AmazonCrossing: Translating Foreign Books

Have you ever wished you could read some of those top foreign works but do not have the time to pick up a new language? There are many among us who only read books that are in our very own language. It never hurts to read works from other countries to get familiar with other cultures. That’s where AmazonCrossing comes into play. It’s a new program launched by Amazon that aims to bring rising new works from other cultures to the English-speaking audience. Amazon is expected to use its customer feedback and interactions on its foreign-language sites to identify top works and translate them to English. You can think of it as the international edition of Amazon Encore.

At Amazon.com, we’re fortunate to have customers who have introduced us to outstanding works from other countries and cultures, and we want to share these books with our English-speaking customers. With this in mind, we’re proud to announce AmazonCrossing, which will introduce readers to emerging and established authors from around the world with translations of foreign language books, making award-winning and bestselling books accessible to many readers for the first time.

The King of Kahel by Tierno Monénembo is the first foreign book that will be making its debut in Kindle store as a part of this program. It will be available in paperback and Kindle format.

It is not clear how Amazon intends to expand this program. Translating works from a foreign language to English is not that difficult for a company such as Amazon. It does take some time though. How many of these books can Amazon possibly translate each year? The idea is very solid, however. Steve Jobs may believe that people do not read anymore. Those of us who do read will now have a chance to get our hands on top international titles as well.

Details are still a bit sketchy about AmazonCrossing. While Amazon has roughly explained how it intends to choose foreign books to translate to English, it would be nice if more details are released in that regard. Still, you can contact Amazon to let the company know which works you’d like to buy on Amazon.com.

Please feel free to share your favorite foreign-language work.