You know how it is, come July and you've got so much spare cash on your hands you have trouble getting rid of it. We translators often have that problem, what with being paid so lavishly. So I have two new suggestions for offloading your funds - both of which will help save the world. At least in terms of German literature.
First of all, you could donate to the Hotlist. I talked to one of the movers and shakers on Saturday and he says they haven't quite scraped together all the prize money yet for this fantastic venture awarding a prize to the best indie book of the year in German. So dig deep, literary philanthropists, to support independent publishing, especially as the thirty books on the hotlist longlist are pretty hot stuff and it'd be a bit embarrassing if they had to say, Sorry, great book you've written there and we know we actually promised you some money for it but, well, would you maybe settle for free drinks and a back rub instead?
And second of all, you could buy an Eichborn book. After much to-ing and fro-ing over whether they'd have to move to Berlin and merge with Aufbau Verlag, the publishers have filed for insolvency. Which means that if you buy their books, they can pay their writers. Pretty good deal, huh? My favourite is this one, but they have many more fiction and non-fiction titles worth blowing your cash on. Eichborn also has the best blog in German publishing and the loveliest foreign rights lady (and that's a tough call, because almost all foreign rights ladies are extremely lovely).
The whole takeover/bankruptcy thing is terribly complicated, but if you're interested Christoph Schroeder sums it up nicely in the taz, as far as I can tell.
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