Marina Sofia grew up in Romania and lives in England. Marina translates literary fiction and crime novels from Romanian and German into English. She is also the co-founder of Corylus Books, a publisher of crime novels with a social dimension translated from Icelandic, German, and Romanian. She reads widely and offers book reviews and recommendations in her blog: https://findingtimetowrite.wordpress.com/.
I knew Marina from social media and was curious about her experiences as a literary translator, particularly the challenges she might have faced. We met virtually and talked about these challenges but also about the resources we both have used to continue learning and stay motivated. Marina's insights as a publisher of literature in translation were particularly interesting and informative to me. I hope they will be helpful to emerging translators as well.
Ilze: What was it like for you starting out as a literary translator? What obstacles did you face and what resources did you feel you had at the time?
Marina: I graduated with modern languages and then went on to do a Masters and a PhD in anthropology. I translated some anthropological texts, but other than that I moved away completely from translation. I went into the corporate world and didn't do any translation until about 2018, 2019, when I decided it would be really nice if I could make the world more aware of Romanian writers. I translated some small bits and tried to pitch them to people. This was particularly crime fiction, and nobody seemed interested.
A couple of friends and I decided to start our own company, Corylus books, and we published translated crime fiction, including Romanian authors that I think deserve to be better known. Now, I've translated four novels for Corylus books from Romanian and one from German. And I also try to translate other types of texts of literary texts.
Marina: Largely I was ghosted. Back then, I suppose it was also because I'd had no track record. I was this random person who was saying, these authors are interesting, you might want to look at them. Also, nobody knew Romanian crime fiction well, nobody was interested in it. It's not Nordic noir, it's not Japanese, so why would they bother? I think I was very naïve in thinking that people were waiting for something like that.
Ilze: Not getting a response after a pitch must be quite frustrating.
Marina: I think back then I didn't know any better, so I just assumed that it was going to be difficult, and it was. I think nowadays I actually get more frustrated because now I'm also a publisher myself. I always try to get back in touch with people and let them know and not just keep them hanging on or not reply at all or reply two years down the line. We are a tiny outfit, so we can't publish more than four books a year. So clearly, you know most of the pitches are going to get turned down because we've got an ongoing commitment with our existing authors.
But now I get quite frustrated because I'm still pitching literary works to other publishers. I’m pitching works by women writers, for example, with quite a fresh and intriguing perspective, very different from other things that we get to see about Eastern Europe. When people do reply, they tend to reply with something like, we've got something very similar already from Croatia or Hungary, as if all of that is the same.
Ilze: Have you pitched all of your books to UK publishers?
Marina: I've pitched to some US publishers as well. I go through a spreadsheet of publishers and I work my way through them. With some pet projects of mine, I think I've pretty much exhausted everybody on the list. With others I think, maybe it's not the right time, I'll try again later.
I've been ignored in both countries, but I've also had a few publishers, like Deep Vellum, Daunt, Helöise Press, who have replied in a nice way. They were either interested in seeing more of the book than the sample that I had sent or said OK, maybe not this particular project, but I would love to know more about this author or about similar authors.
Maybe that particular book hasn’t quite hit the mark yet or they were publishing something very similar that year or upcoming years. There have been a few encouraging replies, but on the whole, as you said, it's been mostly ghosting where I'm not sure if it's even gone through. And I do follow up just in case it's gone into spam, but still no reply.
Ilze: I think translators deserve better, especially because we're doing a lot of extra work. We're scouting for new books, preparing samples and other materials, researching the various publishers, then pitching. We deserve a response.
Marina: I agree. I think, quite honestly, I'm coming to the conclusion that they can only afford to take a couple of such projects on, especially the mid- to big publishers. Generally, they tend to think that translated books are not big money-making projects, so they can only take one or two such risks. And especially if they're already committed for the next three years, they're not going to bother. It's not necessarily that your pitch isn't a good fit or not a worthy project. There isn't enough of a market, and we can't afford to take more on than what we already have.
