Foreign Editions

by Mary Jo

Romance is read around the world in many, many languages.  For a writer, it's a huge benefit if one's native tongue is widely spoken and widely read because that means there's a sizable publishing business: writing groups, editors, publishers, agents. All the paraphernalia that help aspiring writers learn and grow and become published.

I've often thought how hard it is to be a very talented writer in a small language group where there isn't the structure to support budding talents.  (To the left are two editions of LOVING A LOST LORD, Japanese on the left, Indonesian on the right.)

I give thanks that I'm a native speaker of (American) English, which is spoken and read around the world. Lots and lots of romances are published in English, so many foreign publishers find it more efficient to buy rights to English language books and translate them into their own language because there just aren't as many original titles available in Polish or Korean or whatever.  (Harlequin, the romance giant, does its own translations and distribution.  According to Wikipedia, in a recent year that was 26 languages and 106 countries.  That a LOT of romances!)

Historical romances are popular because of the escapism and glamour factor, so over the years, I've had a ton of foreign editions of my books.  Over 200, I think. Maybe way over.  This is over a lot of years, of course.  

I'm always happy to be informed of a new foreign sale, and I keep my fingers crossed that the translation is done well.  I imagine most translations are good to very good, but probably there are some that aren't that great.  I just hope a bad translation doesn't leave readers disappointed.

Covers can be a hoot.  Just as foreign publishers can buy rights to American books, they can buy rights to cover illustrations that American artists originally did for American books.  So I've seen books of mine with covers that had originally graced a Johanna Lindsey or Laura Kinsale or other American title.  (Above is a Cyrillic language, Russian or possibly Bulgarian.)

Some countries go for very racy covers, others are much more discreet, some are hilariously inappropriate.  A few books have used the original American illustration, though possibly altered.  This German edition of VEILS OF SILK used the same original Pino painting but trimmed and flipped right to left.  (The title is "Indian Nights," which fits since the book mostly takes place in India.)

Czech editions render my name as MARY JO PUTNEYOVA, the Slavic way of saying "daughter of Putney."  I like this Czech edition of RIVER OF FIRE below, which shows a painter's palette for a book about artists.  

But there's a corollary: generally contracts for foreign editions require copies to be sent to the author, and they build up.  And up and UP!   Like  most authors, I'm incapable of destroying a book, even one of my own, even if I can't read it. <G>  Whenever possible, I've pressed foreign copies on friends who read the language and are interested.  Spanish editions are very popular with my local libraries. Once I took a whole box of Korean editions to the nice ladies who run a tailoring and alterations shop near me.

But still--TOO MANY BOOKS!  Three or four bookcases full and tottering on the verge of explosion.  What to do, what to do???

Eventually a friend helped me find a solution.  A librarian by training, Binnie hangs out on a large online librarian loop and she asked who would like foreign editions, and if so, what languages?  (Also included in this were surplus large print editions, all in English.)

My friend and the librarians came through.  I sorted the books by language into banker's boxes.  Multiple boxes of Spanish and Italian and German and Polish and Norwegian.  Smaller collections of Korean and Chinese and other Asian languages.  Rows and rows of boxes in my garage.  (That's less than half the boxes.)

Binnie made lists, and she and a friend of hers packaged and sent the books.  We gave priority to small libraries with limited to non-existent budgets.  (I paid all shipping costs, and thank heaven and the post office for media mail rates!) 

Binnie found a couple of big city librarians that would take just about anything, including fairly obscure editions like Indonesian and Thai.  It was all a huge amount of work (of which I delegated as much as possible!), but I'm happy that my books have found their way into welcoming hands, and anything that helps libraries and readers gives me a warm glow.  

Since I like to keep track of things, I did keep one copy of each foreign edition and they are now archived in two six foot tall bookcases with double rows.   Foreign editions are still coming in, but these days with steep international shipping rates, the numbers are fewer, fortunately.  But I'm keeping a box to toss the extras in, and Binnie still has her library list.  <G> 

Markets change over time.  Once there were masses of German and Nordic editions, and over the years just about everything of mine has been translated into Spanish and Portuguese. 

Difficult economic conditions have tightened markets in some countries, but in recent years, Romania has become  a terrific market for my books.  I hear regularly from Romanian readers, and I love that my stories are enjoyed there.  (After all, "romance" and "Romanian" come from the same root word!)

Here's a picture of my cleaned up foreign edition library.  I would have been embarrassed to show it before! 

