Finland’s literary exports grew by five percent last year. Revenue from Finnish literary exports rose to an all-time high of 3.9 million euros. Each year, FILI – Finnish Literature Exchange commissions a report on the value of Finnish literary exports.
According to FILI’s report, 477 translations of Finnish literature were published last year, in 44 languages. On average, 300–400 translations of Finnish-, Swedish- or Sami-language works of fiction, non-fiction, children’s or young adult literature originally published in Finland are published abroad each year. Translation rights agreements were made for about 580 Finnish books last year.
“This is the highest level of literary export revenue ever. Copyright income from individual books has decreased slightly from previous years, but overall, exports have grown nicely. This also shows that literary agents are able to sell many Finnish books’ translation rights to large language regions, and that the advances received from translation rights are larger than in the past. The world is interested in high-quality Finnish literature“, says FILI director Tiia Strandén.
Strandén notes that the current situation is the result of determined work and strengthening networks over time, so there is nothing to prevent export revenue from multiplying in the years to come.
Last year, the most revenue from literary exports came from Germany, the United States and Great Britain. Germany was also the country to which the greatest number of translation rights were sold. It is gratifying that Germany has so clearly remained the top country for Finnish literary exports. The success of a Finnish book in the challenging German market also serves as a bellwether for the book’s potential success in other countries.
In order to maintain a strong German market into the future, FILI recently launched a special project entitled It’s Finland again! Finnish literature in German-speaking Europe together with the Finnland-Institut, the Embassy of Finland in Germany and Visit Finland. Next year will be ten years since Finland was the guest of honour at the Frankfurt Book Fair. The ten-year anniversary of that major literary export project will be celebrated prominently in Frankfurt in October 2024, but the project also aims to reach broad reading audiences and create even greater visibility for translations of Finnish literature in German-speaking Europe.
For further information, please contact: FILI – Finnish Literature ExchangedirectorTiia Strandén, tel. +358 (0)40 5820 975,
Interview requests: FILI communications manager Hannele Jyrkkä, puh +358 (0)40 534 7526, , www.fili.fi
