# Circulation of the French language literature and the Croatian publishers in transition and post-transition periods

Vanda Mikšić

Full professor
University of Zadar (HR)
vmiksic@unizd.hr

Mirna Sindičić Sabljo

Associate professor
University of Zadar (HR)
msindici@unizd.hr

Doi: 10.5077/journals/connexe.2024.e1705

## Abstract

This article is based on a research which aim is to determine the circulation modalities of the French language literature translated into Croatian since 1991. We mainly focus on the position of the French language literature in the Croatian publishing houses' catalogs, criteria for selecting titles for translation, available subventions, cooperation with different actors in the literary field, and marketing strategies used to promote translated books. After a presentation of the Croatian publishing industry and literary translations from French between 1991 and 2020, we process and analyse data collected through a survey sent to the Croatian publishers via the online platform LimeSurvey. Then we present our conclusions regarding the circulation of the French literary texts in the Croatian culture from 1991 onwards, the position of translated literature in Croatian culture and society, the social conditions of literary production, the logic of the market, the structure of the literary field and the transnational circulation of literary texts.

**Keywords:** Publishing houses, Croatia, French language literature, translation, political and social transition

## Résumé

Cet article est basé sur une recherche dont l'objectif est de déterminer les modalités de circulation de la littérature de langue française traduite en croate à partir de 1991. Nous nous intéressons principalement à la place de la littérature de langue française dans les catalogues des maisons d'édition croates, aux critères de sélection des titres à traduire, aux subventions disponibles, à la coopération avec les différents acteurs du champ littéraire et aux stratégies marketing utilisées pour promouvoir les livres traduits. Après une présentation de l'industrie de l'édition croate et des traductions littéraires du français entre 1991 et 2020, nous traitons et analysons les données recueillies par le biais d'une enquête adressée aux éditeurs croates via la plateforme en ligne LimeSurvey. Ensuite, nous présentons nos conclusions concernant la circulation des textes littéraires français dans la culture croate à partir de 1991, la position de la littérature traduite dans la culture et la société croates, les conditions sociales de la production littéraire, la logique du marché, la structure du champ littéraire et la circulation transnationale des textes littéraires.

**Mots-clés** : maisons d'édition, Croatie, littérature française, traduction, transition politique et sociale
Introduction

Creative industries are a diverse and complex sector often seen as a driver of economy and employment. Since they have considerable development potential, their economic activities are an important part of national economies. Publishing industry is one of the key sub-sectors of the creative industries, and Croatia is no exception to that question, even if the state plays an essential role in its functioning (Tomašević 2015; Goldstein 2016).

The process of transition, which implied the abandonment of the socialist way of
management and orientation to the market economy, has led to a radical restructuring
of the Croatian publishing industry since 1991 (Tomašević and Kovač 2009), although
some forms of continuity cannot be denied. Several publishing houses ceased operations,
while others changed their ownership structure. New publishers, literary magazines,
festivals, literary and translation awards, professional associations, methods of
financing etc. emerged. In the last three decades, Croatian publishers have mostly been
operating in conditions of a crisis caused by the transition, a reduced market, the lack
of a national distribution network, the appearance of the so-called “kiosk editions”
(books that could have been bought together with the newspapers or even separately at
the kiosks for a low price), the global economic crisis that started in 2008, and finally,
the COVID-19 pandemic.

This research aims to determine the circulation modalities of French language literature translated into Croatian since 1991, focusing on the position of French language literature in the Croatian publishing houses' catalogs, editors' criteria for selecting authors and titles for translation, available subventions, cooperation with different actors in the literary field and marketing strategies used. We expect that the research will provide us with a precise answer concerning the position of the literatures written in French in the Croatian publishing field, as well as the modes and means of production and circulation.

Within the institutional project "Sociological and translational aspects of the reception of French and Francophone literature in Croatia since 1991",¹ an online bibliographic database of published literary translations from French was created, and the data were collected by systematically reviewing various sources of library material and including all bibliographic units found in available and accessible bibliographic sources. The bibliography is time-limited and created in accordance with theoretical and research models of its creation from the field of information sciences (Rubin 2016).

For the purpose of this paper, we have also used survey research, which is a
quantitative research method used for collecting data from a set of respondents by asking
multiple survey questions. In this particular case, cross-sectional survey research has
been conducted. The data was collected by surveying Croatian publishers via the online
platform LimeSurvey, in order to collect information on publishing houses' catalogs,
criteria for the selection of titles for translation, marketing strategies, and position of French language literature in their company's business plan. The study was carried out in January, February, and March of 2023. The target population was editors working in Croatian publishing houses, or their owners. Unfortunately, a considerable number of publishing houses that published literary translations from French during the 1990s and 2000s are no longer active. A link to a survey was sent to 30 still active publishing houses, those who have published the majority of books translated from French. A total population of fourteen editors working in different publishing houses, i.e. almost 50% of them, participated in the survey, which means that the sample can be considered as representative. The questionnaire consisted of 45 questions. The majority of questions were multiple choice, closed-ended, and Likert scale questions. The questions included also those on their age, sex, position in the publishing house, and years of experience. The confidentiality and anonymity of the participants while collecting, analysing, and reporting data were guaranteed. A preliminary trial of the questionnaire has been performed before implementing the questionnaire.

The article is structured in four sections: following this introductory section, Section two presents the main insights concerning the Croatian publishing industry, the position of translation in the publishing industry, and French language literature in Croatian translation since 1991; Section three presents an analysis of the data obtained from the survey, accompanied by some additional database analysis, while Section four discusses the results providing some concluding remarks.

# 1. Croatian publishers and French language literature translation since 1991

## 1.1 The Croatian publishing industry: three decades of crises

The process of transition which implied the abandonment of the socialist way of management and orientation to the market economy has led to a radical restructuring of the Croatian publishing industry since 1991. As Ines Hocenski remarks in her PhD thesis:

> During the 1990s, publishing houses in the Republic of Croatia went through numerous difficulties, and many of them failed. Reasons for that were political, economic, and social changes which have happened after the dissolution of Yugoslavia and during the War of Independence (Hocenski 2023, 114, transl. by V. Mikšić).

Many independent publishing houses were also founded in that period,² mostly as “individual intellectual adventures, not primarily profit-driven” (Madelain 2021a, 181). New publishers have already been acquainted with the sector (as editors in the socialist publishing houses, for example). Since their initial capital was extremely reduced, they were constrained to improvise (Hocenski 2023, 193). At the very beginning, an important reduction of the book market,³ as well as problematic privatization and transition processes have caused structural and functional instability in this domain, which has never been overcome.
Several important existing publishing houses ceased operations (among them ‘Mladost’ [Youth] and ‘Grafički zavod Hrvatske’ [Graphic Institute of Croatia]), while others changed their ownership structure (‘Školska knjiga’ [School Book] and ‘Znanje’ [Knowledge], for instance).⁴ The bookshop system also collapsed (Hocenski 2023, 118). The four-year war period (1991-1995) has additionally deepened the economic crisis and made activities in the publishing sector more challenging.

On the global level, the globalization process, the disruption in publishing (digitalisation in the 1990s, cf. Wilson 2014),⁵ the economic crisis that started in 2008, as well as the crises caused by the COVID-19 virus pandemic in 2020 and the war in Ukraine which is going on since 2022, have further fragilized the already unstable publishing business in Croatia. According to Hocenski (Hocenski 2023, 50), during the economic crisis, which, in Croatia, has lasted longer than in the rest of Europe, book selling decreased by 30%-40%, as well as the number of published titles and printed copies. During the pandemic period, more than 60% of publishers experienced an income decrease of 50% or more (Hocenski 2023, 60).

