[Lani]

I can confirm what KatG said about fantasy in Russia, there's quite a bit of a market there for it, I'd say it's almost as big as the one here in Canada. There are quite a few popular authors publishing in Russian, one of them is a Tolkien spin-off that has become very very popular and there are also a few other. In addition to that, a lot of fantasy novels get translated and published in Russian as well, so it's very easy to find big names like Jordan, Goodkind, Dragonlance novels, Hobb, etc published there. The only problem is that it usually takes a few years since the publication to get translated and published there. You can even find less-known authors there.

As for the ethnic fantasy there's quite a bit of stuff based on old slavic sort of societies and they can be fairly popular as well and I personally have read some very interesting fantasy novels written that way. So I guess Russia may be a bit of an anomaly since a lot of fantasy there is geared towards adults (of course there is YA fantasy also). I can't tell for sure about all parts of Russia but even in smaller towns around Moscow you would find a fantasy section in a bookstore.

[Komutan]

Here in Turkey, very few novels(not just fantasy) are written compared to western countries. But there are a few fantasy novels. As far as I know, the only fantastic ones which were translated into english are Orhan Pamuk's novels(Black Book, My Name is Red).

[zakhrin]

In France, the market is has grown a lot in the past years. You can find more and more fantasy books in stores.
And now we see quite a few talented french writer being published from big editing companies.
Unfortunatly they will never be published in English, the english market being already so big.
Or you'll have to learn French :p

[KatG]

In France, the market is has grown a lot in the past years. You can find more and more fantasy books in stores.
And now we see quite a few talented french writer being published from big editing companies.
Unfortunatly they will never be published in English, the english market being already so big.
Or you'll have to learn French :p

I wouldn't totally count on that remaining the case. It used to be that foreign fiction writers of any kind were hardly ever translated into English for the U.S. market unless they had become huge names on the global scene. The common belief was (and in some places still is) that American audiences wouldn't read fictional stories that didn't feature American main characters, with some exceptions for the British mysteries and the like. But the success of "ethnic" fiction writers in the U.S. proved that there was a large market for non-typical-American fare, so publishers started buying up a lot more translated works, starting with Asia and working their way to India and so on. And the Australian English-language fantasy writers are now being imported into the U.S. While the translation market has slowed down a little recently, given that the American market for fantasy has substantially increased, there may come a time when non-English writers see their fantasy works translated. Or not. And if it does, France won't be first just on general principle probably. Never mind that you gave us half our language. :)

[Mithfânion]

And I just don't think the quality of writing is that good (Mithfanion, don't hit me!!).

Hey, there are only a few Dutch Fantasy authors and they are not that special compared to the best of the best in the world. It would be very remarkable if one of that batch of say three or four was actually just as good as whatever the native English world has to offer.

[Wulfa_Jones]

Lani - I was going to mention in my original post about Russia, I did hear they had a decent fantasy scene because of that Night Watch film being based on a fantasy/horror series that did quite well.

[Brandoch Daha]

I must say that here in Iceland thereīs too little fantasy published, and most of it is strictly YA or childrenīs fare. We have the perfect mythological background for fantasy and I feel that Icelandic writers should use it more in their work.
The bookstores here have a nice selection of fantasy books in english, and it is fairly popular. Fantasy is even well regarded here by the literati; though itīs mostly just Tolkienīs work thatīs talked about, seeing as how he was such an enthusiast about the Icelandic language and the old sagas (he was even an honorary member of our national literary society).
Still, fantasy is a niche market and in a country of less than 300,000 people itīs hard to convince the publishers to take a chance with it.

[algernoninc]

in Romania the dispute between classic (hard SF) and fantasy was settled early on in favor of Asimov, Heinlein, Clarke, Niven et Co. Several generations of readers, starting in the 1960's, had their tastes formed on their school. One reason is maybe the fact that Jules Verne is here the most popular read for children aged 8 to 14.

Writers too had been influenced by this hard SF trend, and local production of SF books is well represented (I don't have a name that will ring a bell to your western ears, beside Arkadi and Boris Strugatsky, who are Russian). Today, we have access still to most of the SF authors through translations. Fantasy we can reach only in several (too little) translations. Examples : Joan D Vinge, Ursula K LeGuin.