Ilze: I really appreciate hearing your perspective as a publisher. As translators, we need to understand the market and how it works. According to some research, only 3% of all titles published in the U.S. are books in translation, and literary translation is only a fraction of that 3%. I can imagine the volume of pitches sent to publishers. And usually it is the smaller publishers that are more interested in publishing literature in translation. They have even less bandwidth to read everything that comes to them and take on these projects.
Marina: I think there are also two additional problems. One is the language skills. Maybe a lot of these publishers do have those skills in house and can quickly read the original book in French, German, etc. and decide whether it's for them or not. Otherwise, they're so reliant on other people's opinions and reports. It's an even greater risk, isn't it? What happens if the sample sounded quite nice, you've commissioned it, it's been translated, and now you realize, actually I don't like it, and I don't think it will sell? This is a bit of a nightmare.
And then the other is, of course paying for the translation upfront is a big cost compared to paying for English language books. This actually makes me quite sad because it means that it's not an even playing field out there for what gets translated. Publishers tend to pick up books from the countries that can afford to pay translation grants, and even bigger publishers are now looking for these grants. A lot of countries are very snobbish about genre fiction. They say they'll only give grants to works of high literary merit, as if these are mutually exclusive categories. The Iceland Literature Board is quite generous. They give funding for crime fiction as well as literary fiction, which is one of their strengths. But because they give money to almost everybody who applies for it, the amount they give has become smaller and smaller over the years, as it's become more popular to translate from their language.
That doesn't put us at Corylus off translating because we have the skills in house, but we have heard that other publishers have turned down authors because they didn’t want to invest in the translation costs. This is true for bigger publishers too, which is ironic because they could afford it more than we could.
Ilze: To be informed about funding opportunities, it's very important for translators to participate in organizations. I am part of PELTA--Portuguese to English Literary Translators Association. On their website they have lists of what grants are available and how we can apply.
In Brazil, the Biblioteca Nacional (National Library) offers grants to publishers. The publisher is the one who has to apply, but of course the translator is there to help along the way. We should all be acquainted with the agencies from our country or the country that the original work comes from, find out which offer financial support for translation. In Brazil, though, and maybe it's like this in other countries too, you have to get an acceptance before you can apply for the National Library grant.
Marina: Yes. It becomes a bit of a vicious circle. And it also means that works from countries that cannot compete because they don’t have such programs simply won't get translated or very little will get translated, which is unfair.
Ilze: Another type of opportunity literary translators should research is contests. As you know, my upcoming translation, The Book of Affects, is going to be published because I entered the 2024 Sundial House Literary Translation Award and was one of five recipients. Besides prize money, editing and publication were part of the award.
And here we should mention another reality of publishing works in translation: your first published translation may not be your dream translation, your absolute favorite work by an author. I had been pitching a novel by Marilia Arnaud for a couple of years when I heard of the contest. Sundial House was looking for shorter works, so I entered the short story collection by Arnaud instead. And that’s what’s going to be published in December. It's also a fantastic book, but it was not what I had been pitching for quite some time.
Marina: It's very important to be flexible also because you have to build up a track record as a translator, right? If you're forever pitching those great projects that you love, but nobody's taking them on, then you're not going to have anything to show for these efforts other than a drawer full of samples. Try to publish shorter works like flash fiction, short stories, poetry, which you can publish in the journals, including online journals. You have to build up that reputation as a translator from those languages.
Personally, even if these were not the projects that I wanted to be known for, in the end I found it so satisfying. First of all, to see that you can do it, that your work is good enough builds your confidence as a translator, and it builds your reputation externally. Working with editors from these literary journals is also so interesting and rewarding. I really recommend that route to everybody.
Ilze: I got started by having work published in literary magazines too. There are hundreds of them in the US. And of course there are the journals in the UK. Getting a short story or poem or novel excerpt in one of these publications is a reachable goal. Also, I read once that an author who was publishing a novel excerpt mentioned in her bio for the magazine that she was seeking a publisher for that title. And a publisher saw that note, contacted her, and ended up publishing the book. This is not a common outcome, but I think the point that we're making here is, you need to make yourself known, build a track record, as you say.