But on the national level, some other events in these three decades have largely impacted the publishing business by creating huge problems or disbalances, such as the imposition of a 22% VAT on books at the beginning of 1998,⁶ the so-called “kiosk editions” that appeared in 2004, as well as the bankruptcy of ‘Algoritam’ [Algorithm] publishing house and bookstore chain in 2017.⁷ Moreover, pluriannual state subventioning of certain publishers by purchasing directly from them schoolbooks,⁸ commission-based book-selling at the rate of up to 55% with too long paying delays, lack of a distribution network which induced some publishers to open their own bookstores and chains, elevated production costs and to high book price (Hocenski 2023, 50) have not contributed to the stabilization of the publishing business. The conversion to euro at the beginning of 2023, combined with the inflation in Europe due to the war in Ukraine, as well as the paper price increase since 2022 (Gelenčir 2022; Maher 2022), have additionally impacted the book production costs and the book price.

It can be stated that during the last three decades, Croatian publishers have mostly been operating in conditions of crisis, both global and local and that the crisis has become a natural environment for Croatian publishers, especially micro and small ones (less than 50 employees), which in fact represent the majority.⁹

It should be noted, however, that some state incentives were introduced in the middle of the 1990s and became more systematic at the beginning of the 2000s, bringing some improvement in the book market situation.¹⁰ Moreover, since Croatia joined the European Union as the 28th member country in 2013, new funding opportunities have emerged for the Croatian book market.

Since the publishing domain has been twice recategorized since the 1990s (Hocenski 2023, 177-181), and the publishers' activities since the 1990s have not been systematically archived (Madelain 2021a, 182), it is not possible to obtain reliable data concerning the
publishing houses and their functioning,¹¹ but Hocenski points out that in January 2021 there were 108 publishers registered in Croatia:¹² out of that number, 64 of them are “general market-oriented publishers,” while 41 are specialized (Hocenski 2023, 75).¹³

As far as the print runs are concerned, the Croatian encyclopedia states that at the time of the “kiosk editions“ (2004), the print runs went up to 100,000 copies, and the overall book sales increased by 50% (six million copies sold), the publishers themselves experienced a tremendous 60-70% sales fall. Before and after that period the average print runs were between 300 and 1,000 copies (depending on the genre). In parallel with the new publishing houses’ activities, new literary magazines,¹⁴ festivals,¹⁵ literary and translation awards,¹⁶ professional associations, financing opportunities, marketing methods etc. have emerged, permitting the circulation of authors and works in the Croatian literary market.

## 1.2 Literary translation in the new publishing environment

Since 1991, the publishers have also largely invested in translations, often trying to bring to the Croatian reader high-quality literature.¹⁷ In fact, according to Madelain (2021a), the translation practice has largely been inherited from the Yugoslav publishing policy (quite open to the world literature, particularly from the beginning of the 1950s), and can be considered an “element of cultural continuity”,¹⁸ but it was also a way for them to autonomize the literary field (Casanova 1999, 60-68 *et passim*) and to develop critical thinking of their readers (Madelain 2021b, 196). After the rift with the Soviet Union:

> Translation became means of exchange between Yugoslavia and the rest of the world [...]. The drastic reduction in the level of control over translation from the 1950s onwards was not just intended to demonstrate to the West that Yugoslavia was a free country (which it was compared to other members of the Eastern Bloc), but also motivated by the fact that translation was a key element in a process of developing a third way on all levels, not just cultural, but also political and social (Leto 2022, 198).

Those pioneers were also perfectly aware that legitimacy and reputation can be obtained through the accumulation of symbolic capital (world well-known authors and works, *cf.* Casanova 1999). Madelain considers that in the 1990s, the two main sources of the new independent publishers’ legitimacy were:

> the intellectual and literary networks that they had built during the previous decade– and the older among them even before– as well as the new cultural networks that were being established since 1991 on the margins and especially outside the institutions. [...] The second source of legitimacy is international recognition (Madelain 2021b, 198).

In their activities of publishing translations, they always greatly rely on foreign institutions such as the Foundation for Open Society (Soros), Goethe Institute, French Institute, British Council, Cervantes Institute, Camões Institute, Pro Helvetia, etc., as well as on national fundings. Apart from school books, popular psychology (so-called “self-help” books), and commercial children’s books, there are only two literary domains
that can be considered profitable: best-selling novels and school reading titles (so-called “lektira”). Still, even if a novel is selling well abroad, it does not mean that it will encounter the same success in Croatia, where the purchasing power is relatively low, the average price of a book is high, and the reading habits are continuously decreasing (Moderna vremena 21.05.2023). That is why, since 1991, subventions for literary works have been the only way for the Croatian publishers to produce them.¹⁹

According to the data of the Croatian Ministry of Culture and Media for the period going from 2009 to 2022, an average of 44,8% of published literary works are translated (Mikšić and Huber 2023, 35-36). English as a hypercentral language is the most represented, while French as a supercentral language (Heilbron 2010), occupies the second position, preceding German, Italian, and Russian.

## 1.3 Croatian publishers and literature translated from French since 1991

During the period from 1991 to 2020, a total of 1,046 literary works²⁰ have been translated from French and published in Croatia²¹ (Mikšić et al. 2023, 34), which corresponds to 35 works per year. If observed by decades,²² the situation is the following:

<table><caption>**Table 1.** Number of the published literary translations from French by decades</caption><thead><tr><td>Year</td><td>Number of published books</td><td>Percentage</td></tr></thead><tbody><tr><td>1991-2000</td><td>189</td><td>18</td></tr><tr><td>2001-2010</td><td>485</td><td>46.4</td></tr><tr><td>2011-2020</td><td>372</td><td>35.6</td></tr><tr><td>Total</td><td>1,046</td><td>100</td></tr></tbody></table>

Among those works, there are twelve anthologies and selections, mostly poetry (seven of them). As far as the genres are concerned, the novel is by far the most represented with 675 published books (64.3%). Put together, theater plays and poetry is represented with 11%, confronted with the massively represented prose texts (Mikšić et al. 2023, 41). In the above-mentioned thirty year period of time, 175 publishing houses published at least one translation from French, while 29 of them published ten or more.
<table><caption>Table 2. List of publishers with 10 or more French language titles in their catalog (1991-2020)</caption><thead><tr><td></td><td>Publishing houses (year of foundation, status)</td><td>Published books</td></tr></thead><tbody><tr><td>1</td><td>Ceres (1992)</td><td>47</td></tr><tr><td>2</td><td>Školska knjiga (1950, privatized)</td><td>44</td></tr><tr><td>3</td><td>Vuković & Runjić (1999)</td><td>42</td></tr><tr><td>4</td><td>Disput (1999)</td><td>40</td></tr><tr><td>5</td><td>Meandar Media (1992)</td><td>38</td></tr><tr><td>6</td><td>Mozaik knjiga (1991)</td><td>38</td></tr><tr><td>7</td><td>Sysprint (1990, not active)</td><td>38</td></tr><tr><td>8</td><td>Znanje (1958 [1925], privatized)</td><td>33</td></tr><tr><td>9</td><td>Litteris (2002)</td><td>32</td></tr><tr><td>10</td><td>Fraktura (2002)</td><td>32</td></tr><tr><td>11</td><td>Naklada Oceanmore (2002)</td><td>30</td></tr><tr><td>12</td><td>Edicije Božičević (1999)</td><td>25</td></tr><tr><td>13</td><td>Algoritam (1993–2017)</td><td>24</td></tr><tr><td>14</td><td>Hrvatsko filološko društvo (Faculty of Philosophy, 1987)</td><td>24</td></tr><tr><td>15</td><td>Matica hrvatska (1842; prohibited in 1971, renewed in 1991)</td><td>22</td></tr><tr><td>16</td><td>Katarina Zrinski (1993)</td><td>19</td></tr><tr><td>17</td><td>Globus media (2008, not active)</td><td>16</td></tr><tr><td>18</td><td>Fokus komunikacije (2002)</td><td>14</td></tr><tr><td>19</td><td>Marjan knjiga (1993)</td><td>14</td></tr><tr><td>20</td><td>Zagrebačka naklada (1994)</td><td>14</td></tr><tr><td>21</td><td>Naklada Jurčić (1996)</td><td>13</td></tr><tr><td>22</td><td>Nova knjiga Rast (1999)</td><td>13</td></tr><tr><td>23</td><td>Šareni dućan (1997)</td><td>13</td></tr><tr><td>24</td><td>Verbum (1992)</td><td>13</td></tr><tr><td>25</td><td>Konzor (1992–2011)</td><td>12</td></tr><tr><td>26</td><td>Lektira (2008)</td><td>12</td></tr><tr><td>27</td><td>Mladinska knjiga Zagreb (1994, franchise of the Slovenian house)</td><td>12</td></tr><tr><td>28</td><td>Naklada Fran (1996)</td><td>12</td></tr><tr><td>29</td><td>Profil International (1991–2015, today Profil Klett)</td><td>11</td></tr></tbody></table>

