Challenges faced by organisations that promote translation

02

Promotion:

 they participate in international book fairs to raise awareness of their own funding programmes and of the books and authors they represent;

 they work with national publishers to promote their books abroad either by representing those works themselves and/or by coordinating publishers’ participation at international book fairs;

 they produce information in both print and online formats that promote their national literatures;

 either individually or in cooperation with other funding organisations, they secure, direct and coordinate ‘guest of honour’ status at international book fairs, for example

Norwegian Literature Abroad (NORLA) (Frankfurt 2019), the Baltic states (London 2018/19), Common Ground – Literature from south-east Europe: Region in Focus at Leipzig

Book Fair 2020–2022, or the Flemish Fund for Literature, in cooperation with the Dutch

Foundation for Literature;

 in some countries, they operate education programmes that promote an awareness of the profession, working in schools and universities to develop an appreciation of the skills a translator needs.

Training and networking:

 they offer residencies and workshops to literary translators to enable them to specialise and develop enhanced skills by immersing themselves in the culture and language of the works they are translating;

 they offer mentorship schemes whereby older, more experienced translators train and advise new entrants to the profession;  they organise fellowships for visiting publishers and agents to encourage them to publish works from the host territory;

 they organise promotional events for their literature in translation both locally and internationally, thereby stimulating conversations about the practice of literary translation and developing an audience for this type of work.

Funding:

 they offer grants for outbound translation and, in some cases, for inbound translations as well (e.g. at the Centre National du Livre and Traduki), thereby creating a very broad ecology of translated literature in their home territories;

 by default, as a result of their funding interventions, they can act as a benchmark for quality and can, in some cases, set the benchmark for the rates at which translators are paid.

Challenges faced by organisations that promote translation

NATIONAL TRANSLATION FOUNDATIONS/ AGENCIES SHOULD BE ESTABLISHED ON A STATUTORY BASIS AND ADEQUATELY RESOURCED WITH PERMANENT EXPERT PERSONNEL.

Many translation funding organisations, particularly in smaller countries, operate in a precarious environment in which the stability and continuity of their funding and existence is not guaranteed. If national literatures are to be properly promoted abroad, and European books are to circulate easily across borders, national funding organisations must be established on a statutory or permanent basis. They should not

be subject to excessive political influence and should be strong enough to withstand pressure from sectoral interests.

Publishing is a business. Good publishers make profits on certain titles, which benefits their authors and translators, as well as themselves. However, the costs attached to literary translation can be greater than those attached to the publication of a local title, and ambitious and generous support from translation funding organisations is essential to this process. According to publishers, around two thirds of the books published make no profit or are even published at a loss. Some publications can be cross-financed by bestsellers, which are essential if publishers are to continue to support worthy projects (and for which they pay authors and translators), even if they are financially unsuccessful.

Increased demand for translation grants can lead national funding organisations to spread the grants too thinly, awarding very small subsidies to a greater number of books in order to have a presence in a wider range of territories. National funding organisations should be discouraged from engaging in this practice, as it does not provide enough funding to maintain the translation rates of individual publishers.

Publishers of literature in translation require significant support to offset the risks attached to publishing unknown writers from another land and in another language. When they can, funding organisations should offer additional support for the specialist skills involved in translation editing, and also for the promotion of translations. Translation grants alone are insufficient as an instrument to help circulate translated literature (see Section 2.3).

A growing lack of translators available to translate from smaller languages and in unusual pairs is presenting challenges to funding organisations. This is a macro problem that requires strategic intervention in terms of both education and language policies at both national and European levels, in order to ensure that language and translation degrees in smaller or lesser-used languages are available to citizens. Such opportunities, combined with advocacy on the part of translation associations and professional development and training schemes for translators arranged by the funding organisations, should, in time, result in an improved and more varied translation environment in Europe (see Chapter 1).

When it comes to third-country promotions, many smaller national funding organisations cannot afford to travel abroad on a regular basis to attend book fairs in, for example, Asia or South America. While respecting individual national promotional concerns, there may be a case for (EU-supported) shared stands representing a cross-section of European territories at book fairs in non-European counties (e.g. at Guadalajara, Sharjah or Seoul book fairs; see Section 2.5).

It is also worth mentioning that the current subsidies to support cultural exchange through

It is also worth mentioning that the current subsidies to support cultural exchange through the literature of various European countries are comparatively small in comparison with the needs of the sector.