Weird phrasing in the title, sorry. Obligatory non-native speaker warning.
What I mean is, usually with books written by American authors and published in the USA, the rights are then sold to publishing companies in the UK and distributed in Europe. At least that is my understanding of it. But for some series, this never happens. And I don’t mean like, small-time indie books (which we get sometimes and it’s great!) but series that have topped best-seller lists. E.g. I was on the hunt for Gideon the Ninth at some point, and it was impossible to find. Literally. The only copies of it I’ve ever seen are paperbacks imported straight from the US. Which, and this is my opinion, is not really worth it, since the quality is usually… meh. These days I see Harrow the Ninth in a local bookstore, again, big glossy paperback straight from overseas, a price tag equivalent to a collector’s edition. (The price makes sense since it’s coming from the other side of the world, I know, but still.)
I asked at a bookshop about another book, which I could find in translation or not at all, and was told the rights for distribution in Europe have never been given for it. Or something to that effect – that the book has never been published or circulated here.
The question, or TLDR, is, why? Why not take advantage of another english-speaking market? Is it just not worth the trouble? Are there issues between particular publishers? Is it an ‘us’ problem, i.e. is it the european publishers that snub the books? Am I missing backstage context of the industry?
Side note: I am aware that the US in and of itself is a big market, and there is probably a huge chunk of literature that never makes its way over. But that’s why I mentioned that the series I’ve been looking for are best-sellers – it feels like those ones are always circulated here as well, even with a few years’ delay. I probably have blindspots and biases as it relates to this, since I’m not very familiar with the new releases in the US, or the titles that make it overseas from our side, which is why I thought I’d ask the better versed people on here.
by depressanon7
4 Comments
Taxes and tarrifs mostly
Shit the US just got the prophet song today and that’s been out since last year. I think the issue is space for printing presses and making enough paper to do all the books
>Why not take advantage of another english-speaking market?
You overestimate the English-speaking part. Only 38% of EU ctizens speak English proficiently. Certainly, you might expect to see more uptake in Anglophone countries like the UK and Ireland, but generally most European countries favor their own languages.
And speaking proficiency doesn’t necessarily mean they are comfortable with it.
I can read Dutch fine, but it’s not my first language, I prefer books in English for ease of reading.
The rights and distribution part is probably more finicky, since you need to get multiple countries to agree, but I think it’s a combination of difficulty nailing down the legal part combined with perceived demand.
I don’t understand your premise:
1 Gideon the Ninth is not a USA book – it is written by Tamsyn Muir who is a New Zealander who lives and works in Oxford, England.
2 It is published by Macmillan Publishers which is a British publishing house based in London.
3 It is easily available in the UK as a hardback, paperback, Kindle and audiobook. The paperback rrp is £11.99 which is not an import price.
Perhaps this says something about the bookshops you are going to?
It may have a lot to do with American vs British spelling. American publishing houses insist on American spelling, and will undertake any necessary editing. They may also want book titles to be changed. For example, _Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone_ was published in the US as _Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone_. British publishers probably have a reciprocal arrangement for American books, although it is quite common to see American imports being sold, especially for books that have not been published with British spelling.
There may also have been problems in the past with the [Net Book Agreement](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Net_Book_Agreement) (prices being fixed by British and Irish publishers to prevent retailers from undercutting each other). This may have prevented the sale of American books in Britain and Ireland.