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12 The Translator’s InvisibilityContracts since the 1980s show an increasing recognition of thetranslator’s crucial role in the production of the translation byreferring to him or her as the “author” or “translator” and bycopyrighting the text in the translator’s name. This redefinition hasbeen accompanied by an improvement in financial terms, withexperienced translators receiving an advance against royalties,usually a percentage of the list price or the net proceeds, as well asa portion of subsidiary rights sales. The 1990 PEN survey indicatedthat translators’ royalties were “in the area of 2 to 5 percent forhardcover and 1.5 to 2.5 percent for paperback” (Handbook 1991:5).But these are clearly small increments. While they signal a growingawareness of the translator’s authorship, they do not constitute asignificant change in the economics of translation, and it remainsdifficult for a freelance translator to make a living solely fromtranslating. A typical first printing for a literary translationpublished by a trade press is approximately 5000 copies (less for auniversity press), so that even with the trend toward contractsoffering royalties, the translator is unlikely to see any incomebeyond the advance. Very few translations become bestsellers; veryfew are likely to be reprinted, whether in hardcover or paperback.And, perhaps most importantly, very few translations are publishedin English.As Figures 1 and 2 indicate, British and American bookproduction increased fourfold since the 1950s, but the number oftranslations remained roughly between 2 and 4 percent of thetotal—notwithstanding a marked surge during the early 1960s,when the number of translations ranged between 4 and 7 percent ofthe total. 8 In 1990, British publishers brought out 63,980 books, ofwhich 1625 were translations (2.4 percent), while Americanpublishers brought out 46,743 books, including 1380 translations(2.96 percent). Publishing practices in other countries havegenerally run in the opposite direction. Western Europeanpublishing also burgeoned over the past several decades, buttranslations have always amounted to a significant percentage oftotal book production, and this percentage has consistently beendominated by translations from English. The translation rate inFrance has varied between 8 and 12 percent of the total. In 1985,French publishers brought out 29,068 books, of which 2867 weretranslations (9.9 percent), 2051 from English (Frémy 1992). Thetranslation rate in Italy has been higher. In 1989, Italian publishersbrought out 33,893 books, of which 8602 were translations (25.4