From: Norma Jean <nsawicki>
Date: Tue, 23 Mar 2004 10:56:08 -0500

The Batchelder Award can be tricky for publishers to advertise, and for discussion among reviewers, librarians, etc.; sometimes the award is misrepresented. Obviously one wants to discuss the book but it is the publisher, and not the writer/book that wins the award. In terms of what Mildred Batchelder hoped to achieve, the publisher as "winner" makes good sense but it has been my observation that her goal is sometimes forgotten, and the award misconstrued. As a former children's book publisher who worked for departments that received the award, it was a pickle to figure out how to advertise the book correctly because we wanted to acknowledge the award but we certainly did not want to advertise ourselves. Early on in my career, I sometimes gave speeches about this award because I believed in its purpose but sales figures told me most book buyers did not care...sales figures could be as low as 2,000/3,000 copies even if the book received starred reviews, etc. It made me believe many translations of excellent books fall into the category of "prestigious publishing," and no more. While it would be interesting to discuss the book, I would also be interested to know if there is a prejudice against translations...do librarians and teachers believe kids won't read them...the reason they don't buy them. In the thinking and research I did way back when, I concluded that a translation of a book that did not feel especially "foreign" outsold those whose setting/mindset was obviously foreign. Any thoughts/observations from the
"market" would be appreciated, and I would be grateful for the candor. Many thanks...Norma Jean
Received on Tue 23 Mar 2004 09:56:08 AM CST