According to the New York Times, translated literature makes up just three percent of the American book market. This is known as the “three percent problem” among translated book marketers. It is meant to describe the generalized American avoidance of translated works. Increasingly, however, foreign governments, specialized publishers, and interest groups are making efforts to expand the translation market, especially in light of the huge success of Stieg Larsson’s “Millennium” trilogy.

Foreign institutions like the European Union National Institutes for Culture are focusing more on improved translator training, reading tours across the U.S., and adopting American marketing and promotional techniques.

“For nations in Europe, be they small or large, literature will always be one of the keys of their cultural existence,” said Corina Suteu, director of the Romanian Cultural Institute in New York, “and we recognize that this is the only way we are going to be able to make that literature present in the United States.”

Two translation websites, Three Percent and Words Without Borders, have appeared in recent years in attempts to expand interest in translations. These sites are forums for discussion, reviews, and craft as well as places for little-known translations to appear online. Both sites also function to show off the work of translators in hopes of finding publishers in America. Even Amazon.com has given attention to the translation market with its new imprint called AmazonCrossing.

A small American publishing house, Dalkey Archive Press, which for twenty-five years has specialized in translation, began producing literature series for Slovenian, Hebrew, and Catalan literature. John O’Brien, publisher for Dalkey, acknowledges that producing a translation and bringing a text from one market and plunging it into a new one can be difficult and expensive, but has hope that translated literature is trending toward greater success, “You’re not just (translating literature) as a book publisher, you are doing it… with consulates, embassies, and book institutes of other countries… (creating) a considerable level of interest and a feeling that something much bigger is going on than ‘here is a book by someone I’ve never heard of before.’”