America's record of translations is worse than any other western country
6th September 2017 | for Creatives | reading, books, language, culture, reaching your audience, publishing, value the art, Salman Rushdie, American |
"The problem is that America's record of translations is worse than any other western country. Fewer than two percent of books published in America in a given year were written in a language other than English. Fewer than two percent! And some of those are textbooks. If you come down to literature, it's a fraction of one percent. And so it's very hard for American readers to even know about he work because that work is not translated or published in their language. In England, it's not great either. About five percent. But in places in Western Europe, like in France, it's twenty-five percent and in Germany, it's more than thirty percent. And so writers are able to be heard in those languages and readers are able to hear them."
Similar for Creatives
books are precious
"I think books should be cheaper. I want books to be accessible. If books are precious (and as a result, expensive), then publishers win, readers lose, and by proxy, writers lose, too."
getting out of the way
"Our job in publishing is to keep creating many different kinds of books and then getting out of the way so that readers can pick their own."
The movies have not undermined the influence of fiction
"The movies have not undermined the influence of fiction. On the contrary, they have extended its field, carrying the ideas which are already current among readers to those too young, too impatient, or too uneducated to read."