Translated Fiction News

Translated fiction has made the news today, well, in the publishing world at least!

Pushkin Press has introduced their new imprint for translated children’s books, which aims to bring “classic and bestselling children’s books from all around the world to British children”, to help change the current situation of around 3% of UK books being translated from another language, and the huge lack of translated fiction in the children’s book market.

I personally will be keeping an eye on these developments because it is about time that more translated books entered the UK children’s markets!

To see the whole article on the Guardian website: http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2013/may/07/pushkin-imprint-childrens-books-translation

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One thing that bugs me is that during the whole time i was writing my Masters dissertation on Translated Fiction, i couldn’t find a single source for the magical “3% of the UK book market is translated fiction” figure, and then suddenly i find this has decreased to 2.5% according to an article on Publishing Perspectives website! - Books in Translation: It’s time for others to join the fight

The problem is that there aren’t enough books coming into the UK from non-Anglophone markets, and there is a lack of airtime dedicated to translated fiction, unless you know where to find it. I do my best to review translated fiction here on my blog and i have a page dedicated to the reviews of books which i have read: A World Of Randomness – Translated Fiction

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Why is Translated Fiction not getting far in the UK market? Well, according to the Publishing Perspectives article Books in translation it’s time for others to join the fight:

1. “The permeating stereotype about books in translation is that they are “too literary” and “too serious” for a general readership in comparison to, say, light and entertaining cook books, celebrity memoirs or the recent publication of “mummy’s porn” Fifty Shades of Grey which was given almost every available space in every paper.”
   
2. “All publishers rely heavily on reviews to capture a market for their titles. And although the days of the British Empire are long gone, it still seems that the mainstream media, even those left leaning outlets which pride themselves on cultural diversity and liberal values, are far too conservative to devote column inches to literature and non-fiction in translation.”
3. “How are we going to convince a reviewer to give it a go if most of them get an instant headache when they can’t pronounce the author’s name?”
4. “Publishing a book in translation is expensive. You are lucky as a publisher if you get a translation grant which rarely covers 100% of the amount it is costing you to get the work done; sometimes you get nothing and you face the possibility of dropping the title from your list altogether because it’s simply too expensive for a small press to cover the translation costs.”
5. “If a publisher decides to take on a book written in a non-English language, the foreign author will be very well established with a few prizes under his/her belt to give the publisher a fighting change of getting the title reviewed at all. And so those books translated into English are often literary, high-brow, and serious.”
6. “It’s common knowledge that there’s no money in publishing books in translation, meaning it’s done by people who are seriously passionate about literature often subsidise the business with their savings or second jobs.”

They are all true and all need to be sorted out if translated fiction wants to have a bigger stake in the UK book market.

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Other recent interesting articles on the subject of Translated fiction:

Books in Translation: It’s Time for Others to Join the Fight - http://publishingperspectives.com/2013/02/books-in-translation-its-time-for-others-to-join-the-fight/

British children miss out on foreign bestsellers - http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/books/10039917/British-children-miss-out-on-foreign-bestsellers.html

Best Translated Fiction Award 2013 - http://www.rochester.edu/College/translation/threepercent/index.php?s=btb

The London Book Fair 2013

Last week i made my 3rd (and now my annual) trip to the London Book Fair 2013!

The London Book fair 2013 at Earl’s Court Exhibition Centre

This year i didn’t really have an agenda: on my first visit in 2011, i went with uni during my MA in Publishing and so it was spent at seminars, networking and researching for my dissertation; and last year on my second visit, i spent it attending seminars and researching translated literature.

This year i just did what i wanted to do and attended seminars i was really interested in with my friend and fellow graduate from the MA course. We must have been the only ones of our course there as we didn’t see anyone else there, and it felt a little bit sad as we are the only two people without a job in publishing yet!

The Books Are My Bag campaign stand

We only attended the Fair on the Monday and Tuesday as there wasn’t anything on the Wednesday which we wanted to see and we had to get trains home at lunchtime anyway.

Monday Seminars:

• “Don’t Judge a Book by its Cover… but we all do, especially Children!” - Very interesting, saw some examples of bestsellers and their covers, and a few dodgy covers that we’re surprised are so popular!
• “Reading and Health: A new Library Books on Prescription Scheme” - Great concept, library books on prescription will help people deal with anxiety and depression through helping themselves through the form of specially chosen books. Also gets more people into their local libraries.
• “How To Get Into Publishing” – Useful information for applicants, from gaining useful skills to researching the company’s market and products.
• “How To Get Ahead In Publishing” - More useful information for people in publishing, they gave us a 10 point plan on how to advance your career!
• “New Adults, Steamies, Crossed Genres – Reinventing Teen Fiction” - Interesting talk on the new genre called New Adult, which is like Young Adult but with readers from teens to sixties, thanks to Twilight and Fifty Shades of Grey.

