Author: Jean-Philippe Vest
Date:   03-19-06 03:46

Hello to all of you from France.
In my country I published my first novl in September 2005. It is selling very good for a first try ! But I have many friends in the USA and I wondered what I should do to get my book published in the United States. If you have any advice, please tell me... jpvest@hotmail.com
Best wishes to all of you. JP Vest

Author: Robert Wall
Date:   03-19-06 04:43

Le question est toujours si cette histoire pourrait etre traduit en anglais.

There may well be elements - cultural and historical - which will be lost in the translation.

I lived in France for a decade and read some translations of San Antonio (does that date me or what?) into English. It simply does not work.

Even L'etranger by Camus loses terribly in translation.

Bonne chance

Author: Tommy M
Date:   03-19-06 17:41

I beg to differ. I've read all of Celine's works translated into English, and they are better than most books written in English to start.

Author: gulliver h
Date:   03-19-06 20:43

of course...gazillions of books are translated all the time. Into urdu, for dog's sake.

Jean-Phillipe--your agent/publisher should be the one working on translations, rights, international stuff. Unless you self-published, this isn't really your job....

Author: Jean-Philippe Vest
Date:   03-19-06 23:40

I wasn't expecting answers so soon ;-) I think that some books can lose a lot when being translated. But others are as good or better when translated in another language (A Confederacy of Dunces, JK Toole). The best would be that everybody on Earth could be able to read any language... but until that day, books have to be translated to be read in other countries.
No, I don't have any agent as it is not in use in France. And my publisher is not used to get his books translated (I'm trying to find another for my second novel). If I had plenty of time I would translate my book by myself and send it to US publishers. But I can't work, write new books and translate the old one...

Author: gulliver h
Date:   03-20-06 21:39

don't want to contradict you...but am pretty darn confident that there are literary agents in France....

if your book is already published, why don't you ask your publisher for suggestions? And US publishers aren't going to be much interested in a book that's already published without a whole lot of complicated legal matters hammered out. i.e. who has translation rights? Distribution? etc. There are lots of these sorts of issues once a book is published--assuming it's been traditionally published. I don't think this is the right place to find these answers, I'm sorry to say....

Author: Greg Kosson
Date:   04-04-06 21:40

Trouver un agent en France. Trouver un agent qui transactions internationales.

Author: Jean-Philippe Vest
Date:   04-05-06 14:32

Merci pour le message. Vous croyez vraiment que les auteurs français à succès ont un agent littéraire et qu'ils ne l'avouent pas ?

Thanks for your answer. Do you really think that french best-sellers authors all have litterary agents and don't say it ?

Author: Carol O
Date:   04-05-06 16:02

Try the search string "Joe Author" +agent, which will often find the agent's page where they list the author as a client. Also, the author may mention their agent in their foreword, or give them as "contact me through:" on their website or publisher's site, etc., etc.