I think even a bad translation is better than no translation at all, but for some reason the majority of books don’t seem to get translated. Why is that?
I think even a bad translation is better than no translation at all, but for some reason the majority of books don’t seem to get translated. Why is that?
Money. There’s no money in it.
It would overwhelm the market but more choice would mean more purchases, but I guess not enough to bother.
It would not necessarily mean more purchases. For the majority of those translations which you suggest, there would literally be zero purchases, because the demand is non-existant.
Dumb argument. That’s just your opinion. You can’t know what people would or wouldn’t buy.
For the books I would personally most like to translate, I think the problem is marketability. Nordic children’s/youth literature often contains nudity/sexuality and/or darker emotional themes which are often viewed as inappropriate in English-speaking cultures.
In “Vi skulle vært løver” by Line Baugstø a young girl discovers her classmate is transgender, and for much of the book participates in transphobia before learning better and supporting her new friend. It’s a very well-told and realistic emotional experience, but would likely be seen as grooming by many English-speaking audiences. Not only does it support trans people, but it also spends quite a lot of time in the girls’ locker room. I think if you tried to give this to kids in the US or UK there’d just be a ton of controversy about it and it’d get banned.