Thursday, November 5, 2015

​Translating foreign SF novels into English still not routine in U.S. book business

UPDATED LINK to updated article at Teleread.com

http://www.teleread.com/cli-fi/translating-foreign-sf-novels-into-english-still-not-routine-just-ask-cli-fi-author-jean-marc-ligny/


 by Dan Bloom

SOMEWHERE IN THE MILKY WAY GALAXY -- When it comes to translating science fiction novels from France, Germany, Italy or Japan (and other non-English speaking nations), the U.S. publishing industry has a rather dismal track record. Yes, Tor Books published a popular sci-fi novel from China by Cixin Liu, "The Three-Body Problem," and not only did it win over readers in translation the by American sci-fi author Ken Lui, but Liu's novel also won the "Best Novel" prize at the 2015 Hugo Awards.
 
In addition, the 2015 Xingyun (''Nebula'') Award for Global Chinese Science Fiction was recently announced in communist China, with the best achievement prize awarded to Liu in his home country.
 
Published by Tor Books in November 2014,  Liu's high profile Hugo award is a good sign for future translations of non-English language sci-fi. In addition, Amazon has recently announced that it intends to pour more money its own translations of books from foreign countries, with a reported pot of $1 million to get the project rolling.

But in fact, the U.S. is still not translating many SF novels from overseas.

A top sci-fi novelist in California I spoke to for this article told me why translations are still a problem here.

​"The main problem is that the English-language market is self-sufficient," he told me. "American editors are not prejudiced against foreign-sourced work, but few of them can read in a foreign language. As a result, they can only evaluate a sci-fi work from France or anywhere after it has been translated, even a chapter or two on spec."

"So someone has to do some initial translation work on spec, most probably unpaid, as Ken Liu did with the first few chapters of his translation of the 'The Three Body Problem.' That is the only way it can be done."


I'd like to introduce readers today to an important sci-fi novelist from France, who writes only in French and  has not yet been able to find a publisher in the U.S. or Britain.


Meet Jean-Marc Ligny, born in 1956, and one of the top novelists writing sci-fi with climate themes in all of Europe.


His most popular novel in France is titled "AquaTM" and it was released in 2006. It has sold over 10,000 copies in France, according to publishing sources in Paris, and about 12,000 copies in Germany in a very good translation in 2009 by Ulrike Werner-Richter for Lübbe Books (www.luebe.de).

 
 

Ligny told me in a recent email that 1 million copies of "AquaTM" were printed in China in 2009 by Yunnan Education Publishing House, although, he added:  "I'm not sure how many copies were actually sold."

Now Ligny, and his French publisher L'Atalante, have their sights on a U.S. edition.


Ligny’s three climate-crisis novels Aqua™ (2006), Exodes (2012) and Semences (2015) have yet to be translated into English. His publisher has generously sent me English-language summaries, draft translations of the first several chapters of the first two novels, and an English translation of a 2012 interview with French SF blogger Gromovar.

In addition to foreign rights sales to Germany and China, "AquaTM" has been optioned for a feature film in Germany by director Tim Fehlbaum, who in 2011 made the movie Hell (which was produced by Roland Emmerich).


The plot goes like this: In 2030 drinking water has taken over from oil as the most precious and vital commodity that people and nations are fighting over. It is, of course, a situation brought on by drought and man-made global warming. In a drought-stricken African country,  a scientist, with the help of a pirated satellite picture, an underground water layer on its territory, but it does not all end in a pretty picture. Ligny writes sci-fi with panache and with a vision, so be prepared.


We offer here a translation of the first chapter here: this to find chapter ONE
Aqua™ in English (prologue + chapter 1, parts 1–3)


Ligny visited Florida in October, he told me, noting that he was invited to attend a university colloquium titled "Imagining climate change" at the University of Florida.

"I've written three SF novels about climate change and one for YA readers, and while I am identified in France as a sci-fi writer, I am also comfortable to be considered as a 'cli-fi' writer," he said. "However, this cli-fi term is not used often in France. and there's also not  many SF authors here writing about climate change either."

"It's my dream now, and has been for several years, to find a U.S. publisher for my work," he said.

2 comments:

DANIELBLOOM said...

via the internets: FROM A FRIEND OF THIS BLOG:

''Actually, there was a time when translating foreign SF novels into English was almost routine (back in the 1960s and 1970s), but it was often an editorial decision at the top (cf. Wollheim) and readers may have been more adventurous as well. This was also in the days before the crushing of the mid-list, when middling sales could be justified as long as bookstores restocked their shelves with the same titles.

As I see it, tastes have ossified and publishers will only place so many bets on unproven authors (no other publications in English, no international awards), especially considering the added costs of translation....''

DANIELBLOOM said...

From the internets, part 2, FROM ANOTHER FRIEND OF THIS BLOG:

''Thanks so much for your enthusiasm, Dan!



Like you, I feel that foreign works in translation should be welcomed with open arms in America. It seems so arrogant to think that the pool of American sci-fi writers suffices to meet the demands of the sci-fi market. Yes, they certainly do push out books, but how many are great books? How many are truly original? So very few... As a sci-fi fan myself, I can say, "My needs are not being met, because I have yet to come up against a truly great sci-fi novel." (Sorry!)



We American readers would appreciate being able to read books by foreign writers, with their alien viewpoint. As it is now, we have no choice: we're stuck with that pool of writers our publishers favor, or with the bewildering e-book offering.




I'm not saying I've uncovered any truly platinum-level sci-fi fiction here in France where I live now, but I see writing that is superior to work being published and gobbled up in the USA. And given the chance to reach millions of American readers, masterpieces of French science fiction literature just may appear. The dream of every editor...if he or she will risk investing in a good translation.''


AND FROM ANOTHER FRIEND OF THIS BLOG:

''Actually, there was a time when translating foreign SF novels into English was almost routine (back in the 1960s and 1970s), but it was often an editorial decision at the top (cf. Wollheim) and readers may have been more adventurous as well. This was also in the days before the crushing of the mid-list, when middling sales could be justified as long as bookstores restocked their shelves with the same titles.

As I see it, tastes have ossified and publishers will only place so many bets on [unproven or unknown in North America] SF authors from overseas (no other publications in English, no international awards), especially considering the added costs of translation....''