During the Gamification of Publishing seminar

Tuesday Seminars

• “What People do Publishers need?” – Information for applicants and existing employees in publishing, how publishers need people from different sectors with different and transferable skills, and newly created jobs because of digital’s impact on the industry.
• “Gamification of Publishing” - Discussion on how games affect publishing. Everything in life is like a game now, from earning “likes” and followers on social networking sites to coffee shop loyalty cards. If reading was like a game then more people would do it because games set goals and give you rewards.
• Social Networking: Authors Have Their Say” - Social networking helps authors to reach and engage with their widespread audience, build up a rapport with them, and is good for the more introverted author.
• “Brazil – Country of the Moment?” – Discussion about Brazilian books being translated and brought over here.
• “How To Set Up A Publishing House” - Guide to all the things you need to know, from knowing where you want to be in the future, to using Google Analytics for market data, to finding outside help for other jobs when you want to focus on your own particular skill advantage.

The Fair was really interesting and i learned a lot from the range of seminars i attended! I found myself not too bothered about attending the Turkish seminars, although i did get some leaflets about the Turkish theme.

LBF13′s Turkey Theme sign over the Turkey Zone.

Hopefully, the notes i made will help me learn more useful skills and make my job applications much more successful!

I really enjoyed attending the seminars and the atmosphere at the Book Fair is always amazing! I really want to go back again next year!

What would happen if Amazon gave every Ebook away for free?

I recently read this article on the Publishing Perspectives website called “What would happen if Amazon gave every Ebook away for free?”, and it was a thought-provoking read!

Last week, China’s answers to Amazon, Jingding and Dangdang, both gave away around 50,000 ebooks away in celebration of the upcoming World Book Day.

“The giveaway, which the ebooksellers said was being done to help promote commercial ebooks and raise reader awareness, has been criticized by publishers and authors alike. Zhao Chen, from People’s Literature Publishing House, told Beijing News that giving so many books away would “bring harm” to publishers, while Zhang Hongbo, secretary-general of the China Written Works Copyright Society, called the promotion “sloppy,” particularly if the companies had not sought permission of the publishers beforehand (a spokesperson from Dangdang would neither confirm nor deny whether the company had contacted publishers, though said the site would honor requests to stop offering a title if specific complaints were made).”

If Amazon was to do the same thing, it is suggested that people would simply download as many free ebooks to their reading devices as possible and then would be less eager to buy books either in print or ebook form.

The article closes with: “It is, if anything, likely to reinforce the idea that books should be free.“

[For the whole article, see What Would Happen If Amazon Gave Every Ebook Away For Free? - Publishing Perspectives]

I think it is probably correct that people would take advantage of the offer and download as many ebooks as they could while they can. This raises a few concerns for me:

1. I personally like free ebooks when they are on offer, and i will download the classics for free anyway as their authors are long deceased. But if i download too many, the odds are that even i won’t get through them all very quickly. It won’t stop me buying more books in the future, but in all fairness, it never feels like i actually own the ebooks, after all, Amazon could pull the plug and steal back the digital copies quite easily i’m sure.
2. It isn’t fair to the authors who put so much hard work and time into their books, and ultimately get paid through royalties, which are non-existent for every free book that is “sold”. This makes a poor return for all that work.
3. Similarly, it isn’t fair to the publishers who have spent a long time editing and producing the book, not to mention all the time spent working out costings and seeing if it would make money if published and the long marketing campaigns used for it.
4. If these books were free, then people might demand that everyone else should make their books free as well. Print books would go into decline and bookshops would disappear completely from our streets.
5. Online companies would be more popular, however they would lose out on profits if the books they “sold” were free.
6. Sellers of reading devices and smartphones with reading apps would make a lot of money very quickly through increased sales due to demand so customers can download and read the free ebooks. We’d all be slaves to machines. Where’s the fun in that?
7. It will be a sad day for me when all my books are only available as ebooks and end up as a list of files on my Kindle. I like having a mixture of print and ebooks, mainly for when i’m unable to charge up my Kindle or if it’s raining, or if the print book comes out first and i’m desperate to read it without waiting for the ebook! See, even though i have a Kindle and it saves physical space on my shelves, i still prefer print books!

So, there you go, my opinions and speculations on this topic. It seems horribly dystopian if you think about it!