Of course all of the Word Wenches have mountains of foreign editions, probably enough to build a house out of.  Have any of you read any Word Wench books in foreign editions?  If so, I hope the translations were lovely!

Mary Jo, sadly mono-lingual

Comments

[Amaya]

I didn't realise there were translated editions until I came across Jo Beverley's first few Company of Rogues books in Japanese but it's a shame they're out of print as that particular publishing house closed. The Malloren series is done by another publisher... It's dizzying to keep up. I'd like to read your Japanese editions too. Will need to get around buying some and see how they fare against the original English! (laughs)

[Mary T]

Glad you were able to find a home for all of those books. So sad to think they might have gone unread. I'm sure that those large print (English) editions would be welcome at any library.

[Binnie Syril Braunstein]

Mary Jo-

Great article! And needless to say, I had great fun sorting your foreign editions and making libraries all over the country extremely happy at adding to their foreign language and, of course, large print (LP) collections. Feel free to let me know whenever those LP and foreign language editions start to multiply in the dark. I'll be glad to find them good homes.

[Andrea Penrose]

Such a fun post, Mary Jo! I don't have nearly the collection you do, but my favorite foreign edition of one of my books is the Japanese manga of my Cara Elliott "To Sin With A Scoundrel."

[Sue McCormick]

A Fascinating story. And a particular interesting twist on what I do with our surplus books — I give them to our library. There they are either shelved (if the library needs a copy) OR they are sold to the public. Not only do we give the library our surplus books, but we go to the sales and fill in gaps in our home collections.

[Mary Jo Putney]

Amaya, "dizzying" is definitely the right word! Usually a publisher buys rights for a limited time, generally five years. If the book continues to sell well, they may ask for a renewal so even if a company doesn't close down, they might no longer publish a particular title.

[Mary Jo Putney]

Mary T, I was delighted to find homes for all those books. It wasn't cheap, but the costs were deductible. *G*

Large Print English books were by far the easiest to place, but there weren't many of them--usually I'll be send only one or two copies. Again, I kept one each, but I still had a couple of dozen I could send along to small libraries, which was nice.

[Mary Jo Putney]

Binnie, I have a box where I toss any spare foreign editions that arrive. *G* Eventually they'll find their way to you!

[Mary Jo Putney]

Andrea, I always wanted a manga edition, but alas, it's never happened. Anne Gracie has at least one, I think. One never knows what the foreign publishers will want!

[Mary Jo Putney]

Librarian recycling, Sue! It works for both donations and filling in backlist books. And it's such fun poking through a library sale; one never knows what one will find.

[Janga]

How wonderful that all those foreign editions found homes, Mary Jo! With all the budget cuts libraries have faced in recent years, I am sure they were appreciative. The one romance novel that I own in a foreign edition is a French copy of Eloisa James's Pleasure for Pleasure. It is a special book for me and other Bon Bons of the Eloisa James Bulletin Board (now defunct) who rooted for a Josie-Mayne pairing before and during the writing of the book and to whom the book is dedicated. A friend, another Bon Bon, visited France and sent me a copy of the French edition. Between my undergrad French and many rereadings of the book in English, I can manage to read the French edition, but I wouldn't dare evaluate the translation based on my inadequate reading.

[Mary Jo Putney]

Janga, I didn't know you were a Bon Bon. *G* I loved Eloisa's non-fiction memoir of her year in Paris.

And yes, it was very, very gratifying to send those books to appreciative homes.

[Oana-Maria Uliu]

Thank you for mentioning the Romanian editions, Mary Jo. :)
Some people say that it is romance novels and colouring books for adults that maintain the book market in Romania these days. I happen to be interested in both. :p
Even though I aprreciate the translators' work (some are better than others), I'll always prefer the original book if it's in a language I know - English, in this case.

[Maggie Robinson]

I need to follow your example. I've been translated into (only) nine languages, and don't have copies of all the books. But for the ones I do, I'd like to make them useful somehow. When I occasionally give talks, I take some with me, just because the covers and orientation are so different.

The neatest thing, though, two of my books were translated into German by the girl (woman now, of course) who lived with our family as an AFS student in the 80s! Talk about a small world. Then I never dreamed of writing, only wrangling four little kids.She successfully won the translation contract from my German publisher, and it was so much fun to get "what did you mean?" emails.