The twenty most active publishers in this respect cover 54% (565 books) of the whole translation production from French in the above-mentioned period, while thirty-six most active publishers assure 81% (848 books) of the production (Mikšić et al. 2023, 41). We can see that some important publishing houses of different types, sizes, and generations, such as ‘Naklada Ljevak’ [Ljevak Publishing] (ex-‘Naprijed’ [Forward], privatized), ‘V.B.Z.’ (1991) and ‘Sandorf’ (2007) do not include many French language titles in their literature catalogs.²³ The publishing house ‘Lektira’ [Readings], for instance, specializes in publishing books assigned to be read in schools. Generally speaking, very few houses publish other genres than fiction: a small-size pioneer publisher ‘Ceres’
published the greatest number of French titles of all genres, but the publisher himself, Dragutin Dumančić, was a translator from French. Some publishers, founded more recently, do publish an important portion of French language titles: ‘Mala zvona’ [Small bells] (2010), for instance, published eight of them in a ten-year period; Sanja Lovrenčić, founder of the house, is a translator from French as well. Many publishers started publishing French language literature in the 2000s (‘Disput’ [Dispute], ‘Meandar Media’ [Meander Media], ‘Fraktura’ [Fracture], ‘Litteris’, ‘Vuković & Runjić’), so in reality the corresponding numbers refer to their two decade catalog.

When it comes to the French publishers that sold the rights to their Croatian counterparts, the situation is following:

<figure><img src="image_1.png" /><figcaption>**Figure 1.** Graphic of the most present French publishing houses (through the translated works)</figcaption></figure>

We can see that with 462 books, twelve French publishing houses detain 44% of all the French language literary production translated into Croatian from 1991 to 2020. If we take into account only the contemporary literary production, then those publishers
detain even a larger percentage (54%). 'Gallimard' by itself covers 17% of all the production, and 20% of the contemporary French language literature translated into Croatian.

As far as the most translated authors are concerned, the top 20 are Antoine de Saint-Exupéry with sixty editions of eleven different works,²⁴ Jules Verne, Charles Perrault. Honoré de Balzac, Samuel Beckett, Albert Camus, Émile Zola, Milan Kundera, M. Delly, Gustave Flaubert, Jean de La Fontaine, Pascal Bruckner, Molière, Amélie Nothomb, Marcel Proust, Frédéric Beigbeder, Anne & Serge Golon, Marguerite Duras, Michel Houellebecq and Guillaume Musso with ten editions of the same number of works (Mikšić et al. 2023, 37). All the Croatian editions of these twenty authors put together amount to 361 editions and represent 35% of the entire literary translation production in Croatia from 1991 to 2020.²⁵ Even though Francophone authors are represented among top twenty translated authors only by Amélie Nothomb (Belgium), it should be noted that two other authors have a particular position of bilingual literary creation (Samuel Beckett and Milan Kundera) in the French language literary corpus. Among some other French-speaking authors relatively well represented in the Croatian literary field, there are Marguerite Yourcenar and Georges Simenon from Belgium, Joël Dicker from Switzerland, Tahar Ben Jelloun and Leïla Slimani from Morocco, as well as Yasmina Khadra from Algeria.

If we take a look at the most translated works, 36 of them have four or more Croatian editions in the above-mentioned period: *Le Petit Prince* by Saint-Exupéry is by far the most published work in Croatian (50 editions), followed by Charles Perrault's fairy tales (35), *Le père Goriot* by Balzac (15), Jean de La Fontaine's tales (15), *Combray* by Proust (12), *Madame Bovary* by Flaubert (11), *Vingt mille lieues sous les mers* by Jules Verne (11), etc. Almost all of these authors and works were for a long time, until 2019, when a curricular reform took place,²⁶ on the list of the primary and secondary schools' required reading list,²⁷ except for La Fontaine and Kundera. This confirms the hypothesis of the attractiveness and commercial potential, for the publishers, of the school reading titles.

## 2. Publishers, authors and translators: Survey and database findings and interpretation

### 2.1 General data

In this section, we propose to analyse the survey that was conducted among the Croatian publishing houses. Out of fourteen participants, seven were acting as chief editor (50%), four of them as a publishing house director (21.5%), and five as a publishing house owner (28.5%). Half of this difficult-to-reach targeted population provided their input, which is considered a threshold where the risk of severe bias starts to be reduced. The quality of the survey design and comparaison with external data results 50% response rate might be considered acceptable representativity. Participants have between two and thirty-five years of experience;²⁸ 64.3% of them are male and 28.6% female;²⁹ they
were born in a period from 1950 to 1979.³⁰

All the publishing houses included in the survey have their headquarters in Zagreb. They publish primarily literary texts. Most of them (nine) published between ten and thirty-three new titles in 2022; one publishing house did not publish any literary work that year, two of them published respectively seven and eight books, while two published respectively fourty and eighty books. Out of that total number of published books (304), only twenty of them were translated from French. Four publishers translated one book, three of them two books, two of them three books and one publisher translated four books from French.

The average print run is less than 500 copies (nine publishers); three publishing houses print between 500 and 1,000 copies, while only two of them print more than a thousand copies per edition. When it comes to sales of French language translations, they sell less than 60% of published books during the first year: four publishers state to sell less than 20%, as many of them state to sell 40%-60%, while six of them state that the sales in the first year vary between 20% and 40%.

## 2.2 Familiarity with French language literature and data collecting

A series of questions were asked in order to gather information on their familiarity with the contemporary developments in French language literature, new authors, and new books: 42.9% of participants stated that they never read literary texts written in French in their original language; 14.3% do it rarely, 21.4% sometimes while 21.4% do it often. 64.3% of participants state that they sometimes read French language literature in translation, while 35.7% do it often. 71.4% of them are familiar with the latest trends, authors, and developments in contemporary French language literature, while 28.6% are not. In order to stay informed, they use different means of communication, most frequently publishing houses' newsletters, news websites and personal contacts.

