Amazon has announced that AmazonCrossing Announces $10 Million Commitment to Translating Books into English -- explaining that this: "investment will go toward fees paid to translators over the next five years and increasing the countries and languages represented on the AmazonCrossing list" (though it's unclear exactly what this means ...)
If any US/UK publisher/imprint can be said to churn out translations, it's AmazonCrossing, consistently the top (numbers-wise ...) publisher of translations in the US (by a fairly wide margin -- Dalkey Archive is the only one anywhere near them in total output). So, for example, there are: "77 titles from 15 countries and 12 languages to be published in the United States in 2015" by them.
Prorated over 77 titles/year, the new investment works out to just over US$25,000 per -- though presumably they plan to publish more titles, spreading the money more thinly. How much of that would go to translators is unclear (as, indeed, is most everything about this 'investment'). Still, it sounds impressive, and Amazon definitely fills an otherwise underrepresented part of the translation market -- not just schlock, mind you, but definitely schlock-heavy (which I approve of and appreciate), but with quite a few titles of serious interest, too; see, for example, the AmazonCrossing titles under review at the complete review.
In conjunction with this -- or maybe that's what they spent the $10 million on ? -- they've now established a Propose a book for translation-page -- and I'm very curious to hear how that will work out. (It's certainly hard not to guffaw at the explanation: "Using an Amazon account ensures the information that you share is kept secure" (secure from who/what, exactly ?).)
See also Susan Bernofsky's commentary at her Translationista weblog -- and no doubt many more translators (and, surely/I hope Chad Post, at Three Percent) will be weighing in once anyone figures out what this might all be about, and what it might mean for translators (and readers).
If any US/UK publisher/imprint can be said to churn out translations, it's AmazonCrossing, consistently the top (numbers-wise ...) publisher of translations in the US (by a fairly wide margin -- Dalkey Archive is the only one anywhere near them in total output). So, for example, there are: "77 titles from 15 countries and 12 languages to be published in the United States in 2015" by them.
Prorated over 77 titles/year, the new investment works out to just over US$25,000 per -- though presumably they plan to publish more titles, spreading the money more thinly. How much of that would go to translators is unclear (as, indeed, is most everything about this 'investment'). Still, it sounds impressive, and Amazon definitely fills an otherwise underrepresented part of the translation market -- not just schlock, mind you, but definitely schlock-heavy (which I approve of and appreciate), but with quite a few titles of serious interest, too; see, for example, the AmazonCrossing titles under review at the complete review.
In conjunction with this -- or maybe that's what they spent the $10 million on ? -- they've now established a Propose a book for translation-page -- and I'm very curious to hear how that will work out. (It's certainly hard not to guffaw at the explanation: "Using an Amazon account ensures the information that you share is kept secure" (secure from who/what, exactly ?).)
See also Susan Bernofsky's commentary at her Translationista weblog -- and no doubt many more translators (and, surely/I hope Chad Post, at Three Percent) will be weighing in once anyone figures out what this might all be about, and what it might mean for translators (and readers).