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A Faraway Island and publishing
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From: Ginny Moore Kruse <gmkruse_at_wisc.edu>
Date: Sun, 07 Feb 2010 22:19:09 -0600
Annette, your recent study and what you found out are important. Thank you for taking time to briefly summarize some pertinent results. We look forward to finding out more about your study as you talk and write about it.
After reading A Faraway Island this weekend, I agree all that you, Renee and Megan already commented about this fine novel. I'm convinced there will be readers for this novel from Sweden, the first in a quartet about which the author spoke during the 2008 IBBY Congress in Copenhagen. I'm equally convinced that this Batchelder book, like the Batchelder Honor Books this year and all other books honored by the Batchelder process in earlier years, will have a chance only if it's promoted by its theme, story, or topic, and not because it's a "translated book." Though the Batchelder process brings some of the best newly translated children's books (out of very few each year) to attention, it's then up to the teachers, librarians, booksellers and other interested adults who care about world literature to commit to knowing these books, realizing all each one is and why its theme or topic might interest this or that young reader. Is it asking or expecting too much to encourage adults to read and then think about who might enjoy each of these three or four Batchelder books each year?
Peace, Ginny
Annette Goldsmith wrote: Ginny, I will give it a shot. Briefly, for my dissertation, "Found in Translation," I conducted a web-based survey to which 93 busy editors, some of them on this list, responded. (Thanks again!) The survey listed editors' motivations for publishing translations, identified the barriers they encounter in their work, and asked them which resources they find helpful. I then followed up with hour-long telephone interviews with 10 editors who, in deviating somewhat from the center, had additional information to offer about why they did or did not want to publish translations. I defined "translations" as the type of books eligible for the Batchelder, so my findings relate directly to the award.
Here are some pertinent results. When I ranked editors' motivations for doing or wanting to do this type of publishing, the most important motivation was having a strong personal response to the book -- not a surprise, of course, for an editor wanting to publish any book. The most important barrier editors identified was having to rely on others to read in the language of the original when they could not read it themselves. (This ranked higher than financial considerations.) They saw attendance at the Bologna Book Fair as the most useful resource for locating books to translate. Also, editors were more open personally to publishing translations if they spoke a second language, and perceived the industry as being more open to publishing translations than five years ago.
I would like to emphasize that publishing children's translations is a complicated undertaking for which there is little or no training or mentorship available unless one happens to work for a firm where it is already being done. When we look at adult publishing the situation is only slightly better. The Batchelder is an important and unusual award in that it is given directly to publishers who go to the extra work to search out amazing books from other countries to share with children here. For that reason I think it deserves a much higher profile, which would not only help promote the books and maybe keep them in print longer, but also the importance of reading books from other countries, stories that are inaccessible to us unless we read in the language of the original. I also hope it would encourage publishers to consider publishing translations if they had not done so before. A few of the editors I surveyed were intrigued at the idea of publishing translations and said they might try it!
Annette
Annette Goldsmith, PhD Guest Faculty University of Washington Information School Seattle, WA Residence: Tallahassee, FL Chair, 2010 Mildred L. Batchelder Award Committee Member, USBBY Outstanding International Books Committee
*** Please delete my Comcast account (ayg_at_comcast.net) from your address
book and use my new email: agoldsmith.fsu_at_gmail.com ***
Received on Sun 07 Feb 2010 10:19:09 PM CST
Date: Sun, 07 Feb 2010 22:19:09 -0600
Annette, your recent study and what you found out are important. Thank you for taking time to briefly summarize some pertinent results. We look forward to finding out more about your study as you talk and write about it.
After reading A Faraway Island this weekend, I agree all that you, Renee and Megan already commented about this fine novel. I'm convinced there will be readers for this novel from Sweden, the first in a quartet about which the author spoke during the 2008 IBBY Congress in Copenhagen. I'm equally convinced that this Batchelder book, like the Batchelder Honor Books this year and all other books honored by the Batchelder process in earlier years, will have a chance only if it's promoted by its theme, story, or topic, and not because it's a "translated book." Though the Batchelder process brings some of the best newly translated children's books (out of very few each year) to attention, it's then up to the teachers, librarians, booksellers and other interested adults who care about world literature to commit to knowing these books, realizing all each one is and why its theme or topic might interest this or that young reader. Is it asking or expecting too much to encourage adults to read and then think about who might enjoy each of these three or four Batchelder books each year?
Peace, Ginny
Annette Goldsmith wrote: Ginny, I will give it a shot. Briefly, for my dissertation, "Found in Translation," I conducted a web-based survey to which 93 busy editors, some of them on this list, responded. (Thanks again!) The survey listed editors' motivations for publishing translations, identified the barriers they encounter in their work, and asked them which resources they find helpful. I then followed up with hour-long telephone interviews with 10 editors who, in deviating somewhat from the center, had additional information to offer about why they did or did not want to publish translations. I defined "translations" as the type of books eligible for the Batchelder, so my findings relate directly to the award.
Here are some pertinent results. When I ranked editors' motivations for doing or wanting to do this type of publishing, the most important motivation was having a strong personal response to the book -- not a surprise, of course, for an editor wanting to publish any book. The most important barrier editors identified was having to rely on others to read in the language of the original when they could not read it themselves. (This ranked higher than financial considerations.) They saw attendance at the Bologna Book Fair as the most useful resource for locating books to translate. Also, editors were more open personally to publishing translations if they spoke a second language, and perceived the industry as being more open to publishing translations than five years ago.
I would like to emphasize that publishing children's translations is a complicated undertaking for which there is little or no training or mentorship available unless one happens to work for a firm where it is already being done. When we look at adult publishing the situation is only slightly better. The Batchelder is an important and unusual award in that it is given directly to publishers who go to the extra work to search out amazing books from other countries to share with children here. For that reason I think it deserves a much higher profile, which would not only help promote the books and maybe keep them in print longer, but also the importance of reading books from other countries, stories that are inaccessible to us unless we read in the language of the original. I also hope it would encourage publishers to consider publishing translations if they had not done so before. A few of the editors I surveyed were intrigued at the idea of publishing translations and said they might try it!
Annette
Annette Goldsmith, PhD Guest Faculty University of Washington Information School Seattle, WA Residence: Tallahassee, FL Chair, 2010 Mildred L. Batchelder Award Committee Member, USBBY Outstanding International Books Committee
*** Please delete my Comcast account (ayg_at_comcast.net) from your address
book and use my new email: agoldsmith.fsu_at_gmail.com ***
Received on Sun 07 Feb 2010 10:19:09 PM CST
