Do Books in Translation Sell? A Chestnut Considered

Pity the poor publishing trends journalist. From time to time, maybe especially in the silly season, they'll end up writing an article about translated books and sales, jousting with the straw man that books in translation don't sell in English-language markets. And sure enough, two back-to-back articles at the end of August by Dalya Alberge in the Guardian and Steven W. Beattie in Quill & Quire weigh on this topic with a little phoning it in, as well as some surprising conclusions.