The Fight to Credit Translators on Book Covers

By Claire Abs

One could argue the translator’s highest achievement is invisibility, a translation only truly successful if the reader can’t tell it’s a translation at all. Recently, however, a movement for translator visibility has gained momentum in the UK and US, where many publishers choose not to print translators’ names on book covers. On September 30, 2021, translator Jennifer Croft and novelist Mark Haddon released an open letter, calling on fellow translators, writers, and editors to demand their publishers include translators’ names on the covers of the books they translate (Croft and Haddon). Published on the UK Society of Authors Website, the letter states: “It is thanks to translators that we are not merely isolated islands of readers and writers talking amongst ourselves, hearing only ourselves” (Croft and Haddon). These advocates find the choice not to visibly credit translators for books they “wrote every word of” (Croft) to be categorically unfair and troubling evidence of how undervalued the translation profession is on the whole (Croft and Hahn). They believe giving translators due credit will help to rectify the unfair treatment of translators and have positive ripple effects on English literature. Namely, they believe putting translator’s names on the cover will raise translators’ standards of quality, strengthen the level of trust readers have in translations, and invigorate the demand for translated literature among English-speaking readers (Croft).

Nearly 2,700 people have signed the open letter in the year since its publication. In addition, the movement has spread to the US with the help of its accompanying Twitter hashtag, #translatorsonthecover. In the US, translated literature currently only makes up approximately 3% percent of annual publications (“Translation Database”). Editor of international literature Gabriella Page-Fort finds this is primarily because translating international literature “takes time, money, and connections far more complex than publishing local writers” (“Why Do Americans”). Also, the American government does not widely encourage its citizens to explore or value literature from other countries – especially non-Western countries (Page-Fort). Furthermore, among the few translations published in the US, even fewer visibly credit their translator. For example, in 2021 only 44% of US English-language translations of fiction and poetry featured their translator’s names on the cover (Stewart). This is in part because many publishers fear American readers – who are less accustomed to and thus less trusting of translated literature – will be discouraged from purchasing a book that has a translator byline (Hahn). These publishers also claim translators are rarely famous enough to warrant taking up prime marketing real estate on book jackets (Hahn). However, Croft says these are both self-fulfilling prophecies, arguing that not signaling to readers that a work has been translated is what “breeds distrust” (“Why translators”) in the first place, and that translators don’t achieve marketable fame partly because of their invisibility.

While some English language publishing companies remain hesitant, others have listened to the translation movement’s concerns. For example, in response to Croft and Haddon’s open letter, Pan Macmillan UK decided to credit translators on the cover of all future publications and reprinted material and various other houses have followed suit (Caplan). This growing conversation is one to watch as advocates continue to spread the word.

Works Cited

Caplan, Walker. “The Movement to Put Translators' Names on Book Covers Is Working.”

Literary Hub, 12 Oct. 2021, https://lithub.com/the-movement-to-put-translators-names-on-book-covers-is-working/.

Croft, Jennifer. “Why Translators Should Be Named on Book Covers.” The Guardian, Guardian

News and Media, 10 Sep. 2021, https://www.theguardian.com/books/2021/sep/10/why-translators-should-be-named-on-book-covers.

Croft, Jennifer and Mark Haddon. “#TranslatorsOnTheCover.” The Society of

Authors, 30 Sep. 2021, https://www2.societyofauthors.org/translators-on-the-cover/.

Hahn, Daniel. “Ask a Translator with Daniel Hahn.” Asymptote Blog, 5 Oct. 2016,

https://www.asymptotejournal.com/blog/2016/10/05/ask-a-translator-with-daniel-hahn-5/.

Page-Fort, Gabriella. “Why Do Americans Read so Few Books in Translation?” Literary Hub, 2

Apr. 2019, https://lithub.com/why-do-americans-read-so-few-books-in-translation/.

Stewart, Sophia. “Translators Fight for Credit on Their Own Book Covers.”

PublishersWeekly.com, 15 Oct. 2021, https://www.publishersweekly.com/pw/by-topic/industry-news/publisher-news/article/87649-translators-fight-for-credit-on-their-own-book-covers.html#:~:text=Of%20the%20368%20English%2Dlanguage,covers%2C%20while%20206%20did%20not.

“Translation Database.” PublishersWeekly.com,

https://www.publishersweekly.com/pw/translation/home/index.html.

Informational Essay Sample: The Fight to Credit Translators on Book Covers