What do you think?

15 Years of Harry Potter!

Today marks the 15th anniversary of  the publishing of the first Harry Potter!

Harry Potter 1-7 boxset (via Bloomsbury.com)

I remember the first time i came across Harry Potter: I was in Year 5 and about 10 years old. Our teacher had bought the first book and started reading it to us during Reading Time at the end of each school day. We were all magically silent and fascinated by the story, and i personally was impatient to read it by myself!

Funnily enough, i didn’t buy the first book for good few years: I ended up with Book 2 when i was off sick, and then started buying the rest as soon as they came out! I eventually bought Book 1 just before Book 4 came out! When my mum ordered Book 4 for me and my brother, i was so excited when it finally arrived that i couldn’t put it down all day, which wasn’t good when i was visiting my grandad and was completely distracted from what was going on around me!

The books just got better and better, and i was so sad when i went to buy my copy of the final book (a few days after it was released when the initial rush was over!).

The Harry Potter series is by far my favourite set of books, and i don’t care that my mum says i should have moved on from them by now (i’m in my 20′s!), i will always love them and never plan to get rid of my lovingly battered books! (Mum never read them, but plenty of adults have so i don’t know why i’d ever grow out of them!)

So, i will share some of my favourite things from the book series:

1. I loved: Ron and Hermione finally get together, after all the fighting and bickering!
2. I was pretty much in tears when: Dumbledore died and during his funeral. And when they killed off Fred!
3. I was very moved when: Harry finally got to visit his parents’ graves. And when Dudley showed how much he appreciated Harry saving his life.
4. Funny moment: When Dumbledore described finding the Room of Requirement full of toilets when he had “an exceptionally full bladder”. (A bit of toilet humour never goes amiss!)
5. My highlights: Hermione slapping Malfoy!
6. I never expected: To feel sorry for Aunt Petunia when she got rejected from Hogwarts for being a Muggle.
7. Biggest surprise: Snape turning out to be the hero.
8. I hated: Bellatrix Lestrange, particularly when she killed Sirius Black.

I’d like to send a big thankyou out there to J.K. Rowling for creating such a gem all those years ago!

J.K. Rowling ( via Bloomsbury.com)

What are your favourite things about the Harry Potter series?

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Related News:

Bloomsbury is running a competition to celebrate 15 years of Harry Potter by finding the biggest HP fan! See the link below for more information!

http://harrypotter.bloomsbury.com/hptrade

Do I pick the Big Six when I buy books?

How many books do i own published by the Big Six? Good question.

In case you didn’t know, the Big Six is compiled of HarperCollins, Random House, Hachette, Simon & Schuster, Penguin and Macmillan.

Upon close inspection of my bookshelves, i have tallied the following amount of books published by the Big Six and their imprints (numbers are approximate):

HarperCollins 6

Random House 5

Hachette 9

Simon & Schuster 1

Penguin 25

Macmillan 3

No surprise that Penguin features rather heavily! Most of their titles are actually classic novels though.

I looked to see which other publishers i own and tallied the following:

Quercus 5

Canongate 7

Bloomsbury 13 (most of these are Harry Potter!)

Scholastic 6

Oxford University Press 5

Taschen 1

And there are a few other publishers but i don’t want to list all of them!

It is interesting to see the results of this investigation, shows that i’m not particularly fussed about the publisher of my books, except with Penguin who tend to do decent copies of the classics!

Have a look at your own books and see if you have a preference of publishers!

(This post was inspired by Maggie Madly Writing’s post http://maasmith7.wordpress.com/2012/05/08/a-publishing-monopoly-and-two-conflicting-models/)

The London Book Fair 2012

I have just spent 2 days at the London Book Fair, having been for the first time last year and really enjoyed the experience, and decided to make it an annual trip!

Unfortunately i was only able to go for the Monday and Tuesday, as i couldn’t really afford to stay 3 nights in a hotel in London! Since i was travelling and staying in London alone, i decided that staying in a national chain of hotels was a better option than in some grotty dive like last year! Plus i wanted to actually get at least one decent meal during my trip!

Woke up on the Monday morning to glorious sunshine making London look a lot more attractive! After a big breakfast i hopped on the Tube to Earls Court Exhibition Centre:

The London Book Fair 2012 at Earls Court Exhibition Centre

Seminars etc which i attended:

Literary Translation Centre

• Publishers resources for National Literatures
• Back to Basics: Getting started in translation Q&A
• Gatekeepers
• Independent Foreign Fiction Prize
• World Literature: How much does it mean to us?

