Also, it might be that no one even bothers to find out if people from other countries are interested in reading Swedish literature. Most Swedes prefer literature in English (except for those few best-selling books I mentioned above) and most likely can’t imagine that anyone else might be interested in Swedish literature – except possibly Astrid Lindgren’s books. Of course, they’re wonderful, but there’s so much more.

Philip: The number seems correct to me. It’s a number quite relevant to the discussion about the alleged xenophobia of the American publishing industry, I guess. See also http://www.rochester.edu/College/translation/threepercent/index.php?id=2447, which claims that only 3 percent of all books published are translated! Quite shocking, actually.

The Scandinavian countries do help a bit though. For example, the Swedish Institute in Paris has a helpful list:
http://www.si.se/Paris/Francais/Institut-suedois-a-Paris/La-Suede-en-France/Vient-de-paraitre/
and NORLA is somewhat useful: http://www.norla.no/
but yes, I still have to do most of the work myself.

There’s a chap called Denis Ballu in Nantes, France who puts out a book almost every year that lists (and reviews!) every single Scandinavian book and film that comes out in France (including children’s books). In the preface to the 2007 edition he explains that he wrote to a dozen Scandinavian cultural agencies asking for help in compiling his books, and that of the six that bothered to reply, they all said no.

Do you have the problems I describe?

PS: I have taken the liberty of adding both sites to my links here. I hope that ok. I am impressed by both of the sites. And very impressed with both the volume and quality of EuroCrime!