<table><caption>**Table 3.** Croatian publishers' way of informing on French language literature</caption><thead><tr><td>Communication's media</td><td>Yes</td><td>No</td></tr></thead><tbody><tr><td>News websites</td><td>57.1%</td><td>42.9%</td></tr><tr><td>Literary critics</td><td>21.4%</td><td>78.6%</td></tr><tr><td>Literary magazines</td><td>42.9%</td><td>57.1%</td></tr><tr><td>French radio</td><td>/</td><td>100%</td></tr><tr><td>French television</td><td>/</td><td>100%</td></tr><tr><td>Publishing houses' newsletters</td><td>71.4%</td><td>28.6%</td></tr><tr><td>Book fairs</td><td>28.6%</td><td>71.4%</td></tr><tr><td>Literary festivals</td><td>28.6%</td><td>71.4%</td></tr><tr><td>Social networks</td><td>50.0%</td><td>50.0%</td></tr><tr><td>Podcasts</td><td>7.1%</td><td>92.9%</td></tr><tr><td>Personal contacts</td><td>57.1%</td><td>42.9%</td></tr><tr><td>"I am not informed in any way"</td><td>7.1%</td><td>92.9%</td></tr></tbody></table>
78.6% of the publishers do not show any special interest in Francophone literature and are mainly focused on French. As for those who do, they are mainly interested in Canadian Francophone (Quebec) literature. 78.6% of participants never attend book fairs and literary fairs in France, while 21.4% do it less than once a year. When asked about visiting book fairs and literary fairs in general, all over the world, 21.4% of publishers stated that they never attend them, while others do and they show preference for Frankfurt and Leipzig book fairs. They also visit Belgrade, Rome, Vienna, London, Jerusalem, and Guadalajara book fairs. Most of the publishers (92.9%) regularly collaborate with French literary agents. Half of the interviewees consider that an author/book recommendation given by an editor working in a French publishing house is important or extremely important for their decision on the rights purchase; for 28.6% of them, such a recommendation is of no importance. Other agents in the field could also influence them in picking the titles to be translated from French. Among them, they have a tendency to particularly rely on the opinion of the translator with whom they regularly collaborate; they also appreciate recommendations of the Croatian academics who are experts in the field and of the French literary agents.

<table><caption>**Table 4.** Importance of recommendations on which books to translate given by other agents in the field (in percentages)</caption><thead><tr><td>Recommendations from</td><td>Not at all important</td><td>Slightly important</td><td>Moderately important</td><td>Very important</td><td>Extremely important</td></tr></thead><tbody><tr><td>Translators</td><td>0</td><td>0</td><td>0</td><td>35.7</td><td>64.3</td></tr><tr><td>Academics from France</td><td>28.6</td><td>7.1</td><td>21.4</td><td>35.7</td><td>7.1</td></tr><tr><td>Academics from Croatia</td><td>14.3</td><td>7.1</td><td>15.3</td><td>42.9</td><td>21.4</td></tr><tr><td>French literary critics</td><td>14.3</td><td>14.3</td><td>35.7</td><td>28.6</td><td>7.1</td></tr><tr><td>Croatian literary critics</td><td>7.1</td><td>21.4</td><td>42.9</td><td>28.6</td><td>0</td></tr><tr><td>French literary agents</td><td>7.1</td><td>7.1</td><td>35.7</td><td>42.9</td><td>7.1</td></tr><tr><td>Private contacts</td><td>0</td><td>42.9</td><td>42.9</td><td>0</td><td>14.3</td></tr></tbody></table>

## 2.3 Criteria for publication

In a separate part of the survey, our aim was to determine the criteria according to which they picked books to be translated from French. Several reasons have proved to be relevant: the author's reputation, literary awards, positive reviews, and the opinion of the close collaborators.
<table><caption>Table 5. Key factors when choosing a title for translation (in percentages)</caption><thead><tr><td>Key factors</td><td>Not at all important</td><td>Slightly important</td><td>Moderately important</td><td>Very important</td><td>Extremely important</td></tr></thead><tbody><tr><td>Author's reputation</td><td>0</td><td>7.1</td><td>14.3</td><td>35.7</td><td>42.9</td></tr><tr><td>Awarding a prestigious literary award to the title</td><td>7.1</td><td>21.4</td><td>21.4</td><td>21.4</td><td>28.6</td></tr><tr><td>Positive literary reviews and critics</td><td>0</td><td>14.3</td><td>21.4</td><td>50</td><td>14.3</td></tr><tr><td>Market potential in Croatia</td><td>7.1</td><td>21.4</td><td>42.9</td><td>28.6</td><td>0</td></tr><tr><td>Translations into other languages</td><td>7.1</td><td>21.4</td><td>28.6</td><td>28.6</td><td>14.3</td></tr><tr><td>Commercial success of the book in the original culture</td><td>7.1</td><td>28.6</td><td>21.4</td><td>35.7</td><td>7.1</td></tr><tr><td>Commercial success of the author's other books in the original culture</td><td>14.3</td><td>28.6</td><td>21.4</td><td>28.6</td><td>7.1</td></tr><tr><td>Transmedial adaptations</td><td>21.4</td><td>57.1</td><td>14.3</td><td>7.1</td><td>0</td></tr><tr><td>Required reading at school</td><td>35.7</td><td>35.7</td><td>7.1</td><td>7.1</td><td>14.3</td></tr><tr><td>Market research</td><td>35.7</td><td>35.7</td><td>21.4</td><td>0</td><td>7.1</td></tr><tr><td>Expiration of the copyright terms</td><td>21.4</td><td>21.4</td><td>35.7</td><td>21.4</td><td>0</td></tr><tr><td>Recommendation from an academic (non-translator)</td><td>7.1</td><td>28.6</td><td>35.7</td><td>14.3</td><td>14.3</td></tr><tr><td>Recommendation from a translator</td><td>0</td><td>0</td><td>7.1</td><td>57.1</td><td>35.7</td></tr><tr><td>Recommendations from other collaborators</td><td>0</td><td>14.3</td><td>14.3</td><td>57.1</td><td>14.3</td></tr></tbody></table>

Publishing houses sometimes publish several books written by the same author, or, less frequently, the complete work of an individual author. They do it because of:

a) the author's reputation worldwide (100%),

b) they think that the author in question has been unfairly neglected in our community so far (64.3%),

c) they know the author personally and want to continue working with him/her (21.4%),

d) they want to cooperate with the publishing house that published the original version (28.6%),

e) the literary agency and/or publisher of the original stipulates the purchase of copyright for several texts or the entire oeuvre of an individual author at once (0%),

f) the previously published translation of the same author was a commercial success (35.7%),

g) the previously published translation received positive reviews (50%), and

h) the previously published translation received literary awards (42.9%).
### 2.3.1 The most active Croatian publishers and French language authors

Moreover, to better understand what are the Croatian publishers' strategies and literary choices when it comes to publishing literature written in French, we have also analysed the database in order to see what French language authors with at least two (re)editions are included in the catalogs of the most active Croatian publishing houses having published, in the period from 1991 to 2020, thirty French titles or more. We propose to distinguish the following categories: Authors active before the 20th Century; 20th Century authors; Contemporary 21st Century authors; as well as two sub-categories: School assigned books or not and female/male authors.

