The rise of the English language driven by social media and, chiefly American, popular culture, is affecting sales of locally published editions. In a number of markets, notably the Netherlands and the Nordic countries where knowledge of English is often greater than that of English people, it means it is very difficult to sell original language editions.
The topic was much discussed at the recent Thessaloniki book fair in Greece where Argyris Kastaniotis, head of Kastaniotis Editions, said: “The problem with English-language export editions is that they are priced aggressively and distributed widely online, often reaching our local market faster and cheaper than we can bring out the Greek translation. For readers comfortable with English, which includes most of the younger generations, this creates a real challenge to the viability of the domestic edition.”
Some local publishers in Greece are attempting to meet the challenge by upping the design of their books to make them more appealing than the English language editions.
Jacoba Casier, an acquiring editor for the Dutch publisher De Geus, told the Bookseller English-language editions remain a big concern in the Netherlands, and described weighing whether it was even “worthwhile” to publish translated English books in this increasingly competitive landscape.
“If we stop publishing translated authors, they won’t appear in the newspaper in the Netherlands, because the English publisher is not putting any effort in [the] PR and author’s visit,” she said. “But when we have an English author coming over to the Netherlands, we see at the end of the speech two thirds of the copies sold in English.”