Publishers & Publicity

[Eric]

Giveaway, eh?

I, a relatively impecunious literary translator, have used the threads on this website, the WLF, to unashamedly promote my translations from smaller languages.

However, I would have thought that publishing houses, when also availing themselves of gratis publicity, would not be so financially restrictive as to be afraid of a bit of surface mail to Australia and similar.

Some British people, especially those living in the Netherlands and having a rather good knowledge of the Dutch language, might well be interested in what is being published by way of translations from the Dutch in the land of their birth, and might appreciate a chance not only of reading Hossein Sadjadi Ghaemmaghami Farahani, but also the many Dutch authors that have appeared in Britain. We people who can actually read Dutch may even have specific comments on the translation.

So how about it? A few quid to allow Brits who can read Dutch to read this novel. Or Iranians living wherever they live.

Niet te krenterig doen!

[Stewart]

I think that, with Canongate Books offering the giveaway, and are the ones incurring the costs, they are welcome to define the terms of their offer. I'm sure there will be more opportunities in the future for wider ranging geographies.

Now, back to the Kader Abdolah book itself...

[Eric]

First of all, for those who read Dutch, the Wikipedia entry on Kader Abdolah (as I'm not sure whether there is an English-language entry):

Kader Abdolah - Wikipedia

And a picture:





Here's what Abdolah has written:

• 1993 - De adelaars (verhalen)
• 1995 - De meisjes en de partizanen (verhalen)
• 1997 - De reis van de lege flessen (roman)
• 1998 - Mirza (columns)
• 2000 - Spijkerschrift (autobiografie)
• 2001 - De koffer (Overijssels boekenweekgeschenk)
• 2001 - Een tuin in zee (columns)
• 2002 - K?lil? en Demn? (hervertelling van Perzische verhalen)
• 2002 - Sophia's dro? vrugte (roman)
• 2002 - De koning
• 2003 - Portretten en een oude droom (roman)
• 2003 - Karavaan (columns, 2003)
• 2005 - Het huis van de moskee (roman)
• 2008 - Een gouden handdruk voor Du Perron
• 2008 - De Koran en De boodschapper (resp. 'een vertaling' en 'een vertelling')
• 2009 - Dit mooie land (columns) (verwacht)

[Omo]

In which case, I don't recommend the Bible, or works by Balzac, Ibsen, Dante, Goethe, Tolstoy, Dostoevsky, many philosophers including Karl Marx and Leon Trotsky, some historians, very many poets, or even the Marquis de Sade and the works of Sacher Masoch. Or, indeed, anyone writing outside of the British Isles, North America, Australia, New Zealand, India, Nigeria, South Africa and a few other places. You do rather restrict yourself, though the British Empire did spread the English language worldwide.

You misunderstood me. My native language is German, and books that I'm interested in that aren't written in a language I read in will be read by me in a German translation. English is a foreign language for me, so when I read in English I want to read something that has been originally written in English. Actually I don't read much anglophone literature.

[Eric]

I must have misunderstood what you said, Omo. But that is because I see so much worship of things written in English, as if these are somehow special, better. So few things are translated into English that I forgot you were a native-speaker of another language. Britain and America only seem to acknowledge the reality of things academic and literary if most are written in English. Translations are accepted rather grudgingly.

Returning to the Canongate debate, I am rather disappointed that a Dutch-Iranian writer, writing steadily from 1993 to 2009, has been ignored by Britons for yonks, but now when one of his umpteen books has made it into English, this is regarded as some Great Event. Why have British publishers ignored him for over 15 years, and are now suddenly getting all excited? Peter D is right - it is not a new novel, except for Brits, with a time-lag of one-and-a-half decades. Iran has moved on since then; so has Dutch literature. I would suggest that my compatriots are grievously out of touch with developments in both, unwilling to keep up with the times.

[e joseph]

Poor Canongate...
Try and give a few copies of the book away and promote discussion and see what happens. My condolences.

[Eric]

Sorry, E Joseph, but publishers, rightly eager to promote their wares, should think out their campaigns better. You don't a need an Alastair Campbell-style spin-doctor and propagandist to run the campaign, but small publishers especially, short of funds as they always are, should try to get maximum effectiveness and publicity for minimum cost.

So for them to write here for nothing is legit enough, but then to save a bit of postage seems mean (in the sense of stingy), and cutting off their nose to spite their face.

The key thing is that all of those seven they give away the books to should have something pertinent to say, by way of feedback. There could be:

1) A completely new reader, who knows nothing about the book or author;
2) An Iranian refugee (who obviously knows the country and allusions);
3) A Dutch reader who has read several books by Abdolah;
4) An English translator from Dutch, who can say whether the translation is accurate for fact and style;
5) Sympathic people at publishing houses such as Dalkey, and Open Letter in the USA, and Michael Orthofer, to give an American perspective;
6) Someone who has read both "The House of the Mosque" and "My Father's Notebook" and can compare the merits of both books.
7) Someone who has read Abdolah's recent translation of the Koran into Dutch, and sees him in that perspective.

And a few others. All these could comment in a reading circle so that their accrued comments could be read together.

But a publicity campaign must be thought through and planned. Otherwise, it's just a waste of time and money. As are many of those author's evenings where only ten people turn up, even at a book fair, because the build-up to the evening, and the publicity for it, has been half-hearted or virtually non-existent.

If a notice of a Kader Abdolah reading on a cheap A4 sheet were posted up in every student residence kitchen at the University of Edinburgh, they would get more than ten people in the room or bookshop, and Abdolah could sign freshly bought copies. I suppose Canongate have done such things already.

[Stewart]

I've moved this to its own thread because it's becoming a discussion on a thread that is really only intended for a specific giveaway.

[saliotthomas]

Knowing who mistaken the fan for a toilet again " Is publicity important ?" would have been a much better title for the thread.


PS/ I don't think we will be offered books again.
Soon.

PS 2/In Morocco they would never come near me anyway,but still i think of those in the UK,with the rain an all.