<table><caption>Table 6. French language authors published by the most active Croatian publishers (1991-2020)*</caption><thead><tr><th rowspan="3">Publishers</th><th colspan="4">Authors active before 20th century</th><th colspan="4">20th century authors</th><th colspan="2">Contemporary authors</th></tr><tr><th colspan="2">Not school assigned books</th><th colspan="2">School assigned books</th><th colspan="2">Not school assigned books</th><th colspan="2">School assigned books</th><th rowspan="2">F</th><th rowspan="2">M</th></tr><tr><th>F</th><th>M</th><th>F</th><th>M</th><th>F</th><th>M</th><th>F</th><th>M</th></tr></thead><tbody><tr><td>Ceres</td><td>/</td><td>/</td><td>/</td><td>/</td><td>Dosen: 3</td><td>Perse: 5<br>Gide: 2</td><td>/</td><td>Camus: 3<br>Beckett: 2</td><td>/</td><td>Bruckner: 6<br>R. Sallam: 3<br>Le Clézio: 2<br>Tournier: 2</td></tr><tr><td>Školska knjiga</td><td>/</td><td>/</td><td>/</td><td>Balzac: 5<br>Molière: 4<br>Verne: 4<br>Daudet: 2<br>Flaubert: 2</td><td>/</td><td>/</td><td>/</td><td>Saint-Exupéry: 9</td><td>Gavalda: 2</td><td>/</td></tr><tr><td>Vuković& Runjić</td><td>/</td><td>/</td><td>/</td><td>/</td><td>Duras: 5</td><td>/</td><td>/</td><td>/</td><td>Nothomb: 12<br>Shan Sa: 3</td><td>Foenkinos: 3<br>Tournier: 3<br>Alexakis: 2<br>Carrère: 2<br>Toussaint: 2</td></tr><tr><td>Disput</td><td>/</td><td>Montaigne: 3</td><td>/</td><td>/</td><td>/</td><td>/</td><td>/</td><td>/</td><td>Aubry: 2</td><td>Makine: 4<br>Charras: 2<br>Leroy: 2<br>Weyergans: 2</td></tr><tr><td>Meandar Media</td><td>/</td><td>/</td><td>/</td><td>/</td><td>/</td><td>Perec: 5<br>Vian: 3<br>Céline: 2</td><td>/</td><td>/</td><td>/</td><td>Kundera: 12<br>de Breyne: 2</td></tr><tr><td>Mozaik knjiga</td><td>/</td><td>/</td><td>/</td><td>Perrault: 4<br>Flaubert: 3<br>Verne: 3<br>Voltaire: 3<br>Molière: 2</td><td>/</td><td>/</td><td>/</td><td>Saint-Exupéry: 9<br>Proust: 2</td><td>/</td><td>Djan: 3</td></tr><tr><td>Sysprint</td><td>/</td><td>/</td><td>/</td><td>Baudelaire: 2<br>Racine: 2</td><td>/</td><td>/</td><td>/</td><td>Ionesco: 4<br>Beckett: 2<br>Camus: 2</td><td>Salvayre: 4</td><td>Pennac: 5<br>Chevillard: 2<br>Jauffret: 2</td></tr><tr><td>Znanje</td><td>/</td><td>/</td><td>/</td><td>Perrault: 6<br>Verne: 3</td><td>/</td><td>/</td><td>/</td><td>Saint-Exupéry: 9</td><td>/</td><td>Legardinier: 2</td></tr></tbody></table>

<footnote>* The number of published/re/editions is indicated after the author's name, following the colon.</footnote>
<table><thead><tr><th rowspan="2"></th><th colspan="4">Authors active before 20th century</th><th colspan="3">20th century authors</th><th colspan="2">Contemporary authors</th></tr><tr><th>/</th><th>/</th><th>/</th><th>/</th><th>Simone Weil: 2</th><th>Michaux: 2</th><th>/</th><th>/</th><th>/</th><th>Houellebecq: 9<br>Thiers: 2</th></tr></thead><tbody><tr><th>Litteris</th><td>/</td><td>/</td><td>/</td><td>/</td><td></td><td></td><td></td><td></td><td></td><td>Modiano: 5<br>Dicker: 3<br>Binet: 2<br>Daoud: 2<br>Énard: 2<br>Mattern: 2<br>Varenne: 2</td></tr><tr><th>Fraktura</th><td>/</td><td>/</td><td>/</td><td>/</td><td>/</td><td>/</td><td>/</td><td>Slimani: 2</td><td></td><td>Beigbeder: 12<br>de Vigan: 4<br>Despentes: 3<br>Louis: 3<br>Mérot: 2</td></tr><tr><th>OceanMore</th><td>/</td><td>/</td><td>/</td><td>/</td><td>/</td><td>/</td><td>/</td><td>/</td><td></td><td></td></tr></tbody></table>

As we can see, not a single 21st century male or female author's name could be found on the list of authors whose books are required to be read in school. Female authors are not present in the category of authors that were active up to the 20th century,³¹ and they are poorly represented in the category of the 20th century (17 /re/editions). In the category of authors living and writing before the 20th century, the large majority of them are the 19th century authors that were or still are a part of the school readings. The 20th century authors are not often published if not part of the school readings (19 /re/editions). The 21st century male authors are the most frequently published. We can also see that some publishers have specialized in publishing contemporary authors, while others are almost exclusively interested in publishing school reading authors and works, well aware of both their symbolic capital and commercial potential.

## 2.4 Sources of funding

During the last three decades, different sources of funding for translating and publishing books were available to Croatian publishing houses. They are an indispensable source of financial aid. The Croatian Ministry of Culture and Media regularly supports publishers with different kinds of programs and all of the publishing houses that have participated in this survey have used them. 71.4% of them got financial aid provided by the City of Zagreb. When it comes to international sources of aid, they resort to Creative Europe (42.9%), French National Book Center [Centre national du livre] (50%) and Wallonie-Bruxelles International (85.7%).

<table><caption>Table 7. Obtained financial support (in percentages)</caption><thead><tr><th>Funding organizations</th><th>Yes</th><th>No</th></tr></thead><tbody><tr><td>Creative Europe</td><td>42.9</td><td>57.1</td></tr><tr><td>Croatian Ministry of Culture and Media</td><td>100</td><td>0</td></tr><tr><td>City of Zagreb</td><td>71.4</td><td>28.6</td></tr></tbody></table>
<table><thead><tr><td>Funding organizations</td><td>Yes</td><td>No</td></tr></thead><tbody><tr><td>Units of local and regional self-government (outside Zagreb)</td><td>0</td><td>100</td></tr><tr><td>“Kultura Nova” Foundation</td><td>0</td><td>100</td></tr><tr><td>Institut français</td><td>14.3</td><td>85.7</td></tr><tr><td>Centre national du livre</td><td>50</td><td>50</td></tr><tr><td>Wallonie-Bruxelles International (WBI)</td><td>85.7</td><td>14.3</td></tr></tbody></table>

Besides sources of financial aid previously mentioned, the publishers that participated in the survey have also benefited from the following sources: Croatian Ministry of Science, SODEC, Canadian Council for the Arts, Pro Helvetia and Traduki.

## 2.5 Collaboration with translators

The following series of questions is aimed at getting relevant information on their collaboration with translators. The survey has revealed that publishing houses choose translators with whom they collaborate according to different criteria. Among them, the most important ones are a translator's good reputation and esteem, successful previous collaboration with him/her, and recommendations given by colleagues working in the same sector or academics.

<table><caption>Table 8. Criteria for the selection of translators (in percentages)</caption><thead><tr><td>Criteria</td><td>Not at all important</td><td>Slightly important</td><td>Moderately important</td><td>Very important</td><td>Extremely important</td></tr></thead><tbody><tr><td>Translator's good reputation</td><td>0</td><td>14.3</td><td>0</td><td>50</td><td>35.7</td></tr><tr><td>Previous cooperation with the translator</td><td>0</td><td>0</td><td>0</td><td>14.3</td><td>85.7</td></tr><tr><td>Willingness to give a chance to a translator that proposed collaboration by himself/herself</td><td>21.4</td><td>42.9</td><td>28.6</td><td>0</td><td>7.1</td></tr><tr><td>Recommendation from colleagues working in the same sector</td><td>14.3</td><td>28.6</td><td>0</td><td>42.9</td><td>14.3</td></tr><tr><td>Recommendation from French language, literature and translation academics</td><td>14.3</td><td>7.1</td><td>7.1</td><td>42.9</td><td>28.6</td></tr><tr><td>Recommendation from the Croatian society of literary translators</td><td>28.6</td><td>28.6</td><td>0</td><td>35.7</td><td>7.1</td></tr><tr><td>Recommendation from the author, his agent or the original publisher</td><td>21.4</td><td>14.3</td><td>42.9</td><td>21.4</td><td>0</td></tr></tbody></table>

78.6% of publishers collaborate with young and inexperienced translators; 64.3% of them very often or always ask them to provide a sample translation before signing a contract. Once they order a translation from a chosen translator, they have confidence and never (7.1%), rarely (28.6%) or sometimes (59%) suggest certain translation strategies and solutions. 42.9% of the publishers think that a translator's name does not need to be
written on the book cover; 42.9% of them regularly add a translator's biography in the edition, while 28.6% do it often; 21.4% sometimes.