General:

• The Great Debate
• Your job in publishing: Recruitment and retention in the digital age

Author events:

• Caitlin Moran interviewed by Sophie Heawood

The seminars were all very interesting, and quite useful in some respects, especially the translation ones as i’m still interested in translated fiction since doing my MA dissertation on the topic. I also talked to a few foreign arts councils and organisations about their books being published into English and got a few lists of books to have a look at. Hopefully i’ll find some good books to read and review!

What i learned:

• That someone is FINALLY conducting some data research to find out what the status of translated fiction is in the UK market, after the supposed 3% figure which has been bouncing around the industry for years with no clue when or where it came from.
• That to get a job in publishing, i need to get more office work experience AND prove that my social networking skills are actually being put to good use (i.e. that i’m promoting my blog properly and in what capacity).

Books i will now read after hearing about them:

• After going to the discussion on the Monday about the Independent Foreign Fiction Prize shortlist, i decided to read all 6 books, and to finally get around to reading the one which i already have (“New Finnish Grammar” on my Kindle).
• “How to be a Woman” by Caitlin Moran – I saw the interview with her on the Tuesday and thought she was really funny, so i went out and bought the book when i left the Fair!

Caitlin Moran interview

My Highlights

• The discussion with my fellow MA Publishing Alumni about J.K. Rowling’s new book due out later this year – We felt that the title (“The Casual Vacancy”) doesn’t sound brilliant and the plot sounds a little bit boring. But none of this matters because i suspect we will all buy and read it regardless, as will everyone else, meaning it will be a bestseller!
• The Great Debate: “In the fight for survival, outsiders and startups are taking on today’s heavyweights and will ultimately deliver a knock-out punch”. – Allen Lau (CEO, Wattpad) described how traditional publishers are going the way of dinosaurs and will be “driven into near-extinction”, and also how publishers are like the appendix because it exists but is useless. A little harsh, maybe?! The pre-debate poll revealed 88 for, 37 against, and 82 undecided (including me!), and closed with 41 for, 147 against, and 37 undecided. I admit i did vote for the resolution in the end, but now i’m not so sure!
• I loved the roof above the China Market Focus Pavilion, and wanted to take it home!

China Market Focus Pavilion roof

Slightly odd or amusing sights:

• The LBF Lobster!
• The weird girl sat in the English PEN Literary Cafe who gave me and a friend the evil eye as we walked past. No idea why!
• I spotted a publisher called Meyer and Meyer Sports, which is my surname!

Meyer and Meyer Sports at the LBF12

Things that bugged me:

• Constantly being asked if i wanted a massage from the red-shirted or white-shirted rival massagers dotted around the Fair.
• The photo of J.K. Rowling looked a little smug as she watched over us ( i do like her and Harry Potter but this poster just shows how much the publisher idolizes her).
• People aimlessly wandering into your path as you try to get somewhere.
• The food available at the exhibition centre is too expensive for what it is – cost me almost £5 for a bottle of water and a chocolate muffin! I walked up the road to Tesco because it was cheaper for lunch!

JK Rowling looking a bit smug

I quite enjoyed my 2 days and learnt a lot, even though i didn’t do so well at the networking – i just find it so daunting! Will definitely being going next year if i can, and hopefully i might actually have a proper job within  the industry by then!

The search for the perfect Kindle cover

I recently acquired a Kindle 4 for Christmas and am eager to avoid it ending up scratched and bashed like everything else (phone, mp3 player, etc all blighted by unsightly dents and blemishes) because i live by my personal mantra: “if it ain’t tough, it won’t survive”! So clearly it is very important to find a case which both protects my new gadget but is also not boring!

I have looked around and found some frankly rather boring Kindle cases provided by Amazon itself and a few others. Although i think they’re supposed to be more like a book cover, I’m concerned that cases like the one below will not protect the edges of my Kindle and will accidently open in a bag:

Kindle Leather Cover, Wine Purple (via Amazon)

This case style isn’t one i’m willing to waste my money on, even if it is my favourite colour purple! Amazon seems to charge a stupid amount of money for these cases, nearly half what the Kindle costs! There is also this one which isn’t too bad colourwise and has a nice clippy thing to keep the case closed, but i’m still not sure about it:

New Kindle Purple SD Folio Case – SD Tabletwear (via Amazon)

I did find some nice, less boring versions of that style, such as this Kate Spade one which is quite funky:

Kate Spade New York Kindle Cover (via Amazon)

There are the quite nice but extremely pricey designer ones, as shown on Pretty Shiny Sparkly’s blog:

Reader Chic: Designer Kindle Cases

Even though i’m not sure on this style, i do actually LOVE the pattern on this one:

Wild Rose Kindle 4 Cover – Oberon Design

It’s really beautiful, and they have many more different designs on their website for all Kindle models and also cases for other devices too, see Oberondesign.com.

