the famous 3 per cent? If only!
It often gets bandied about that only 3% of books published in English are in translation. Well, it's probably worse.
The source of this out-of-date figure seems to be Venuti's The Translator's Invisibility (p20 of Routledge's 95, edition): he says 3 per cent of US books are in translation - of UK books he finds the figure is 2.4 per cent!
In any case, as a blog linked to a brilliant new U.S. publisher of translations points out:
"that 3% figure includes all books in translation—in terms of literary fiction and poetry, the number is actually closer to 0.7%"
0.7% for the U.S., and it's clear as day that the % of literary fiction/poetry in translation in the UK is lower still.
The source of this out-of-date figure seems to be Venuti's The Translator's Invisibility (p20 of Routledge's 95, edition): he says 3 per cent of US books are in translation - of UK books he finds the figure is 2.4 per cent!
In any case, as a blog linked to a brilliant new U.S. publisher of translations points out:
"that 3% figure includes all books in translation—in terms of literary fiction and poetry, the number is actually closer to 0.7%"
0.7% for the U.S., and it's clear as day that the % of literary fiction/poetry in translation in the UK is lower still.
posted by Stefan Tobler at Monday, April 06, 2009
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