M. A. Orthofer writes (on the same site, in response):

Getting books translated isn’t the sole or possibly even the main problem: what is needed is to find readers (and to connect the readers with the books). Even if more titles are translated, the question remains as to whether the audience for translated literature in the U.S. would grow merely by making more titles available.

While there’s something to be said for making worthy books available even if practically no one cares to read them, it is surely preferable to increase demand for translated literature (which would then also make translated literature a more appealing business risk for publishers to take).

Increased demand does not necessarily (or, in this case, even likely) follow from increased supply, but increased demand would almost certainly also lead to increased supply: if there’s a market for translated literature, if readers are clamoring for it, then publishers will respond by making more available. Clamoring crowds of readers seem unlikely, but the demand side is the one to focus attention on.


Another approach was offered in an article by Stephen Kinzer that first appeared in The New York Times on July 26, 2003