033 International Publishing with Tyndale House Publishers Jim Elwell
What does it take for a book to travel the globe? Translating a title is only the beginning. To reach readers across cultures, authors and publishers must navigate language barriers, local customs, and even theological nuance.
How do you make your book more compatible with international readers, and what mistakes can you avoid?
I asked Jim Elwell, director of international publishing at Tyndale House Publishers. With over 35 years of experience in Christian publishing, he’s worked in marketing, sales, foreign rights, and nearly every other area of publishing. Jim has helped countless books cross borders and find readers in other languages.
Why would an author or a publishing company want their book to sell internationally?
Jim: There are probably as many reasons as there are authors at Tyndale. Our authors are generally motivated more by mission and a sense of satisfaction that their books are going all over the world. We have a few authors whose work seems to resonate in most global markets. It’s always a joy to send a note to an author saying, “Hey, we just got your book translated into French or Hindi.”
Most of them realize there aren’t huge royalty dollars from international rights, but the knowledge that their work is being distributed outside the U.S. is thrilling.
Thomas: Going international isn’t the path to riches. It sounds a bit more modest.
Jim: It depends on the author. An A-level author who does very well in North America might see some solid royalties if their message crosses over globally. But most foreign language licenses we issue are fairly modest. A Christian publisher in Romania or Bulgaria, for instance, may only sell 1,000 copies of a translated book. That’s obviously not going to generate major royalties. Authors who’ve been around a while tend to have realistic expectations.
How do international editions of books come about?
Thomas: When I was in Russia doing missions work, I was in a church bookstore and saw my favorite Christian book at the time, One Thing You Can’t Do in Heaven by Mark Cahill. It was translated into Russian. It blew my mind because I don’t think it was traditionally published. Mark prints copies himself and gives them away.
I asked how they got the book, and they said they emailed him and asked for permission to do their own translation. The church did it themselves. They only had a few copies left, and I was amazed. I had imagined big publishing houses with fancy buildings and lots of money translating books, but that wasn’t the case for this book in Russia.
Jim: That raises an interesting point. One challenge we face is that small churches or individuals will find a good book and decide to translate it. They’ll photocopy 25 copies or do a small print-on-demand run.
Eventually, we find out the book is out there in Russian or another language without permission. It’s a constant challenge, and the world’s a big place, so tracking down all that activity is usually not feasible unless it comes to our attention directly.
Thomas: If it’s small-scale enough, it could actually help the author. This was Microsoft’s strategy for years. They didn’t crack down on piracy in new countries. They wanted everyone using Windows, legal or not, so local apps would be built around it. Only after they dominated the market did they start enforcing licensing. It worked.
How are international and domestic book markets different?
Jim: The types of books we publish can perform very differently internationally.
Tyndale does a lot of memoirs. One of our best-known is Quiet Strength (affiliate link) by Tony Dungy. When it came out shortly after he won the Super Bowl, everyone was excited. But when we tried to take it overseas, it fell flat. Most countries we deal with think of “football” as soccer, and Tony Dungy was completely unknown to them. No matter how hard we tried, his books never worked internationally.
That highlights the cultural gaps around sports, celebrities, and values. When we get our seasonal book list, we can usually tell with a quick glance which books won’t work outside North America and which ones might. Publishing is interesting because there’s always a twist or turn globally, whereas the U.S. market is more predictable.
How can an author make their book more appealing to international readers?
Thomas: If I want my book to work overseas, what should I do?
Jim: A lot of authors write out of their North American context. Their examples and illustrations come from American life and often even regional aspects of that life. We encourage authors to draw some illustrations from outside the U.S. They’re just as powerful, and they help make the book relevant for a reader in South Africa, Singapore, or Australia.
It’s not that you can’t reference American culture or geography, but if it comes up constantly throughout the book, it becomes a tough sell for a foreign reader.
