Three Percent Podcast

This week, Tom and Chad talk about some of the new translations that they've read (or are looking forward to reading) and are most excited about. Along the way are the expected digressions (including an explanation of how editing and rights work when a U.S. publisher and a U.K. publisher separately publish the same translation), and, of course, the episode wouldn't be complete without their famous "Raves & Raves" segment (nope, not a typo. Everyone thought they were on rave duty this week, so it's a double dose of happy!).

On the heels of this week's big announcement of the 2015 Best Translated Book Award fiction longlist and poetry longlist, Chad and Tom run through the books that made the cut and talk about their favorites, which books are on their reading lists, who they predict will make the shortlist next month, and try their darnedest to pronounce a lot of names. Then, they respond to some viewer mail about the effectiveness of ACRs for book bloggers before Tom rants about being the patsy of a fiendish shot-buying conspiracy and Chad rave's about the Audubon Society's fiendish take-down of Dark Lord Franzen.

Inspired by all the stupid Buick ads (and disturbing Volkswagon ones) playing throughout the NCAA Tournament, we decided to dedicate this week's episode to talking about advertising for books: whether it's worthwhile, how much it costs, why are book trailers a thing, who buys books because of ads on a subway, and if trailers/commercials for books are ever a good idea.

As one part of Tom's rave, we also talked a bit about our mutual friend Mark Binelli and his recent article for the New York Times Magazine on ADX, America's Toughest Federal Prison.

This week's podcast is a special "book club" one in which Tom and Chad talk about Jean-Patrick Manchette's The Mad and the Bad, a violent little book by the author of Fatale. They also talk about the Spanish branch of Penguin Random House cutting translator rates and an incredible old video.

In this episode, Chad and Tom discuss the recent Festival Neue Literatur, a NYC-based festival promoting German-language literature, and spend a lot of time talking about the ins and outs of editing literature in translation. Additionally, they breakdown this Buzzfeed article about ebook data mining and what this means for the futures of publishing and reading. 

This week's podcast features a true roundtable discussion, with Tom and Chad being joined by Caroline Casey from Coffee House Press, Mark Haber and Jeremy Ellis from Brazos Bookstore, Stephen Sparks from Green Apple Books, and Danish author Naja Marie Aidt (Baboon, Rock, Paper, Scissors) to discuss the American Booksellers Association Winter Institute. One of the funniest podcasts to date, they break down what Winter Institute is, why it's so important for the future of bookselling, and what various publishers get out of attending. They also make fun of all the crappy crutch phrases you find in jacket copy. 

Today's podcast is a special one, featuring PEN Translation Committee co-chair (and talented Czech translator) Alex Zucker to talk about what translators do and should get paid, and to break down where all the money goes in publishing a work of international literature. In comparison to some other Three Percent podcasts, this one is wall-to-wall information, and is sure to spark a number of debates, discussions, and reactions. Enjoy!

It's time for our annual music podcast in which Chad, Nate, and Kaija all share songs from their favorite albums of 2014. Although we only talk about four songs each on this podcast, we put together a Spotify playlist featuring 86 songs and running almost six hours. Enjoy!

Next week we'll be back to normally scheduled book talk. Specifically, Chad and Tom will be talking with Alex Zucker about translator's fees, forming a translators guild, and other financial aspects of publishing international literature. In the meantime, feel free to email us at [email protected] with any questions or comments. 

This week's podcast is all about Denis Johnson's The Laughing Monsters, which came out last year and is "a high-suspense tale of kaleidoscoping loyalties in the post-9/11 world that shows one of our great novelists at the top of his game."

Writer, critic, and Johnson fan Patrick Smith joined us for this book club discussion, which goes off in a few different directions--how everyone's untrustworthy and willing to sell each other out, how Johnson got all this detail about Africa, etc.--with the general consensus that this is a pretty great book and one that fans of Graham Greene and/or spy novels and/or well-crafted fiction in general would like. 

(For another analysis/conversation of the book, I highly recommend this discussion between Paul Maliszewski and Jesse Pearson.) 

We'll update you in the future when we have a specific date set, but the next book we'll be discussing in this "book club" format is Apocalypse Baby by Virginie Despentes, translated from the French by Sian Reynolds and available from Feminist Press. (Then I think we'll be doing Ann Morgan's The World Between Two Covers, and may even have her on that podcast.)

In this week's episode, Chad and Tom discuss some of the books they read in 2014 and make specific "reading resolutions" for 2015. They also talk about Mark Zuckerberg's book club and Tom's alma mater playing for the National Championship.

Next week, they'll be discussing Denis Johnson's The Laughing Monsters, so if you have any questions, suggestions, comments, opinions, rants or raves, email [email protected].