Book tour
By Angelina Davydova
Special to The St. Petersburg Times
Non-Russian authors do not have the mass appeal they once had, but St. Petersburg publishers are seeing an increasingly sophisticated market for foreign literature. With the fall of the Iron Curtain 15 years ago came a flood of formerly proscribed literature — both foreign and Russian — and the sight of each straphanger on the metro avidly reading new books of all kinds. The break-up of state publishing houses had created a clutch of new publishers, many based in St. Petersburg, that competed for the attention of the reading public. At one point in the 1990s up to 70 percent of all fiction published in Russia was foreign as rights were secured and titles translated. With the financial crisis of August 1998, many publishers went bankrupt and the trend for translated fiction changed direction. Although mass interest in foreign works tailed off, readers became more selective and critical. So-called “intellectual literature” suddenly became popular, said Alexei Gordin, the executive director of Azbuka publishing house. Up to 70 percent of all fiction Azbuka releases is translated literature. “Russian readers were open to [non-Russian] authors such as Milorad Pavic, Milan Kundera, Haruki Murakami and Patrick Susskind,” Gordin said. However more recently, Gordin said, demand for new “intellectual literature” has slowed. Publishers are sticking with authors who already have an established following, and are publishing new authors only in small print runs unless they are big names like Dan Brown, author of “The Da Vinci Code.” Another trend is the growing popularity of translated crime fiction and Azbuka will publish “everything that comes that is above average,” Gordin said. Another type of foreign literature that is heavily represented on the Russian market is children’s literature. Azbuka said it publishes only a few children’s’ titles by Russian authors and the vast majority of its output in the genre is foreign children’s fiction. Limbus Press is another St. Petersburg publisher that publishes work by foreign authors. “We have our own distinct line. We publish books that have their own character”, said Natalia Smirnova, foreign rights manager, at Limbus Press. One of the Limbus Press lines is so-called “literary sex” or “hardcore” fiction — something that other publishers might not dare to publish — dealing with “sex, drugs, violence and rock ‘n’ roll.” The publisher also looks for “big names” that are well-known in their home countries to publish exclusively in Russia, such as Pulitzer prize-winning author Philip Roth and Jewish-Italian writer and novelist Alberto Moravia. Limbus also recently published Salman Rushdie’s “Midnight’s Children,” the Booker Prize winner of 1981 which was voted “the Booker of Bookers” in 1993, becoming the best Booker-winning novel of the first 25 years in the prize’s history. Smirnova said that in the month after it was published “Midnight’s Children” sold 5,000 copies — a record for a 700-page-book. Another direction Limbus is pursuing is contemporary teenage literature for readers aged between 15 and 19. “Nowadays teenagers perceive literature as music or television,” Smirnova said. “They want to read about the same people as they are. They want to see a boy or a girl sharing their thoughts with the readers in books. That’s why we decided to launch this series.” The Limbus Press catalogue comprises both Russian and translated non-Russian titles in equal measure. “We tend to publish non-commercial literature, launching new authors. The market is in constant movement,” Smirnova said. Smirnova said that most publishers in St. Petersburg do not have their own staff translators and work with freelance professionals. Publishers are always eager to try new ones. “Different books require various translators,” Smirnova said. “A middle-aged translator might not be able to put adequately the thoughts of a teenager, to translate young people’s slang, and the way they speak and act.” St. Petersburg-based publisher Astrel publishes both translated fiction and non-fiction, with a strong emphasis on contemporary commercial paperback literature. According to Yelena Surinova, Astrel’s editor of translated literature, interest in foreign fiction never falters in the marketplace. “The reader is always interested in what foreign authors say and write about the same problems as theirs, what contemporaries living in other countries think and do,” Surinova said. Astrel publishes “good quality commercial fiction,” including romances and thrillers. “When choosing a book to translate, we always read the reviews, see what prizes the book got or was nominated for,” Surinova said. “Many of the titles we publish were screened in Hollywood.” At the same time, Surinova has noticed a recent trend in reading tastes toward more high-quality literature. “The interest in more serious and more high-quality fiction is certainly rising. Readers are interested in well-written books about people, people’s relationships, psychological aspects of human life. So that badly-written, false crime novels don’t find readers anymore.” Astrel also publishes self-help books, mainly dealing with love, life and relationships. “People will be eager to read professional advice in a popular and amusing form,” Surinova says. St. Petersburg publishing house Amphora, half of whose titles originate abroad, says it follows and watches out for the new titles in Europe, the U.S. and Africa. Vadim Nazarov, the publisher’s art director, said the company has their own foreign rights department in New York which works directly with American and European markets. However, most Russian publishers buy foreign rights from the Moscow offices of the three major international literary agencies, which control up to 90 percent of all fiction in English. As for European titles, Russian publishers generally tend to buy either directly or via agents. Literary fairs, especially the ones in Frankfurt and London, are also very important hunting grounds for the next bestseller
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