Publishers fear for the future of translated literature as sales of foreign language books rise
Growing numbers of young people in Finland are buying books in English rather than in their mother tongue, raising fears among publishers over the future of translated literature.
One in four titles sold in Finnish bookshops last year were written in a foreign language, according to figures from the country’s association of booksellers. In the vast majority of cases, that language was English.
A major cause of the increased demand for English language works, say publishers, is BookTok – a reading community on TikTok that has a growing influence on the industry. Young readers do not want to wait for a Finnish translation to come out to take part in the BookTok conversation. Instead, they are simply buying the English-language version.
As is the case in neighbouring Sweden, the dominance of English across the internet, social media, film and TV also means it is seen as aspirational for young people to be seen to speak and read in English.
