Harvill Secker

Harvill Secker editor-at-large, Rebecca Carter

'We believe in literature itself' Catherine Mansfield interviews Harvill Secker editor-at-large, Rebecca Carter.

Last week I travelled over to Pimlico to meet Rebecca Carter, editor-at-large at Harvill Secker. As I crossed Vauxhall Bridge, London looked sparkling and enchanting in a mysterious mist, which seemed to bode well for the meeting ahead. This good feeling continued when I got to Random House, a majestic old building on Vauxhall Bridge Road. In the past I'd met small independent publishers who work in attics over bookshops or in their own homes. In comparison, Random House with its elegant lobby and colourful canteen - where Rebecca took me for a cup of tea - looked like a publishing palace.

After all, this is the home of the Random House Group, one of the UK's largest book publishing companies. And in fact Harvill Secker's status as a specialist international fiction imprint within a large corporation is arguably what makes it so unique. 'Obviously there are a lot of other places that do books in translation but they're mostly independents,' Rebecca tells me. 'Within a corporation there isn't an imprint that specialises in it the way that we do.'

This has a lot to do with the imprint's interesting history. It was originally made up of two separate publishers, Harvill Press and Secker & Warburg. Harvill was set up in 1946 by Manya Harari and Marjorie Villiers, who published prestigious foreign authors to help build bridges with Europe after World War II. Secker & Warburg published a combination of translated fiction and fiction in English, including some of the biggest names in European literature. A glance through its list brings up dozens of household names, such as George Orwell, Franz Kafka and Günter Grass.

When Random House bought Harvill in 2002, the corporation had to decide what to do with this highly respected but commercially dangerous list. 'It was quite a major thing to acquire a list which mainly published books in translation,' says Rebecca. 'Random House had to somehow deal with the economics of doing that. Doing books solely in translation would be hard to make work financially, without being a small publisher where there are grants available for you.' In 2005 they decided to merge Harvill Press with Secker & Warburg. Harvill Secker now publishes approximately 38 titles a year, and around 50% of these are translations.

The imprint's unusual situation has its advantages and disadvantages. On the one hand, the international reputation of both Harvill Press and Secker & Warburg means that the imprint comes with an impressive backlist. 'We can say that we were the publishers of Kafka and Murakami and as a result we have a very loyal following,' says Rebecca. 'People who like reading books in translation will look at our list and continue to follow it. We're really conscious of that loyal readership and we want to make sure that we continue to publish books that they find exciting.'

Having celebrated bestsellers on the backlist also gives the imprint some leeway to make daring choices with lesser known authors. As Rebecca points out, risk-taking is an essential part of publishing translated fiction. 'You have to build authors, you have to take risks with them. They're less well known so you have to promote books that are going to sell fewer copies.' Rebecca gives the example of Leeches by Serbian author David Albahari, recently acquired by Editorial Director Stuart Williams 'It's quite an experimental novel and it's not going to be an easy sell but we took the view that he was a really important writer and we should carry on publishing him.'

On the other hand, being part of a large corporation has its drawbacks. The sales and marketing teams at Random House are shared between all imprints, and the Harvill Secker team has to work hard to get their titles noticed amongst such strong competitors. 'You're in a situation where people are publishing major bestsellers,' Rebecca points out. 'They're publishing Ian McEwan and people could think, why do we need to publish this small Finnish book? What's in it for us?'

Even Rebecca admits that it's tempting at times to publish fewer translated books: 'It's always easier not to publish a book in translation. It's twice as much work, it's twice as difficult to do. At the moment I'm working on a book originally written in German about Tibet, and I'm checking the proofs. Not only do I have to deal with the fact that this book has been translated, but there are Tibetan terms which have gone into a German book and are now coming into an English book...and part of me could say, why bother to do this? Why not just find a British writer writing about Tibet? But you have to constantly believe passionately in the fact that it's worth it!'

And it's clear that Rebecca and the rest of the Harvill Secker team really do believe in the value of translated fiction. The team is made up of four commissioning editors and one assistant. To celebrate the 100th anniversary of the imprint's first incarnation, Martin Secker, Harvill Secker set up a new International Writing website to promote international literature. As well as country-specific features about literature from across the world, the website includes Rebecca's A View from This Bridge blog, a fascinating insight into the experience of publishing international fiction.

This year also saw the launch of Harvill Secker's Young Translators' Prize, the brainchild of editor Briony Everroad. The annual competition gives translators under the age of 35 the chance to tackle a piece of international fiction, starting this year with a short story by Argentinian newcomer Matías Néspolo. The prize was about giving something back to translators as well as offering a once in a lifetime opportunity to enter this notoriously exclusive profession. 'It's incredibly hard for young translators to break in to the literary world,' Rebecca explains. 'Translators are crucial to us in every way, not only in translating books but in recommending books and reading books for us. So we wanted to make sure that we were fostering a new generation of talent and that they had an opportunity to meet us and to find a way in.'

As a commissioning editor, Rebecca is instrumental in deciding what Harvill Secker publishes. So, I asked her the million dollar question: what makes her choose a particular work of translated fiction? For one thing, she tells me, they have to be books that people will want to read, although this sometimes involves making difficult decisions. 'It's so hard with translated books,' she says, 'because whenever you turn one down you feel like you're censoring a particular voice, especially with the more minority languages. If you don't publish that Bulgarian short story collection you're somehow preventing British people from having access to Bulgarian culture. But at the same time I want lots of people to read what I publish. I try to buy books where I think people will have a way into them.'

Rebecca admits that personal taste also influences her choice of novels. 'Someone said to me, you publish a lot of books about characters who are living on the frontier between two societies or in dangerous places. I'm very interested in books about people who are outsiders in their societies in one way or another.' She suspects that personal taste influences all editors, whether they realise it or not: 'It's something very personal. Over the years you acquire a number of books and you look at them and you think: yes, actually I can see links between all of them.'

Rebecca speaks French and Italian. Perhaps it's this background in languages that makes her feel so strongly about international fiction. 'Not reading translated books is like not listening to the news,' she says. 'I think we'll die culturally if we're not aware of what's happening in other countries. For me publishing is about empathy and putting yourself into the lives of others. If we can understand other people's points of view, we'll be able to interact with them better.'

This passion and interest in other ways of telling stories is really evident in Harvill Secker's list, which continues to publish exciting and challenging international works. Harvill Secker may not have the Bohemian feel of some small independent publishers but it's clear that being part of a large corporation has no negative effects on the quality of its titles. As Rebecca puts it, 'We're fortunate in that Random House is a really supportive organisation, and we try not to become too infected by corporate thinking. We believe in literature itself.'

International Writing website

A View from This Bridge blog