Marina: These are all, I think, very important guidelines or advice for emerging literary translators to keep in mind. I would say try it all.
Ilze: I also recommend that emerging literary translators go to conferences. Of course, it's always a matter of whether you can afford the time and the money, but if you can go, I think it's important. Have your business card ready and go talk to editors. Last year at the American Literary Translators Association Conference, I introduced myself to Michael Holtmann, one of the editors at the Center for the Art in Translation. I told him I translated from Portuguese, and he said they were interested in publishing more works from Portuguese and I should send them something. I did. It turned out to be a rejection, but the contact was made, and now they know who I am.
I strongly believe that for literary translators, the most important quality you must have, besides mastering the two languages and understanding the two cultures well, is perseverance. If you've ever pitched your own work, as I have, you know that it may take ten, twenty pitches or more to multiple literary magazines to get one acceptance.
Marina: Another important thing that I've heard many translator friends say is that actually they tend to get very few jobs from the sort of cold pitching that we've been talking about, where you just write to the publishers and send everything. Even well-established translators have said that throughout their career, they may have translated twenty books, and maybe one of them was the result of a pitch like that. A lot more tend to be either commissioned by the publisher or obtained through somebody, as you said, through a networking thing at a conference or a book event, where you run into a person and you start talking. Do try a variety of approaches, but be aware that even if you have a strong pitch and you've prepared all the documentation and it looks good, it still may not hit the mark.
Ilze: It is! As all translators know, translation is the most intimate form of reading. You’re peeking behind the curtain, and you realize, this is how it’s done, how the work is put together: the word choice, the syntax, the voice, the metaphors, the images, how this character is developed, how the plot is advanced. When you’re translating, you feel that thrill from your first read multiplied by three, five, ten. It's absolutely delightful to do this work.
Marina: And how do you keep that delight and motivation in your work despite discouragement and rejection? As I said, I don't have an MA in literary translation, but I've participated in various webinars and a lot of them are now free and available online. I would encourage people to take part in these, and especially when you do a group-translate of a certain text you get so much. It's so much fun because many heads work better than just one, and it unblocks your own mind and makes you fall in love with the process all over again. Whenever I start to feel a bit discouraged and say, this will never work, I try to get myself onto one of these webinars or go to a conference or simply talk to other translators. And suddenly, I'm feeling all motivated again. I'm finding my love of the craft again.
Marina: In the UK they've got summer schools. They're paid for, so it might not be in everybody's budget. I was very lucky that two of them have been run online. I was able to attend because they were cheaper than they would have been in person, and I didn't have to leave home to do them. One is the Bristol Translates Program and the other is the British Center for Literary Translation at University of East Anglia, which also runs a summer school. Within the program of the summer school, which is based around the languages that you translate from, they also have some free webinars that are open to the general public. These are translation panels on how to pitch to publishers and a variety of useful topics.
I still learn about free events on social media. I will just participate and find that a lot of them are of good quality. There’s also the Emerging Literary Translators Network, which is an e-mail based group, and they also share information about translation-related events. It’s good to build your network, and generally translators are happy to help each other. I haven't had a formal kind of mentorship. It’s been more informal, asking somebody for some feedback. I find that working with other translators, getting to know them better, for me personally, is really reinvigorating when I feel a bit overwhelmed or discouraged.
Ilze: Here in the U.S. there are also a lot of lectures and webinars. I’ve attended several one-off events because that’s what I can afford. There's so much to choose from. And depending on where you are in the U.S., if the time difference isn’t bad, you’ll be able to attend U.K.-based online events. These are largely advertised on social media.
Marina: Also, cultural institutes from the countries that you're translating from usually have a lot of events, some of them in that language or in English in various locations throughout the world, and they usually have recordings as well. So that's another great way to get involved.
Ilze: Thank you very much, Marina. This has been enlightening and a pleasure.
Marina: Thank you.
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