Thomas: If an author draws all their examples from their own life and hasn’t traveled much, they’re going to end up unintentionally writing a very America-centric book.
Jim: That’s the problem. A lot of authors in Christian publishing haven’t traveled widely. Even if their churches have strong mission programs, a trip is not the same as spending weeks or months embedded in a different culture, experiencing how people live and think differently.
Thomas: This is your chance to go on a mission trip and count it as research for your book.
What are the challenges of taking a book internationally?
Time
Jim: One of the first challenges we face in the international department is time zones. For example, Seoul, South Korea, is 14 time zones east of Chicago. That means when we start work here at 8:00 a.m., it’s 10:00 p.m. in Seoul. There’s a real-time lag.
If a Korean publisher needs cover art instantly, there’s a 24-hour turnaround before they receive it. It’s not like working with an agency in Minneapolis that says, “Hey, shoot me that file,” and 15 minutes later, they have it. Time zones are a real factor.
Communication
Then, you have language challenges in basic communication. You might read an email or talk on the phone and think you understand what your publishing colleague is saying. But because of the idiomatic nature of language, you may completely misunderstand what they’re trying to communicate. You have to listen closely. That’s before you get into working with individuals for whom English is a second language and who may not have had much conversational practice.
Jim: We’ve learned to rely heavily on context to interpret what’s going on. In some instances, we catch maybe four words out of ten. You have to ask, “What’s surrounding these particular words, and can I make out what’s going on?” It’s an interesting challenge.
Preferences
Even literary preferences vary around the world. When I returned from Asia, I was reminded again that many Christians in Asia don’t consider fiction legitimate Christian literature. If it’s not nonfiction, it’s very hard for us to sell exported products or translation rights for fiction.
That’s just a cultural belief. For some reason, the church there has grown up thinking fiction is not real Christian literature. Never mind that Jesus used fiction frequently when He was teaching. I figure if it’s good enough for Jesus, it’s good enough for us. But literary preferences are definitely a factor.
How do cultural differences affect book marketing?
Thomas: That also affects marketing. I was teaching Christian writers in Switzerland, and one of the attendees was from Holland. I was talking about how, in nonfiction, the dominant trend among successful books is to have the author’s face on the cover.
If you look at the top nonfiction books, the author’s face is on the cover. I explained that you need the courage to lead and to be seen and that many authors want to hide, which ends up hurting their marketing. But the Europeans were staring at me, like we say in Texas, like a calf looking at a new gate.
They were baffled. The woman from Holland said, “There’s not a single book in the bookstore with the author’s face on the cover.” I’m not sure I believe that because we traveled through Europe after that trip, and I saw Michelle Obama’s face on a lot of book covers all over the place.
To be fair, I didn’t go to the Netherlands. But in train stations in Germany and Austria, Michelle Obama’s book was everywhere. It was very popular and had her face right there on the cover.
Jim: I think that highlights the unique nature of global figures who are recognized by everyone. I continue to be amazed at how many times I see Michael Jordan t-shirts in Africa, India, or Asia. He is a global figure.
Michelle Obama’s face is probably on the front of every book, everywhere in the world, regardless of local cultural standards.
Why don’t certain marketing strategies work globally?
Thomas: Just because a strategy works for Michelle Obama doesn’t mean it will work for you. Everyone already knows what she looks like. People recognize her instantly. Some people will say, “I like her, I want to read her book,” and others will say, “I don’t like her, I won’t read it.” But either way, they’ve made a purchasing decision before they even read the title.
These customs differ. People assume you just change the words on the cover and translate the title, but sometimes that’s not enough. Publishers often have to change the cover or the title.
I think it was I Kissed Dating Goodbye that had to be adapted. When it was translated into another language, they had to use a completely different metaphor about a frog because “kissing something goodbye” didn’t make sense in that language. It sounded strange to us, but it was the only way to communicate the concept.
