Publishing translations

       In The International New York Times Stephen Heyman writes about Who Is the Biggest Publisher of Foreign Literature in the U.S.? -- relying heavily on the Three Percent databases.
       The answer on offer is ... AmazonCrossing (see the titles under review at the complete review) -- though Dalkey Archive Press give them a run for their (our ?) money .....
       The article does note that, as far as AmazonCrossing goes: "most of its titles would be qualified as genre fiction" -- with Open Letter- (and Three Percent-)man Chad Post noting: "They're doing a lot of things that most translation publishers don't do" -- and correctly pointing out:

"To fully understand a culture, to understand literature the whole way, you need more than just the best books," Mr. Post said. "You need the book about Spanish history along with the book about zombies."

       Damn right, and far too few other publishers are publishing those Spanish-zombie (etc. etc etc.) books. (That said, AmazonCrossing also repeatedly surprises with some first-rate/significant stuff that apparently fell through all the other cracks.)
       The most interesting take-away for me:

This year, AmazonCrossing says it expects to increase its output, projecting 70 new translations into English and 200 into German.

       Even in the schlock market, translation into English lags .....