### 2.5.1 The most active Croatian publishers and their collaboration with translators

To better understand the dynamics of publishers' collaboration with translators from French, we have also analysed our database for the period going from 1991 to 2020, taking into account the ten most active publishers and the translators that have worked with them.

<table><caption>**Table 9.** Collaboration of the most active Croatian publishers with translators of French language literature (1991-2020)</caption><thead><tr><th>Publishers</th><th>≥ 10 /re/editions</th><th>7-9 /re/editions</th><th>4-6 /re/editions</th><th>2-3 /re/editions</th></tr></thead><tbody><tr><td>Ceres</td><td>Dragutin Dumančić: 14</td><td>Nikica Rilović: 9</td><td></td><td>Ela Agotić; Zlatko Crnković; Flora Dosen; Marija Grgićević; Višnja Machiedo; Ingrid Šafranek; Tin Ujević</td></tr><tr><td>Školska knjiga</td><td>Mia Pervan: 11</td><td>Divina Marion: 8</td><td>Radovan Ivšić: 4<br>Petra Mardešić: 4</td><td>Gordana V. Popović; Mladen Škiljan; Vladimir Gerić; Višnja Machiedo; Josip Tabak</td></tr><tr><td>Vuković & Runjić</td><td></td><td>Marija Paprašarovski: 7</td><td>Ursula Burger: 5; Anja Jović: 5; Vlatka Valentić: 5; Ela Agotić: 4; Suzana Kubik: 4; Ingrid Šafranek: 4</td><td>Ana Kolesarić; Ivana Šojat</td></tr><tr><td>Disput</td><td>Sanja Šoštarić: 12<br>Marija Paprašarovski: 11</td><td></td><td></td><td>Vojmir Vinja; Marina Jelinek; Damjan Lalović; Barbara Martinec</td></tr><tr><td>Meandar Media</td><td>Vanda Mikšić: 19</td><td></td><td>Ana Prpić: 4</td><td>Višnja Machiedo; Martina Kramer; Marija Spajić</td></tr><tr><td>Mozaik knjiga</td><td></td><td>Divina Marion: 9<br>Ivan Kušan: 8</td><td></td><td>Ivana Šojat; Jelena Butković; Zlatko Crnković; Višnja Machiedo; Predrag Raos</td></tr><tr><td>Sysprint</td><td></td><td></td><td>Vlatka Valentić: 5<br>Andrea Grgić Marasović: 4</td><td>Vlado Habunek; Ivan Kušan; Višnja Machiedo; Vanda Mikšić; Svevlad Slamnig; Maja Zorica; Ivo Hergešić; Smiljka Guštak; Marija Spajić</td></tr><tr><td>Znanje</td><td></td><td></td><td>Ana Kolesarić: 4<br>Ivan Kušan: 4<br>Sanja Lovrenčić: 4</td><td>Maja Ručević; Dubravka Celebrini; Marijana Horvatinčić; Mate Maras</td></tr><tr><td>Litteris</td><td></td><td></td><td>Marija Bašić: 6<br>Ana Buljan: 5</td><td>Zvonimir Mrkonjić; Marinko Koščec; Vanda Mikšić; Vlatka Valentić</td></tr><tr><td>Fraktura</td><td></td><td></td><td>Ursula Burger: 5<br>Vlatka Tor: 5<br>Željka Somun: 4<br>Ivana Šojat: 4</td><td>Ana Kolesarić; Latica Bilopavlović Vuković; Mia Pervan</td></tr><tr><td>OceanMore</td><td>Ita Kovač: 20</td><td></td><td></td><td>Ljiljana Ješić; Vlatka Valentić</td></tr></tbody></table>

This table shows that some publishing houses prefer to work with fewer translators ('Meandar Media', 'Disput', 'Litteris', 'OceanMore'), while others have (had) a more
diversified approach ('Sysprint'). It is interesting to note that Dragutin Dumančić, founder and director of 'Ceres' (fourteen), was a translator himself who translated most of the French language titles for his own publishing house. The case of Flora Dosen's self-translations (two) for this house is also quite interesting since she is a French author of Croatian origin. Some translators (Marija Paprašarovski and Divina Marion) translated several titles for different houses.

## 2.6 Paratext

Paratexts are not always present in the editions: 14.3% of the publishers rarely prepare and publish it, 35.7% do it sometimes, 35.7% often, and 14.3% very often. 21.4% of the surveyed publishers never use paratexts present in the original edition, 21.4% do it rarely, 28.6% sometimes, 21.4% often and only 7.1% always. In cases when they prepare the paratext themselves, several people could be involved in the process. Most frequently the editor or the translator, sometimes academics who are experts in the field, and rarely literary critics or the author. If they do not include paratext in their editions, it is because of several reasons: they think that it is not interesting to the readers (7.1%), deadlines are too short (21.4%), paratext increases the price of the product (0%), experts able to prepare the paratext are unavailable at that time (7.1%), publishers do not want to impose a certain interpretive framework with the paratext (42.9%) the author/publisher of the original insists that the translated edition has to be identical to the edition to the original (21.4%).

## 2.7 Marketing strategies

Publishing houses need to constantly develop new and different marketing strategies because the sector is very dynamic. Online presence, especially on social networks, has become a standard. All the surveyed Croatian publishing houses use different marketing strategies. Marketing strategies are designed especially for Croatian audiences and they never or rarely (85.8%) follow the marketing strategies developed by the publisher of the original edition. Publishing houses that participated in this survey mostly rely on posting on social networks, delivering review copies of books to literary critics and presenting their products during book fairs. Various social networks were used in order to promote the products and to communicate with readers. Facebook is by far the most popular and all the publishing houses have a page on that social network. Besides Facebook, publishers are also active on Instagram (64.3%), Twitter (28.6%), Tik Tok (7.1%) and Youtube (64.3%).
<table><caption>Table 10. Marketing strategies used (in percentages)</caption><thead><tr><th></th><th>Never</th><th>Rarely</th><th>Sometimes</th><th>Often</th><th>Always</th></tr></thead><tbody><tr><td>I follow marketing strategies used by a French publisher to promote the original</td><td>42.9</td><td>42.9</td><td>7.1</td><td>7.1</td><td>0</td></tr><tr><td>I design individualized marketing strategies</td><td>14.3</td><td>7.1</td><td>14.3</td><td>28.6</td><td>35.7</td></tr><tr><td>I organize book-launch with the author's presence in Croatia</td><td>0</td><td>21.4</td><td>42.9</td><td>21.4</td><td>14.3</td></tr><tr><td>I deliver review copies to literary critics</td><td>0</td><td>7.1%</td><td>28.6</td><td>64.3</td><td>0</td></tr><tr><td>I appear on television and radio shows to promote a book</td><td>21.4</td><td>35.7</td><td>35.7</td><td>7.1</td><td>0</td></tr><tr><td>I write texts for magazines and portals</td><td>35.7</td><td>14.3</td><td>14.3</td><td>28.6</td><td>7.1</td></tr><tr><td>I post on social networks</td><td>7.1</td><td>7.1</td><td>7.1</td><td>42.9</td><td>35.7</td></tr><tr><td>I collaborate with Croatian literary bloggers and book influencers</td><td>42.9</td><td>14.3</td><td>21.4</td><td>14.3</td><td>7.1</td></tr><tr><td>I advertise through sponsored news on internet sites</td><td>28.6</td><td>35.7</td><td>14.3</td><td>14.3</td><td>7.1</td></tr><tr><td>I advertise on social networks</td><td>7.1</td><td>7.1</td><td>28.6</td><td>14.3</td><td>42.9</td></tr><tr><td>I advertise via posters</td><td>35.7</td><td>14.3</td><td>35.7</td><td>7.1</td><td>7.1</td></tr><tr><td>I participate in book fairs</td><td>14.3</td><td>14.3</td><td>14.3</td><td>28.6</td><td>28.6</td></tr><tr><td>I participate in literary festivals</td><td>21.4</td><td>14.3</td><td>50</td><td>14.3</td><td>0</td></tr></tbody></table>