Jim: This is where a publisher has to let go and trust the foreign language licensee. One of the best examples of a widely translated asset we have is the Life Application Study Bible.
Thomas: I love that study Bible. I used it all through college.
Jim: It is a fantastic resource. It’s the world’s best-selling study Bible by a large margin. But there are languages where the term “life application” simply doesn’t translate. There’s no meaningful combination of words in those languages that communicate The Life Application Bible’s features.
Publishers have to come up with alternate ways to describe it. This is a great example of why language structure and local linguistic norms matter. We have to let local publishers apply their expertise.
If we insist on calling it a certain name or designing the cover a certain way, we risk completely missing the mark in that market.
How does Tyndale handle book translations for international markets?
Jim: We license the work to a publisher that specializes in the target language and can distribute the book in the market where that language is primarily spoken.
There is so much we do not know about foreign cultures, and it’s nuanced. We may go in thinking we understand, but when you get into the details, you realize how regional it all is.
Even here in the States, the difference between Chicago pizza and New York pizza couldn’t be greater.
Now, think about how many variations exist even within a single country. For instance, what happens in northern and southern Germany can be very different, depending on what you’re looking at. The same is true in most places around the world.
Why is regionalism more pronounced outside the U.S.?
Thomas: We have less regionalism in the United States because we have less history. In many parts of the U.S., the population boom came a few decades before mass media was introduced. We had wide open spaces that were sparsely populated until the late 1800s. Records, phonographs, radio, and TV followed later.
Everyone began by sharing a common culture. But in Germany, you find valleys separated by mountains that were impassable for half the year. Those valley communities stayed isolated for a thousand years, and the cultures evolved separately. They may have even gone to war with each other. Even though they’re neighboring valleys, they feel like different countries. Historically, they often were. Germany, as a unified nation, is relatively new.
Jim: In Africa or India, it’s still mystifying how many tribal or local groupings exist. The number of languages that have splintered off from one another is stunning. That’s one of the big challenges for Bible translation. Many language groups still need the Bible in their own language.
Could ebooks break geographic barriers for foreign rights?
Jim: With the advent of ebooks and digital publishing, we’re starting to see a blurring of geographic market boundaries. For example, why not create a German translation of a book and simply make it available on our website? We could offer the same book in four different languages.
Tyndale already has a Spanish publishing program, but what’s stopping us from publishing ebooks in three or four other major world languages? If we can find a qualified translator, it’s possible. But that takes a lot of effort and investment. You need to believe in the potential of that book in those markets to make it worthwhile.
What is cyborg translation, and is it gaining traction?
Thomas: Indie publishers are starting to use cyborg translation. It’s a combination of AI and human translation. The first pass is done using Google Translate or another AI translator, which are getting very good.
When we were in Europe, I used the Google Translate app. I could point it at a menu and instantly see the English translation. It was like a magic window turning German into English in real-time.
Those same algorithms are being used for book translation now. Then, a human native speaker goes over it to polish and correct it. It’s much faster and cheaper. Are you seeing anyone experimenting with that approach in your world?
Jim: No, not at this point. There’s been some talk and early discussions, but the reality is that the publishers we work with are just like us. They’ve got books to publish, whether that’s three titles, thirty, or three hundred. Everyone has deadlines, and we don’t have time to experiment with something untested.
Somebody out there should be working on it, but most publishers need to keep their heads down and focus on getting the next season of books out.
What are some of the mistakes publishers make when approaching the international market?
Jim: One thing publishers need to be aware of is who their partner is in a foreign market. Can that partner be trusted to translate the work accurately into the receptor language in a way that allows readers to understand the book as the author intended in English?
That’s a challenge. Sometimes we’ll have a bestselling author, and a major publisher from another country will want to license the work. We might think, “We’d love for the Random House of Russia to publish this,” but it’s a Christian book. Can we trust that publisher to capture the nuance and faithfully communicate the message in Russian?
