In Maud Ventura's novel My Husband, we get a glimpse into the main character's work as a book translator. Translated books give readers the chance to step into the shoes of characters living in different countries and cultures. When it comes to American books in translation (like this English-language version of Ventura's novel, translated from the French by Emma Ramadan), an often-cited statistic is that only around 3% of books published in the United States are translated works, a number that some in the industry are working to increase.

The process of bringing foreign language books to readers is a complex one, involving the dedicated work of many highly skilled professionals. First, a publisher wanting to issue a translated version of a book must obtain the translation rights, typically from the original publisher. Most commonly, they purchase "world rights," which allow them to sell their translation in any country, but sometimes the rights will be split up into, for ...