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An interview with Patricia Billings, head of Milet Publishing
By Laura Atkins*
Posted: July 2004
Milet Publishing, based in London, England, is responsible for creating a huge array of beautifully illustrated children’s books, many available in dual language editions. They publish in over twenty languages, offer a growing list of diverse translated fiction, English language picture books (both original and imported from around the world), and are building new lists of fiction and learning materials.
Milet’s history
Patricia Billings and her husband and business partner, Sedat Turhan, started Milet Publishing because they recognized the large demand for bilingual books for children. Turkish-born Sedat was running the largest distributor of Turkish books in the UK, while American Patricia had been a journalist in the Middle East, and then worked on anti-racism and human rights issues in Washington D.C. Together, they started Milet Publishing in 1995 in order to bring books in many languages to the multilingual communities of Britain.
They started by buying the rights to existing books and publishing them in bilingual editions, such as David McKee’s Elmer books. As Patricia says, “We were told by teachers and librarians that it’s often easier if a book translated into dual language is already a known quantity.” But this eventually expanded: “Then we started producing our own books when we realized that teachers aren’t really concerned if they don’t know the book in advance. It’s better to have something new and fresh.” At this point, they had the opportunity to find new talent. “One of the things we’ve been really proud of is that we’ve been able to bring young and previously unpublished illustrators and authors. It gives them a chance to get out there and for people to see a different type of artwork, and we’re very much interested in international authors and artists.”
Milet’s mission
Patricia says their main goal is to create attractive, entertaining books. “The primary thing is that the books have to be meaningful in some way, but they can also be just entertaining. What we’re trying to do is to contribute to the body of literature that’s out there for children in general, for children who are bilingual, and also just for children and adults who want to see something that’s attractive to look at. And if they gain a deeper meaning from it, great, but it should also just be something that grabs them and gives them an enjoyable read.”
Milet is a publisher that also cares deeply about the visual side of the books they publish. “We’re equally as interested in the artwork as we are in the text, and that’s not always the case, especially with multicultural publishers. It’s also based upon evidence: the limited research that there is on bilingual books does state that a strong visual element is very helpful, because it helps guide the reader when they are grappling with two languages, and it keeps them hooked. Like any children’s picture book, if you find it colourful and bold, if the pictures capture your imagination, then you’re better off.”
Starting with a focus on the UK, Milet has been able to expand its list and its reach with the addition of distributors in the US, Canada, Australia, New Zealand and South Africa (click here to see the full list of distributors and contact details). “We saw that it wasn’t just one market here, that we could think more globally, and that meant that we could really consider expanding our list and look at different languages.”
Why is it important to publish books in many languages?
Patricia feels that there are many reasons for publishing multilingual books. “It’s actually proven that for children growing up bilingually, or multilingually, whatever the case may be, it benefits their language acquisition skills and a whole set of cognitive skills.” Bilingual books can also bring people together in a community, and give parents an opportunity to read with their children. “We know in many language groups that we cater to with our books, often times the parents won’t be English readers, or they’ll be very new English readers and just in instruction themselves. We recognize that bilingual books are really crucial to looping parents and older brothers and sisters, other carers, into the reading process.”
Bilingual books are not just for the non-English speaker. “It’s not just necessarily the people who are learning English, it works the other way around, for those learning Japanese, Arabic, and so on. So if you’re a parent or adult, having a bilingual children’s book can be very helpful. We’ve found that the Milet Picture Dictionary is really liked by teenagers and adults because the pictures aren’t really childish. So we keep that in mind.”
Patricia thinks the tide is turning from a time when people were discouraged from pursuing their home language for fear that it might affect their learning of English. “People can understand that language acquisition skills are crucial and so if you grow up learning Turkish and English, then the next language you learn, say French, is going to be that much easier for you because you’ve already got that set of skills. Also you can communicate with a community if you so wish to access that community.”
What are some of the challenges of creating dual language books?
Patricia describes creating the Milet Picture Dictionary in English and eighteen bilingual editions. “While we’re designing we have to keep space for all the different languages. We know now how big the languages are, what spacing they need, unless we’re trying a new language, in which case, like with the Milet Picture Dictionary we were doing Japanese for the first time. I thought Japanese might be quite like Chinese, yet it’s not nearly as compact, it’s much bigger. So we were constantly having to rework the illustrations around the languages, to allow enough space for the words to be as easy to read as possible.”
They are also careful to select words in a dictionary that exist as unique in as many of the languages being published as possible. In this case, the many translators they work with are helpful in letting them know which words might prove tricky. And there is the additional challenge of the illustrations. “You have to be sensitive because some of the languages that we publish in, the cultural group might have religious or cultural sensitivities. It’s hard it get right all the time for everybody, but we do take this very seriously and we do our best.” This issue came up in the context of a spread depicting the human body. “In some cultures it’s not OK, and in the US too not just among other cultures, to show a naked body. So we know that, and when we were doing the human body spread, we took the body apart, so you see all the many important parts of the body, but you don’t see it in full. We think it looks beautiful, but we also have to say that there was a thinking behind that to make it as inoffensive as possible to as many groups. So it’s complicated when you’re thinking about the book in different languages.”
There are also financial challenges. “There’s the economic element of course, which I think does hinder many publishers from thinking about publishing in dual language. You have the added expense of multiple translators and proofreaders. The languages also need to be typeset, because we don’t have the fonts for all of them. You need to have designers who are able to deal with those languages, and who understand, for example, that Arabic reads from right to left, and that we need to leave adequate space for accents and diacritical marks. Again, it’s hard to get it all right, you have to have native speakers always checking the text, and you must be as careful and accurate as possible and to show respect for the languages. Another additional cost of dual language books is in printing, where there are numerous black text changes.”
Advice for people looking for books in other languages
Patricia has a few tips: “Look at the publishers who do them—online searches will generate names. And if people want books in language that are not currently available, then contact places like Milet and other publishers, because the more demand we have for a language, the more we consider doing it.” For instance, they are currently producing a version of the Milet Picture Dictionary in English and Dinka, a southern Sudanese language for which there is a particular demand in Australia. “Unfortunately, we can’t do every language. We’re a small independent company, and we believe strongly in what we’re doing, but at the end of the day it is also a business and there must be a way to sell the books that are created. So while we’d love to do the widest range of languages possible, if there’s not a known, addressable demand for a language, it’s difficult. But, again, if people approach us and there’s something we can do about it, then we will!”
*Laura Atkins is a PhD candidate at the University of Surrey Roehampton in London. She is a regular contributor
to PaperTigers.
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More about Milet Publishing:
Visit their website or e-mail for further information.
For sales and distribution:
In the UK and Ireland, contact Turnaround Publisher Services.
For USA and Canada, see Tuttle Publishing.
In Australia & New Zealand, Global Language Books, or Tower Books (e-mail for information).
For South Africa, e-mail
Quartet Sales & Marketing.
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Interested in fiction and nonfiction for grown-ups from
the Pacific Rim and South Asia? Then take a look at the
latest Pacific Rim Voices project, the online literary journal
WaterBridge
Review, which has been launched in March 2004!
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