LTI Korea 
DLKL 
SIWF 
Creating a Library of Korean Literature scrap
by John O'Brien
November 21, 2014
It is a fact known to most in the literary world that very few literary works from non-English speaking countries are being translated into English, either in the United States or the United Kingdom. This situation began to develop as long ago as the early 1980s and has now reached a critical stage. The diminishment in books not only reflects a scarcity of contemporary world literature reaching English readers, but because English is now the bridge language to other countries, it also creates severe problems in having texts available that can be read throughout the world by both readers and other publishers for consideration of editions in their languages.
In late summer of 2011, I contacted LTI Korea Director Kim Seong-Kon, who was then teaching at Harvard University. I suggested to him my interest in starting a Korean series of books that would ensure a number of Korean literary works would come into English each year. Dalkey Archive has a number of these series with other countries now, usually allowing for two to four books to be published each year. The archive supports these books with exceptional marketing initiatives that are not normally possible because of budget constraints. Without such marketing initiatives, books are left to chance, and yet in the current climates of both the United States and England, there is little chance for a work of literature to gain very much attention.
One should keep in mind—whenever talking about translations—that what is seen as a crisis of translation, especially in the U.S., is in fact a crisis in the literary culture at large. Media outlets for book reviewing have become nearly non-existent, and those that remain cater to what they perceive Americans are most interested in. The result is that few literary works are reviewed, and the higher the quality, the less likely that they will be reviewed. Bookstores are therefore cautious about buying these books, and the public has little means of hearing about them. This situation is what any American publisher faces in publishing literature, and this situation becomes more difficult when the literature is in translation.
Those publishers, usually small and underfunded, go on publishing literature against all odds. They do not have titles on their list that will become bestsellers and therefore offset the losses of their literary books, nor do they want such books on their lists. And yet these are the very publishers most in need of financial support.
Unlike in other countries, the government in the U.S. provides very little support for the arts. The largest grants given to literary organizations ranges from 40 to 60 thousand dollars per year, and this is with a population of over 300 million people. Private foundations, with very few exceptions, do not fund literature at all, nor do individuals. Most small presses survive by virtue of overworked and underpaid staff that almost always consists of a very small number of people.
In such an environment, literary presses see low sales, oftentimes in the range of 700 to 1,200 copies. And on some days these numbers even look encouraging. Anyone can analyze such numbers to see how economically unfeasible publishing such books is. And yet small presses continue doing it. But what if a large press such as Random House were to publish them? The results are nearly identical, which is precisely why Random House does not do such books.
Most funding agencies in other countries fund the partial costs of a translation, and that is all. They mistakenly believe that this modest help should be enough for American and British publishers to do a translation. But this is far from enough. The average cost of publishing a translation is from $35,000 to $45,000. If a funding agency provides half of the cost of translation (let’s assume that this amounts to $3,000), the publisher is still looking at approximately $40,000 in costs. Even if a book sells 2,000 copies (a good number for a translation), the publisher is still facing costs (and a loss) of about $24,000. Funding agencies in non-English speaking countries have, for some reason, a difficulty in understanding these raw facts.
The Library of Korean Literature is, however, a bold experiment that will address these problems. Its overall goal, as far as I am concerned, is not to increase sales in some dramatic way; the goal is to introduce these books to the reading public in the most effective ways so that they will find an audience that is interested in them but otherwise would not know about them. Dalkey Archive is making a long-term commitment to these books and to reach the audience for them. These efforts will go on for a long time after the first 25 are published in 2013 and 2014.
LTI Korea is making a major investment in this project, but one that is equaled by Dalkey Archive itself. The entire project will cost approximately $750,000, and expenses are being shared by both parties, as is the planning and implementation.
Without the innovative, forward-thinking of LTI Korea, this project would not have been possible. In the fall of 2013, the first 13 books in the Library of America will be published, and 12 will be published the following year. These books will all be published on the same day in the U.S., the U.K., and Ireland, and will thereby become a media event because of the large number of books being published and the simultaneous publication.
We intend at Dalkey Archive Press to make these publications just the beginning of our commitment to Korean literature and culture. In addition to the publication of these titles, we will also be creating a body of critical works that will be available to English-speaking readers in order to help them approach Korean literature.
Marketing initiatives have already begun for these books and will continue over the next three years and beyond. Our expectation is that this dramatic approach will begin to solve many of the problems with publishing literature in the English-speaking world today.
* John O’Brien is the founder and publisher of Dalkey Archive Press.
Writer 필자 소개
John O'Brien
Did you enjoy this article? 별점
Did you enjoy this article? Please rate your experience
