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Q: My name is Artur Gorski, and I am a Polish journalist and writer (four published books). I hope you are the right person to answer my question: does a writer from Poland have a chance to be published in the USA? My last book was published less than two months ago and sells quite well in my country. There is one problem—the book was published in the Polish language. American agents want to have a translation. What to do? -Artur

A: Let’s answer the easiest question first: yes, you definitely have a chance to be published in the US, provided the subject matter of your book would appeal to American audiences. The first example I can name is Haruki Murakami, author of the acclaimed The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle. Originally written in Japanese, Murakami’s work has done very well here in translation.

Now for the difficult part of your question: how to handle translation for US agents. Because this doesn’t occur frequently, there’s no hard-and-fast answer. But for a judgment call I contacted Haruki Murakami’s translator Jay Rubin, a professor of Japanese at Harvard University.

Here’s what he had to say: “I don’t think there is any one way these things happen. Ideally, there should be a translator who is crazy about the author’s work, gets permission from the author to translate, sends a sample to an agent, who then gets excited and approaches a publisher. Mr. Gorski may have an audience in Poland, but if his writing hasn’t attracted the attention of anyone outside the country, that in itself may be some indication that the audience isn’t there…I would suggest that the author find an established translator of Polish literature whose native language is English (preferrably one with contacts to a literary agent), and get an honest opinion as to the feasibility of doing a translation.”

Hope this helps, and thanks very much to Professor Rubin.

Anne Bowling
Editor of 2001-2005 Novel & Short Story Writer's Markets
Writer's Digest Books