In Berlin ex-pat shares Europe's literary gems at DeutscheWelle Holger Heimann profiles E.J. Van Lanen and his new publishing venture, Frisch & Co. -- the new approach they're taking being that they focus on books on translation, but publish them only as e-books.
Heimann observes:
Meanwhile, Van Lanen reports modest success for the first efforts:
Heimann observes:
There are myriad reasons why getting known in English is next to impossible for books in translation. And quality certainly isn't one of them -- otherwise Uwe Tellkamp's GDR epic Der Turm ("The Tower") would have found an English-language publisher long ago. Highly acclaimed in Germany, Tellkamp's masterpiece did catch on abroad, but didn't quite make it all the way to the US or UK.(Presumably its 1000-page length was the main stumbling block.)
Meanwhile, Van Lanen reports modest success for the first efforts:
"In the first month, we sold 100 copies. That's not a very high number," admitted Van Lanen.Doesn't sound too bad to me -- a start, anyway, and one hopes that sales will eventually (soon !) take off. (Though I have to admit the e-format continues to be a major hurdle to proper appreciation of these titles for me .....)