And maybe this one is quite nice too:

Flower Kindle case – Lente Designs (via Amazon)

And then there are the sleeves for Kindle, such as this amusing one inspired by “Baby Got Back” by Sir Mixalot! (and that song got stuck in my head when i saw this!):

I LIke Big Books Kindle Sleeve – Cafepress.co.uk

Or maybe this simple one:

Belkin Knit sleeve for Kindle (via Tesco)

I would rather have a slip-on case which covers the whole thing and keeps it all safe and bash-free, maybe one like this:

SD TabletWear Leather Style Amazon Kindle Slip Pouch – Purple (via Gearzap.com)

Or there is this nifty reversible black and red one:

Forefront Cases NEW KINDLE 4 Black / Red Reversible Neoprene Case (via Amazon)

I am still undecided as to what to buy as i haven’t found anything that i like enough to buy. If there is nothing i can find that i like then i may have to design my own, either through one of these websites, medgestore.com, or bagsoflove.co.uk. Or i might just sew my own (looking like the easiest and cheapest option to get something personal and more attractive!

I will keep looking for now though, you never know when someone will bring something nice out!

Apple launches iBooks 2 app

The hottest news of the week in the publishing world was the announcement by Apple that they were launching the iBooks 2 app.

This app allows anyone to create their own ebook. It is mainly for authors wanting to create textbook ebooks for studying, with the app allowing them to upload content such as videos, images, Word docs etc into the app, which then works out how best to lay out the content.

This app will potentially lower the amount of huge heavy print books which students have to lug around campus and makes it easier to find what you are looking for. Although i guess you’d need to have an iPad in the first place which isn’t cheap, although if these ebook textbooks are cheaper than the paper versions then maybe you could afford one (or possibly not with the recent hiking up of tuition fees).

Publishers have already made use of the iPad for children’s books, and there are some beautiful ebooks out there for the iPad which i’ve seen and tried out for myself, although i still would be a little reluctant to give my expensive iPad to a small child to use, wouldn’t you? The pictures and animations are really lovely, colourful and appealing, which makes a children’s book more special.

Textbooks seemed like the next obvious target by publishers to try to digitise, as they contain far more content than other books and have always seemed rather dull. I guess with the iPad app we can now create beautiful ebook versions of these textbooks which we can interact with and make learning more enjoyable. We already have seen what can be done with textbook content in apps, the most famous being The Elements app:

Textbook ebooks look like they could be pretty big if done well, and it will be interesting to see how this works.
Here is a video explaining about the iBooks 2 app:

The video points out some interesting points about the old print textbook: They are outdated almost as soon as they are published, as new discoveries are made all the time, and the time-consuming process of publishing a book means that a textbook can be up-to-date upon its induction but by the time it reaches the shop it can be several months out of date. The ability to update the content of an ebook as new information is discovered would allow students to keep on top of developments. It may make it a bit harder to keep track of quotes a student may take from a book if new content is added, making referencing a little bit harder, but we’ll see how this works. Another point is that print textbooks are static, so if you are studying science, then ebooks make it possible to show images as animations so they look more like the real thing they are describing.

However, according to the Guardian, the textbooks will only be available in the US for now, which means the rest of us will have to wait! My main concern is that with tuition fees going up by massive amounts, students will be unable to afford to buy these textbooks, whether or not they have an iPad (and i can’t imagine many will do, i rarely saw them when i was at uni not long ago), so one hopes that libraries will buy them in so students can borrow them, but i guess that in itself will conjure up a load of trouble with lending, as we’ve already witnessed with other ebooks.

These textbooks can open a whole new way of learning, which is an exciting prospect. They look more interesting than print books, and the ability to interact with the content within the book makes it a more compelling reading experience, and if i was learning a subject as heavy and information-packed as medicine or something, i would want a more exciting way of learning about it! And it also makes it easier to take notes by simply highlighting text with your fingers and pasting it into your notes, which seems a lot easier than writing it all down by hand! I only wish i’d had this when i was at school/university, would have made life a lot easier, even though i was only studying literature and language and not science or anything!

I wonder what you think of iBooks 2? Feel free to comment!

Articles consulted:
Telegraph.co.uk: Apple iBooks 2 app lets authors make their own books

Engadget.com: Apple ibooks 2

Guardian.co.uk: Apple unveils ibooks 2 textbooks ipad