We try to work with publishers we know and trust. If that’s not possible, we have a provision in our contracts for a translation review prior to publication. If there’s ever any doubt about the translation quality, we’ll conduct a review to ensure it meets our standards.
Thomas: Language is tricky. This is one reason you can’t completely trust robots to do the job. Language is cultural, especially in theology. If someone misunderstands the translation, it can lead to bad theology or misrepresenting what the author actually meant.
Jim: We had a situation years ago where we licensed an important work outside the denominational tradition of the author. It was a significant difference between Christian denominations. But we went ahead with the license because that denomination was dominant within the language group in that country, and we thought it would help with distribution.
Unfortunately, it was a disaster. The translation review revealed that some passages actually contradicted the author’s intended message. That was serious. Thankfully, I can’t recall another case like that, but it shows how important it is to ensure the translation truly reflects the author’s beliefs. This is especially critical for Christian theology. If the result is something other than what the author believes, that’s a major issue.
How does Tyndale ensure translation accuracy?
Thomas: Most authors can’t review their own translations because they don’t speak the language. That’s why it’s great to have a publishing company that has access to native speakers who are equipped to review the translation.
Jim: For some languages, we have to scratch our heads and say, “OK, who do we have who can take a look at this?” Languages like Hindi or Uzbek can be a challenge, but if a review is needed, we’ll always find someone who can help.
What makes Tyndale House different from other publishing houses?
Jim: Tyndale House was founded in 1962 by Kenneth N. Taylor. He had ten children, and every night, he would read to them from the King James Authorized Version of the Bible. But he noticed his kids didn’t understand it. One night, after reading a passage, he asked what it meant. Silence. He explained it, and one of his daughters said, “Daddy, if that’s what it means, why doesn’t it say so?”
Ken commuted into the city to work at Moody Press, and on the train, he began translating Scripture into words his kids could understand. That effort became Living Letters, a little green and white book many people still recognize. He borrowed money to print 2,000 copies and took them to an early CBA convention. Sales were slow at first, but eventually, one of those copies landed in the hands of Dr. Billy Graham.
Graham immediately saw its value for people seeking to understand the Bible. Within a year, over 600,000 copies of Living Letters had been printed. That launched everything. The Living Bible followed in 1972. Then, years later, Ken had a vision for a more standard Bible translation, which led to the launch of the New Living Translation in 1996, followed by a second edition in 2004.
Tyndale House was founded on the Bible. That’s where we began. Our mission is to minister to the spiritual needs of people primarily through literature consistent with biblical principles. For every book we acquire, we ask whether it supports that purpose. It’s a blessing to know that, day after day, millions of books are being distributed around the world and that God is using them to transform lives.
Thomas: I’m a big fan of Bible translations. When I was in college, I encountered some King-James-only folks who almost convinced me that the KJV was the only divinely authorized translation in English. Thankfully, I realized how flawed that argument was. But it made me do a lot of research.
I read the translator notes for many different versions, and the one I ended up using was the New Living Translation. I loved the heart behind it. It’s actually the closest translation to the spirit of William Tyndale’s own work. He didn’t write for scholars. He wanted a plowman in the field to be able to read and understand the Bible for himself. That kind of accessibility is so important. Scholars already have plenty of resources. We need more that are approachable for ordinary people.
Jim: Our founder, Ken Taylor, used to say, “The best Bible translation is the one you read.” A Bible that’s hard to understand and sits on a shelf won’t help anyone. Whatever translation you use, read it. God can work through any of these translations to reach our minds and hearts.
Tyndale House Publishers is the largest privately held Christian publisher, and we value the freedom that gives us. It allows us to publish books we believe should be published, whether they are controversial or highly marketable. Of course, we love to see books sell 10,000, 20,000, 50,000, even 500,000 copies. We’ve had some amazing successes over the years, but ultimately, our goal is to publish books that meet the real needs of readers. That’s the critical factor for us.
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