Nielsen Reports Translated Literature in the Uk Grew 5.5 Percent in 2018

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From Publishing Perspectives:

The widely accepted ‘3-percent rule’ of translated literature in English-language markets may be changing, as Nielsen Book reports a rise in translated books in the UK.

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Released today (March 6), new research commissioned from Nielsen Book by the Man Booker International Prize indicates that translated fiction in the UK market grew by 5.5 percent. The report sees sales of translated fiction for last year coming in at £20.7 million (US$27.2 million).

As a subcategory of overall translated fiction, “general/literary fiction” in translation showed a robust 20-percent growth level, while regular, English-language fiction in that category was flat.

And as news reports this morning including that from Lucy McNulty of MarketWatch at the Wall Street Journal indicate that the British government may slash trade tariffs on up to 90 percent of goods if the UK makes a “hard Brexit” from the European Union on March 29, media messaging from the Booker Prinze on the research offers yet another pointed irony: “Nielsen’s findings include the fact that translated fiction in the UK is overwhelmingly European, with French—at 17 percent of volume sales–being the leading language of origin overall.

“For new books published in the past five years, Norwegian and Swedish are the most popular languages of origin.”

Link to the rest at Publishing Perspectives