The licensing of translation rights remains the best way to bring fiction and non-fiction titles to a Japanese audience. Publishers in Japan do not license directly from overseas publishers, instead all major publishers work through one of the international agents for a given title. (The major international agents are listed in the Appendix of our report Selling Canadian Books in Japan). The Japanese publisher and agent then arrange translation of the work and the title is subsequently printed and distributed as part of the Japanese publisher’s normal catalogue. The business flow for a typical licensing deal is illustrated below.
Industry participants with whom we spoke agree that Japan has become more inward looking, which is reflected by fewer translated works appearing in the bestseller lists. In addition, some non-fiction works, such as IT guides, which may previously have been licensed for translation, are being replaced by books originally written in Japanese.
Hamish Macaskill of The English Agency set out some criteria that are important for selling a book into Japan:
- it must be a good story,
- it should not be too long, as costs of translation are very high,
- it needs to stand on its own without the reader having to know a lot of background/context.
In a recent interview with Hamish, he also expressed the view that readers were feeling a certain fatigue for works following a standard genre pattern; fresh, new outlooks would be particularly welcome in forthcoming books.
The Japanese international agents, as with agents in most countries, no longer rely solely on the Frankfurt and London Book Fairs for initiating licensing deals. Clearly, face-to-face meetings help in building a rapport with an agent, but deals can be initiated at any time, and day-to-day interactions are facilitated by email.
Are you a trade publisher who has sold successfully in Japan? Or have you had difficulty penetrating the market? Share your experiences with us on our Facebook or LinkedIn page – if you’ve had success we’d be happy to promote your excellent work and if you’ve had difficulty or have questions we’ll work to find you some answers and set you on the right track.