## 2.8 Overall position and perspectives of the French language literature

At the very end of the survey, participants had an opportunity to answer two open-ended questions. Eleven out of fourteen of those who participated in the survey responded. The publishers were asked to evaluate the place that French language literature holds in their publishing programs. Nine of them claim that French language literature has a constant position in their catalog, consider it to be highly important, and translate it with great enthusiasm. In a second open-ended question, we wanted to get information on the place of francophone literature in the publishing program of their company. The situation is quite different. They still have not published francophone authors, or do it occasionally. However, they are aware of its importance and wish to include more francophone authors in their catalogs in the future. At the very end they could comment on whatever they think is relevant to the translation of French literature in Croatia. Six comments were gathered. Publishers state that finances are the most important factor when choosing titles to be translated. The cost of copyrights and translator's fees are very high and the number of books sold is low. Even though they are aware of the fact that some canonical francophone authors have still not been translated, and they highly appreciate literature written in French, a lack of financial support for translation discourages them to translate and publish more.
Conclusive remarks

This research aimed to determine the circulation modalities of French language literature translated into Croatian since 1991, the position of French language literature in the Croatian publishing houses' catalogs, criteria for selecting authors and titles for translation, available subventions and cooperation with different actors in the literary field. After conducting a survey and analysing the gathered data we have come to the following conclusions.

Since 1991, Croatian publishers operated in social, political, and economic conditions that have significantly changed in comparison to the previous decades, although some forms of continuity cannot be denied. They have been operating in a constant crisis which is regularly pointed out and discussed. Most publishing houses are micro and small enterprises, and translations represent an important part of their catalogs. Through a detailed search of library catalogs, publishing houses webpages, and a detailed survey conducted at the beginning of 2023, we have gathered various information that serve as a basis for the following conclusions. Literature written in English and French languages continues to dominate the translation landscape, as it did during the second half of the 20th century, reflecting the widespread readership. These languages are often seen as gateways to the world literature. Croatian publishers have issued approximately 35 translated books from French per year. The majority of it is prose (particularly novels), written by male authors. Thirty publishers have published more than ten titles from 1991 to 2020. Canonical authors (C. Perrault, J. Verne, H. de Balzac, Molière, J. de La Fontaine, etc.) and modern classics (S. Beckett, M. Duras, A. Camus, etc.) are most frequently translated, especially those whose books are on a school-assigned reading list. Still, few publishers focus almost exclusively on contemporary literature ('Vuković&Runjić', 'Disput', 'Fraktura', 'OceanMore'). Books written by French male authors, published by 'Gallimard', 'Grasset', 'Éditions de Minuit' or 'Seuil' are most likely to be translated into Croatian. These findings are consistent with those on the translations of French literature in the United States (Sapiro 2015). The author's reputation and the attribution of a literary award (such as Goncourt, Renaudot, Femina or Nobel prize) to his/her work are an important factor when considering which titles to translate from French into Croatian.

Almost half of the editors who participated in the survey cannot read French and are thus not able to read texts written in French by themselves, so while choosing the titles for translations they heavily rely on the judgement of other intermediaries in the field. Still, 71% of them consider themselves well-informed about current editions and new authors in France. They stay informed by reading French publishing houses' newsletters and websites and reading literary magazines. They also gather information on recent trends through their personal contacts. They do not have a tendency to rely on literary reviewers and critics. French radio, television, and podcasts are also completely irrelevant sources of information for them. They prefer attending book fairs taking
place outside France, especially those taking place in Germany (Frankfurt, Leipzig). Among their collaborators, translators seem to be the most important ones. They tend to collaborate with renowned translators with whom they have successfully collaborated before. Once the translator is entrusted, editors do not have a tendency to interfere in their work and the choice of translation strategies. Editors in publishing houses highly appreciate their opinions and suggestions about what titles to translate next. In the survey, publishers state that the market potential of a certain French language author/book, its commercial success in the original culture, or the expiration of author's rights are not relevant factors during the selection process. They do not do market research nor base their editorial politics on it. The findings of this survey are consistent with Leonardo Blažević's conclusions on marketing strategies used by Croatian publishers (Blažević 2016). Blažević has pointed out that Croatian publishing houses do not carry out their marketing activities in accordance with contemporary marketing trends (Blažević 2016, 217). According to Blažević's study, 77% of Croatian publishers do not do market research and 73% of them do not have a marketing strategy (Blažević 2016, 236). Publishers heavily rely on different kinds of national and European financial support. They all think that French language literature has an important place in their catalogs, they are well aware of its importance and wish to translate it more. The main obstacle remains the financial one, even though several sources of financial aid are available to them.

## Notes

1. This paper presents the results of the institutional project "Sociological and translational aspects of the reception of French and Francophone literature in Croatia since 1991" (IP.01.2021.15.) of the University of Zadar.

2. Hocenski states that the greatest number of publishing houses was founded in 1990 (fourteen of them). In 1991 there were six new publishers, in 1992 seven, as well as in 1993, in 1994 nine, in 1997 five. Anne Madelain (2021a, 2021b) calls them "pioneers" and "activists". There was another wave of opening publishing houses in the first decade of the 21st century: in 2002 there were six new publishers, and in 2009 five (Hocenski 2023, 94).

3. From 23,5 million of Yugoslav citizens to 4,5 million of Croatians.

4. For a more detailed overview cf. Hocenski 2023, 44-46, 115-126. For a larger ex-Yugoslav picture cf. Madelain 2021a and 2021b.

5. Hocenski (2023, 46) shows that in Croatia, due to political, economic and social circumstances of the 1990s, the technological and digital changes have been delayed since the digital technologies implementation began in the 2000s. Madelain (2021b, 188) claims the same.

6. It should also be said that from October 1999 to July

2013, the VAT rate was 0%, while the Croatian effective membership to the EU has obliged the authorities to raise the VAT to 5%.

Madelain (2021b, 206) states that this event has caused the closure of 41 bookshops in Croatia.

That decision has directly provoked the creation of new monopolies. From the mid-1990s the state subvenes the publishers by directly purchasing from them literary and theoretical (scientific) titles as well. That is one of the inherited practices from the socialist period (Madelain 2021a, 205), together with the integrated book distribution, which means that the publisher is distributing his books himself.

