In 1957 according to Bowker and UNESCO nearly 22 percent of the world's new titles were in the English language. According to the International Encyclopedia of the Social Sciences five languages (English, Russian, Spanish, German, and French) accounted for 75 percent of the world's book production and 40 percent of the readers in the 1960’s. In the mid-90's Graddol estimates that 58 percent of the world's new books were in these five languages (28 percent in English).
In 2004 and 2005 English-speaking countries produced around 375,000 books. According to a 2005 Bowker press release some 375,000 English books equal 40 percent of all new book content in the world. English-speaking countries published 14,440 new translations in 2004, accounting for about 3% of all books available for sale. In 2005, of the 172,000 new titles published in the U.S., fewer than 1,000 were literary works in translation. Around one half of all translated books worldwide are based on English-language originals. (Unesco, 2002).
Germany
new publications: 94,716 new titles published in 2006. (2004: 86,543; 2005: 89,869). One in ten books published in the world today is in German.
Switzerland
11,875 new publications of which 6,797 titles are in German, 2,374 titles in French, 367 in Italian and 40 in Rhaeto-Romance.
Russia
Title production 2005: 95,489 titles
New publications 2005: 82,273 titles
9,652 translated titles were published in Russia in 2003.
France
60,376 new titles were published in 2007 (first editions and new editions).
Title production rose by 4.6 per cent and has more than doubled over the past ten years. Production is growing in almost all categories.
1. Novels: 8,334 new releases
2. Social sciences: 8,824 new releases
3. Children’s and teenage literature: 7,713 new releases
Translations as part of French book production 2007:
8,549 translations were published in France in 2007, equivalent to 14.2 per cent of total title production (new titles and reprints).
3,441 novels were translations, making up 40.3 per cent of all novels published.
Proportion of translations per category:
1. Novels: 40 %
2. Social sciences, philosophy, religion, history, biographies: 15 %
4. Children’s and teenage books: 14 %
4. Comics: 10 %
Languages of origin for translations into French in 2007 (total production):
1. English (5,137 titles, + 3 %)
2. Japanese (642 titles, + 30 %)
3. German (606 titles, + 4 %)
2007 was the first time that Japanese “overtook” German.
Languages of origin for translations into French in 2007 (novels only):
1. English (2,565 titles, + 2 %)
2. Spanish (146 titles, + 10 %)
3. German (116 titles, - 13 %)
Spain
Title production 2005: 69,598 (2004: 67,822).
New publications 2005: 35,046
Fiction (14,208 titles)
Non-fiction (14,879 titles)
Children’s and teenager literature (11,756)
77.9 % of titles published in 2005 were in Castilian, 15.6 % in Catalan, 2.5 % in Galician and 2.2 % in Basque.
Argentina
19,426 new titles (2007) 2005: 17,359
In 2005, 27.1 % of all Latin American titles were produced in Argentina, making it the country with the strongest book production in Spanish-speaking Latin America.
By comparison 2005: Mexico: 19 % and Colombia: 16.3 %
Mexico
Produced “titles”: 15.233 (2003)
Brazil: 35,590 titles published in 2003, 11% of which were translations (65% from English, 10% from French and 7% from Spanish). Textbooks accounted for approximately 45.2% of total book sales.
Italy
Title production: 59,743 (2005)
New publications: 33,641 (2005)
Fiction titles: 32,975 (2007)
School textbook titles: 2,275 (2007)
Children’s & teenage literature titles: 2,444 (2007)
Out of 49,767 titles in 2007, 6,684 were translated from English and 1,095 from German. Of the 50 biggest publishing groups worldwide, seven are Italian.
Sweden
Title production 2007: 39,867 (2006: 34,195)
New publications 2007: 4,671 (2006: 4,183)
Asia:
China
Number titles produced per annum: 140,000
Number new publications per annum: 89,950
Textbooks account for nearly half of all purchases. Around 6% of China’s book production consists of translations. Since 1998, German publishing companies have sold more licences to Chinese-speaking countries than to any other country.
Taiwan
Number new publications per annum: 38,000 titles (2000: of which 8,000 translations)
Japan
Title production per annum: 397,890
New publications per annum: 77,031 (2004)
According to the Publishers Weekly, 40% of Japan’s publishing revenues comes from the manga market.
India
Approx. 70,000 titles per annum (new publications/new editions/reprints)
Only 40 % of these books have ISBN numbers. 25 -30% in English language.
Fiction & illustrated books 35%
Children’s & teen books 7%
Official languages: 21 English is spoken by 3–5 % of the Indian population
Titles produced in India in English: 45 % (31,000 titles)
Titles produced in India in Indian languages: 55 % (approx. 3,788 titles)
The rest: in other languages Of which in Hindi: 25 % (approx. 7,750 titles)
Korea
Number of new publications per annum:
2003: 35,371
2002: 36,186 (roughly the number of new publications in 1998)
Comics account for approx. 25 % of sales, fiction 13.5 %, non-fiction 13.5 %, science & technology 11 % and children’s books 11 %. Around 29% of Korea’s book production consists of translations. Some 26% of translations are comics and 21.8% are children’s books.
Arab countries:
Egypt
7,600 "titles" in 2004
31 % religion
19% literature
9% History and Geography
Morocco
1,070 titles in 2004
Tunisia
1,383 titles in 2003, of which children’s books and textbooks for use in the classroom make up a significant proportion.
Source: Frankfurter Buchmesse (except for Brazil and where noted)
More about historical book production here
Top languages that offer most translations from other languages can be found here
No comments:
Post a Comment