I personally prefer reading the originals in English, but I would like to see Fantasy better promoted on the Romanian scene. I am even prepared to work on some translations, but I don't know much about how to contact an author and an editor for publishing rights discussions. Any help here?

Final word : every country has its myths and legends, and Romania is very rich indeed in these stories. I hope somebody will show talent enough to transform them into an internationally acclaimed fantasy book. :rolleyes:

[KatG]

in Romania the dispute between classic (hard SF) and fantasy was settled early on in favor of Asimov, Heinlein, Clarke, Niven et Co. Several generations of readers, starting in the 1960's, had their tastes formed on their school. One reason is maybe the fact that Jules Verne is here the most popular read for children aged 8 to 14.

Writers too had been influenced by this hard SF trend, and local production of SF books is well represented (I don't have a name that will ring a bell to your western ears, beside Arkadi and Boris Strugatsky, who are Russian). Today, we have access still to most of the SF authors through translations. Fantasy we can reach only in several (too little) translations. Examples : Joan D Vinge, Ursula K LeGuin.

I personally prefer reading the originals in English, but I would like to see Fantasy better promoted on the Romanian scene. I am even prepared to work on some translations, but I don't know much about how to contact an author and an editor for publishing rights discussions. Any help here?

Final word : every country has its myths and legends, and Romania is very rich indeed in these stories. I hope somebody will show talent enough to transform them into an internationally acclaimed fantasy book. :rolleyes:

So sf was actually taught in Romanian schools, or just popular for children? Because in the U.S. up until relatively recently, sf was disparaged and would never be taught in schools. That started to change first in the colleges and with the commercial and critical success of films like Clarke's 2001, but it's still slow going.

To do a translated Romanian edition of fantasy works, you need a Romanian publisher who is willing to buy the Romanian language rights from the U.S. publisher, or from the author if the author has held on to translation rights. Most authors have literary agents and these agents usually have sub-agents located in New York or Europe who handle foreign rights for them. The publishers have subsidiary rights departments that sell the foreign rights, sometimes through a foreign rights literary agent. Essentially, the Romanian publisher has to contact the U.S. publisher to get the ball rolling. It does happen. We started having sales of Russian rights after awhile for some projects, which had been unheard of before. The Russians paid practically nothing for the rights, but it was still a cool thing for the authors to have and started to build a Russian market. The other alternative would be to contact the U.S. publisher and try to buy the Romanian rights yourself, then talk a publisher into publishing the work, but that's probably more than you want to do. :)

It sounds like the sf authors who also write fantasy are of the most interest to the Romanian publishers, so you could contact a publisher who put out Le Guin's fantasy and see if they were willing to do someone else who does both, like C.J. Cherryh, for which you would be willing to translate. Or someone huge globally, like Stephen King, for which the publishers might see a potential market. There are also a lot of sf writers who have produced fantasy like works that might play -- Gene Wolfe, Michael Swanwick and so on. If Romania is able to join the European Union, the prospect of translated fiction may become easier to achieve.

[Maryson]

And I just don't think the quality of writing is that good (Mithfanion, don't hit me!!).

Hey, there are only a few Dutch Fantasy authors and they are not that special compared to the best of the best in the world. It would be very remarkable if one of that batch of say three or four was actually just as good as whatever the native English world has to offer.

I might "sound" somewhat arrogant, but that is not my intention. I just want to get things in the right proportions AND I want to pose one or two things.

Floris Kleine has won the Writers of the Future Award, last year. He is Dutch. I know his work. It is... very good.

My works have been translated to six different languages. German, French, Spanish, Portuguese, Polish, Latvian.
Soon Itialian and Turkish will be added to that list. Chinese and Russian also on the list.
My short stories appear everywhere, also in anthologies in a.o. Germany, France and soon in the USA (The best of European SF - TOR, june 2007)

The works of European writers like Sapkowski, Heitz, Marrak, Eschbach, Dunyach, Bordage, Maryson, Evangelisti, Marin and others cross borders very frequently. But the borderline between them and the USA is closed.

May I pose, that in our genre the traffic between English speaking countries and "the rest" often is a one-way-street? And that this doesn't always catch up with the quality of the stories?

The quality of most above mentioned writers can easily be compared to the good works coming from England, the USA and other English speaking countries?

Time to open up?
It would give worldwide fantasy writing and reading a boost and as I see it, we do need that!