Moreover, since the dissolution of Yugoslavia, former republics (at least those whose languages are the closest) have still not succeeded in organizing a regular circulation of books on the whole territory, even if there have been some attempts in that direction (Madelain 2021b, 207). Madelain (2021b, 209) also points out some problematic rivalry consequences of this market segmentation. On the contrary, authors do circulate on a more regular basis.

Since the inherited socialist model of the state subvening the publishing houses through direct purchase of titles for the libraries changed in January 2023, it is yet to see the impact of this decision on the publishing business,
especially of the micro and small houses which are publishing high-quality literature, including poetry, plays and essays. In fact, it is now upon the libraries to choose and order the titles themselves, which will be then paid for by the Ministry of Culture and Media. Even if the Ministry proposes two lists of titles, obligatory and recommended ones, it is yet to see what will be the librarians' selection. Until January 2023, the books have been chosen by an independent Council, nominated for that very purpose.

11 According to Hocenski (2023, 178-180), in 1990 there were 21,874 employees in the publishing industry, while in 2020 there were 4,460 employees in the sector. The medium number of employees per house in 2020 was thirty, but this rate is due to the fact that a huge media house Hanza media, with 739 employees, is included in the statistics. When it comes to the annual publishers profit, it should be stated (which does not appear in Hocenski's thesis) that the value of the book stock is calculated as a profit, while objectively the unsold books are only a potential profit to them until they are really sold and only if the bookstores pay them.

12 Between 1993 and 2004, there were 5,164 registered publishing houses in Croatia, mainly in Zagreb. According to the *Croatian Encyclopedia* [Hrvatska enciklopedija], in 2010, there were approximately 400 active publishing houses which published 2,000 to 2,500 books per year. In 2020, there were around 340 publishing houses.

13 In 2020, the medium wage in the publishing sector was 541.91 euros (Hocenski 2023, 180).

14 ‘Tvrđa’[Fortress] (2000), ‘Književna republika’[Literary Republic] (2003), ‘Tema’[Theme] (2004), ‘Poezija’ [Poetry] (2005), etc. There are (were) also many online magazines, such as ‘Knjigomat’[Book machine] (2004-2014), '[sic]–online magazine for literature, culture and literary translation' [[sic]–online časopis za književnost, kulturu i književno prevođenje] (2009), ‘Kvaka’[Catch] (2015), etc. Some magazines have both printed and online version.

15 Book Fair(y) in Istria [Sa(n)jam knjige u Istri], Pula, founded by the bookshop Castropola (1995), Scream [VRIsak] Rijeka, founded by the publisher V.B.Z. (2008), World Literature Festival [Festival svjetske književnosti], Zagreb, founded by the publisher ‘Fraktura’[Fracture] (2013), Zagreb Book Festival, Zagreb, founded by the publisher ‘Naklada Ljevak’ [Ljevak Publishing] (2015), Mediterranean Festival of Books [Mediteranski festival knjige], Split, founded by the Association of publishers and booksellers (2018), ŠKURE–Šibenik literary hours [ŠKURE–Šibenske književne ure], Šibenik, founded by the independent association Labour Day [Praznik rada] and the independent organisation The Book Center [Centar za knjigu] (2020), etc.

16 Literary awards such as Marin Držić (1991; given by the Ministry of Culture for the theater plays), V.B.Z.

Award for the best unpublished novel (2002), Kiklop (2004-2014, given by the Book Fair(y) in Istria [Sa(n) jam knjige u Istri], Tportal award for the best published novel (2008, given by the online news site Tportal), Janko Polić Kamov (2014, given by the Croatian Writers Association) etc. For translation awards, see note 19.

17 Along with that practice they regularly publish well-known Croatian authors and young writers, trying to promote them and have them translated into other languages (Madelain 2021b, 196).

18 For a more detailed insight into the Yugoslav publishers' translation policies and the corresponding references cf. Madelain 2021b, 202-203.

19 Along with the publishing houses' activities, literary translators have continued to work in this three-decade period, in the frame of the Association of the Croatian Literary Translators, on their working conditions, which were quite poor because of the general situation in the publishing sector, as well as on their visibility. In Croatia, they are recognized as co-authors and artists, which gives them the possibility to become members of the Association of Freelance Artists [Zajednica samostalnih umjetnika], and obtain some benefits out of that status. The Association maintained and further developed the Award for the translators (rebaptised in Josip Tabak Award in 2022), with two main categories: for the best translation, and for the lifetime work; on the national level the Iso Velikanović Award was launched in 2005 by the Ministry of Culture, both for the best translation and for the lifetime work.

20 This number does not include children's literature (except for the canonical works, such as *The Little Prince*), comics/graphic novels or nonfiction works. Children's literature translations from several European languages into Croatian were analysed in the framework of the scientific project financed by Croatian Science Foundation "Building Intercultural Bridges through Children's Literature Translations: Texts, Contexts and Strategies (BIBRICH)" [Uspostavljanje međukulturnih poveznica kroz prijevode dječje književnosti: tekst, kontekst, strategije] conducted from 2015 to 2018 (Narančić and Milković 2019).

21 The French literature in Croatia has a centuries-old presence. In 18th-century Dubrovnik, there were numerous adaptations of Molière known under the name of "Frančezarije" (Deanović 1950, 1971). Since the middle of the 19th century, French authors have greatly influenced Croatian literature (especially thanks to the writer August Šenoa who was editor-in-chief of the literary magazine Wreath [Vienac] (Šimundža 1993), and that influence persisted through the 20th century (thanks to, among others, Nikola Andrić and his Entertainment collection [Zabavna biblioteka]; Mandić Hekman 2014). A catalog of the books published in the Socialist Republic of Croatia during the period between 1945 and 1985 (Dragojević and Cacan 1988) shows that French literature detained, with 634 published books,
the second position after the anglophone literature which was represented by 1,200 books.

22 It should be said that the data for the first decade are not completely reliable, since there was no obligation for the publishers to submit a certain number of copies of each published book to the National and University Library [Nacionalna i sveučilišna knjižnica].

23 Which for the latter might comme as a paradox, since the name refers to the title/character of a novel by Jules Verne.

24 Editions imply the first edition, the reedition (same translation), the amended translation edition and the retranslation edition.

25 Furthermore, 86 authors have three or more Croatian editions published in the same period, so their total production represents almost 63% of the overall literary production translated from French (Mikšić et al. 2023, 38).

26 The text of the reform is accessible [here].

27 Namely, *La Belle et la Bête, Le Petit Prince*, Verne's three novels and *Lettres de mon moulin* were on the list for primary schools, while *Le Cid*, *Phèdre*, *L'Avare*, *En*

attendant Godot, *La Cantatrice chauve*, Maupassant's stories, Baudelaire's *Spleen de Paris, Candide, Le père Goriot*, Zola's novels, *Combray* and *L'Étranger* were on the list for secondary schools. After the reform, there is no French work on the list of obligatory readings for primary schools, while there are two works on the obligatory list (Baudelaire and Camus) and thirteen on the list of optional readings for secondary schools: *Le père Goriot*, *En attendant Godot*, *Madame Bovary*, *La Cantatrice chauve* or *La Leçon*, Maeterlinck's *L'Oiseau bleu*, Maupassant's stories, *L'Avare* or *Le Malade imaginaire*, Prevert's poetry, *Combray*, *Phèdre* and Rimbaud's poetry.

28 2-9 years: 3 persons; 10-19 years: 4 persons; 20-29 years: 2 persons; 30-35 years: 3 persons.

29 One interviewee did not respond.

30 1950-1959: 3; 1960-1969: 2; 1970-1979: 2; no response: 5.

31 It should be said, however, that the fairy tale *La Belle et la Bête*, which for a long time has been attributed to Charles Perrault, was in fact written by Jeanne-Marie Leprince de Beaumont.

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