Chapter 16 Todtnau Mountain Postscript Cai Hongjun (7)

In recent years, domestic publishing houses have a relatively strong awareness of purchasing copyright. Copyright issues in domestic book publishing have become more standardized. Publishing foreign copyright works must be registered in China, so all publishing houses know that they must obtain authorization.However, publishing houses are far from satisfactory in the implementation of copyright contracts, and there are still many irregularities.Beijing October Literature and Art Publishing House did not pay enough attention to the copyright contract this time, and did not fulfill the provisions of the copyright contract to extend the contract on time. As a result, the original contract had already expired, and it was only after the announcement of the Nobel Prize that the contract was found to be void.In all copyright contracts, there is a clause on how long it will be invalid if it is not published within a certain period of time, but domestic publishing houses often do not pay attention to the contract.In fact, it is a very simple matter for the Chinese publishing house to put forward a suitable reason within the validity period of the contract and request a postponement of publication.This is a painful lesson.I hope that this matter can attract enough attention from other Chinese publishing houses and strengthen the concept of copyright.In order to save time, some publishing houses arrange for translators to translate before they are authorized. This is an irresponsible approach to translators.Just imagine, if the publishing house did not obtain the authorization in the end, how would they explain to the translator?So I always remind the translators I know that they must sign a contract with the publishing house before starting a translation.Translators should also strengthen their awareness of copyright and learn to protect themselves. Translators are the weakest link in all aspects of publishing foreign books that involve copyright.In addition, I also want to appeal to newspapers and periodicals to strengthen the concept of copyright.The practice of some newspapers publishing fragments of Jelinek's works is also an irregular behavior without authorization.The selection of newspapers and periodicals also needs to be authorized, and the authorizer will also vary depending on the time required for authorization. After a Chinese publishing house has obtained the copyright in simplified Chinese characters, if you want to select and publish, you must obtain the authorization of the Chinese publishing house. , In addition, there are specific regulations on issues such as word count, frequency, selection fee, and income distribution.

From Jelinek's award-winning to the large-scale publication of her book, there was only half a year in between.This is the fastest time for the domestic publishing industry to track the Nobel Prize. Judging from the sales volume of "The Piano Teacher", "Lust", "Greed" and other books that have been published so far, this may be the first time that a Nobel Prize-winning writer has so far been listed in mainland China. The most successful one. The Nobel Prize in Literature is awarded every year.The Nobel Prize for Literature has a high reputation, attracts great enthusiasm from the media, and raises high expectations from readers. It can quickly open the door to publication for any foreign writer who is not yet well-known in China. The sale presents a very good opportunity.It is only natural for the publishing house to seize the opportunity, quickly obtain the copyright and push the award-winning works to the market.Publishing the works of Nobel Prize-winning writers should be the same as publishing any book, and there should be no fixed pattern.This time, it is an ingenious attempt to arrange the copyright of Jelinek, five domestic institutions to work together to publish the book as soon as possible.All publishing houses have adopted the method of "cooperating with elderly translators and middle-aged translators, with middle-aged translators as the mainstay" in the selection of translators. This basically ensures the quality of translations and publishes them as soon as possible. .This comprehensive, systematic and rapid translation of Jelinek's main works is unprecedented in any translation of German writers in my country so far, and will occupy a considerable place in the history of introducing German literature in China.Taking the opportunity of writing the "postscript", I will summarize the whole process, hoping to provide some experience and lessons for future publication of the works of Nobel Prize-winning writers.

July 2005 in Keckheim, Germany