half dozen keeper novels from their native country. Could be the French just don't know how to write mysteries, thrillers or sci fi.