Anyone work in Publishing?

[PamsterWheel]

I posted this in books but got no response so thought I'd try here (Work is very slow moving too) for traffic

I've seen a children's book that isn't published in the UK and I think it would do really well here - I would certainly like to buy it and read an English translation. The parent publishing house (European) has a few publishing arms (is that the correct terminology?) that deal with different genres and from what I can see they mainly publish authors from the country that it's based in.

What is the best way to go about trying to make this happen. Do you just approach a children's publisher in the UK and say there might be a demand for it? If so, who do you contact? Or do you approach the European publishing house and say that there could be a market for an English print run? I'm sure they've thought of this and maybe it's in hand but even so behind the scenes. I contacted the author who says no plans for that at the moment but maybe they're waiting to see how it sells there first - just come out.

What do you think?

I work in publishing.

Each book has translation and global sales rights which are negotiated in the initial sale of the book. Generally, the publisher will either acquire home country rights (and the agent who sold the book will then sell in to each individual country), or world rights, in which the publisher then sells the rights to publishers in various countries. Normally, in the case of a little known author/illustrator, and with picture books in general, the publisher holds these rights.

There’s nothing you can really do here, honestly, except maybe be in touch with the publisher to say you would like to see the book for sale in the UK, and if there are plans. Publishing is an expensive, low-margin business, so foreign sales are unlikely to take place unless the market seems guaranteed.

I'm a translator. Feel free to PM me and I can probably put you in touch with a children's book translator for whatever language pair it is who can plug the project to their publishers. This is exactly how Cornelia Funke's Inkheart got picked up in English, a kid wrote to the publisher and asked for a translation. It's rare, but it does happen!

Thank you both, very helpful.