The shortage of foreign crime fiction in translation is an
economic question more than anything else, although it is
obviously related to the tastes of the buying public.
Publishers simply don't feel there are enough buyers to make
publishing translations worthwhile. There are not many
general fiction titles in English translation, either,
compared to the number of English titles translated into
German, French or other languages.
Technically, it would be feasible to download books and print
them on the reader's printer. I think you're right about the
low cost of making a word-processing or PDF file available.
It makes a certain amount of sense to publish that way if
your only goal is to get read. But I'm not sure how the
author and translator are going to make any money, even if
they publish themselves. First, they have to get set up to
accept credit cards, not an inexpensive proposition. Then, a
few customers might pay, but once an electronic version is
floating around, it would be like MP3 files. No one feels any
compunction about trading them and the publishers, let alone
the artists, don't get a cent.
Karin Montin (certified translator)
>Date: Sat, 8 Jul 2000 14:32:36 EDT
>From:
WordRunner@aol.com
>Subject: Re: RARA-AVIS: Re: Small World
<snip>
> Their production and the marketing costs can be
limited to such a degree
>that a book selling no more than a couple hundred
copies can sometimes pay
>for itself (not counting the cost of the
translation), and a 5000 copy
seller
>can be a big winner for everyone (except, perhaps,
the author) No writer
>will make any real money unless his or her book takes
off and does much
>better than that, but what else is new?
>
> Jim Blue
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