[Wendy]

Mary Jo

Thanks for supporting your local libraries. So much emphasis is put on the electronic side of things that the print side of the collection is often slighted and patrons who don't read english are often forgotten or ignored. Thanks for helping to fill the void and bolster the tight budgets that are getting tighter. the librarian part of my life applauds you.

[Minna]

I think I've read at least Nicola Cornick's books in Finnish and Swedish. Finnish is my mother tongue, but I like to read books in other languages in order keep up my language skills.

[Mary Jo Putney]

Oana-Maria, I'm sure that reading a book in the original language has nuances no translation can quite match. Your English seems pretty much perfect, and I suspect you might have some other languages up your sleeve, since European are so much more linguistically adept than most Americans!

And if romance and coloring books are keeping the adult book market afloat in Romania--good for us all!

[Mary Jo Putney]

Maggie, how totally cool that your AFS translated two of your books! Of course living in the US for a year probably helped her English language fluency greatly. (Did she translate the books with a Down East accent? *G*)

My brother was an AFS student who spent a summer in Germany. It's a great program.

[Mary Jo Putney]

Thank you, Wendy. I was so glad that my friend Binnie was able to connect with so many libraries to make it happen. Several librarians mentioned how difficult and expensive it is to get foreign language editions, so it's a win/win for all.

[Mary Jo Putney]

Minna, once again, Europeans prove their linguistic superiority! The Scandinavian publishers by a lot of romance--many, many of my books were translated by them.

I think that Finnish is one of the rare languages, difficult for non natives to learn and related only to--Estonian, is it? Possibly a Turkic language in its roots? Now I'll have to go look it up to see if my memories of college cultural geography are accurate!

[Oana-Maria Uliu]

:p Sorry for the 'aprreciate' typo. Most Romanians, even the less educated ones, learn foreign languages easily (no idea why). They won't only if they don't want to. Of course it's easy for us to learn other Romance languages, but I'm not talking only about them. In 2010 I started studying Korean, then I had to stop because my mother was seriously ill and I needed to take care of her: now I'm planning to take it from where I left it - it's such a challenge! :)

[Minna]

Yes, Estonian is related to Finnish. But it's not the only relative. Finnish and Estonian are Uralic languages, just like for instance Sami, Hungarian, Mari and Mansi, but Turkic has nothing to do with them. I think Finnish is considered to be diificult to learn because it's so different from Germanic languages.

[Minna]

Of course, that might not be the only reason:
https://fi.pinterest.com/pin/322288917063225003/

https://fi.pinterest.com/minun02/want-to-learn-finnish-huh/

[Mary Jo Putney]

Minna,

You're right, of course. I was thinking of the Ugric languages, which apparently are a branch of the Uralic. I just spent a few minutes poking around Wikipedia entries on linguistic families. Fascinating stuff! Apparently there was once thought to be a far past connection between Indo-European and Uralic, but that seems to be discredited now. So very different language structures.

Now I'm thinking about a college anthropology class that discussed the utter differentness of the Navajo language from Indo-European languages. Again, fascinating!

[Mary Jo Putney]

ROFL!

[Mary Jo Putney]

Anyone who studied Korean for fun is surely linguistically gifted well above average, even for Romanians!

[Mary M.]

An old joke (or maybe it's not a joke?):

What do you call a person who speaks 3 languages?
- A scholar

What do you call a person who speaks 2 languages?
- An educated person

What do you call a person who speaks 1 language?
- An American!

A hobby of mine is learning Chinese. I find it fascinating, but with no one to speak it with it's an uphill battle. I doubt I'll ever be able to read novels in Chinese, but it would be fun to try.

[Oana-Maria Uliu]

The Korean alphabet (hangul) is actually easier than ours. Their grammar, not so much. :p

[Mary Jo Putney]

++What do you call a person who speaks 1 language?
- An American!++

LOL! So true. As for being able to speak Chinese, have you googled to find if there's an online site that let's students of Chinese interact with each other in real time? Or is there a university near you that might have a Chinese club where you might find a native speaker who'd be willing to chat a bit? (I actually have a Chinese born doctor and she's great. But I have no Chinese skills to practice on her!)

[Mary Jo Putney]

Plus, from what I've heard, East Asian tonic languages are horribly challenging for Westerners to learn how to speak!

[Oana-Maria Uliu]

Indeed, they have sounds we don't have. I wouldn't try Chinese. I think Japanese might be easier (to pronounce), but I meant to learn their writing system and I failed, so... Korean is enough for me. :D