Surely the happiness that now invades László Krasznahorkai will not be comparable to many things. Just as the professional prestige granted by a Nobel Prize in Literature is. Although the real prize is more likely being celebrated at this moment in the offices of Acantilado. Because, beyond the mentioned prestige, if anything the Nobel is, it is a true business for the publisher who edits the chosen author each year.
Before we begin, let's look at the numbers. Han Kang, the latest winner, multiplied the sales of her novel The Vegetarian in Spain by 10. Jon Fosse, awarded a year earlier, had done so by 20. Louise Glück, recognized in 2020, in a small market like poetry, went from selling about 1,000 copies in our country to reaching between 3,000 and 4,000. Kazuo Ishiguro, the 2017 winner, also started selling 10 times more than before, which is a 1000% increase. Yes, a 1000%, no zeros added by mistake.
These are the absolute figures of what a Nobel means in the publishing world, but the benefits go beyond. In 2024, the Swedish Academy awarded it to Han Kang, an author who was until then quite unknown. The rights to her novel The Vegetarian were held by Penguin Random House, which had published it in June of that year. By October, she had sold about 10,000 copies, and now her sales figures exceed 100,000, as explained by Miguel Aguilar, editorial director of Random House. "It depends a lot on the author who wins, that's the first thing, but in this case, it served to introduce her to readers who didn't know her," explains the editor. And he continues: "Above all, the Nobel focuses attention on an author, helping them find better placement in bookstores. The public buys more from a Nobel laureate, that is an undeniable reality."
At that time, Random House had in its catalog The Greek Lesson and The Vegetarian. In December 2024, after the Nobel, they added two more publications by Han Kang: Impossible to Say Goodbye and Human Acts. "That was a relatively young Nobel compared to what it usually is, and it sold very well," points out Aguilar, explaining that it is impossible to know "the criteria" for an editorial to sign a Nobel candidate. "If you search for a Nobel in advance, it won't turn out well. There are no set parameters among those who award it. Our job is to have good authors like Han Kang or Svetlana Alexievich."
In 2023, the Swedish Academy awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature to playwright Jon Fosse. On the same day the decision was announced, Random House revealed that they had acquired the rights to five of his works. Up to that point, the Spanish translations of the writer's work were held by the small publisher De Conatus, which saw the sales of a "very niche" author multiply by 20. "It wasn't just about selling Fosse's work, it was about the visibility it brought to the rest of our catalog. Our backlist sales have been steady since then, and it has made the rest of our male and female authors known," explains Beatriz González, co-director of the publishing house alongside Silvia Bardelás.
The Nobel Prize for the Norwegian opened up a new market for De Conatus, that of Latin America. Offers for the rights to his work to be published on the other side of the Atlantic began pouring in for the editors, a market with many readers. Instead of selling the rights, they signed an agreement with Planeta for the group to print there, with profits split 50/50. "Being introduced in Latin America was thanks to the Nobel, and everything you sell additionally can save your publishing costs. For a large group, selling 3,000 copies may be a disaster, but for us, it saves us," they explain.
In 2022, the Nobel was awarded to the French author Annie Ernaux, as the culmination of a career that had already earned her the Formentor and Booker prizes in 2019. "This case seems different to me because she was already experiencing a period of sales growth, but the Nobel helped us consolidate that upward trend," details Miguel Lázaro, editor of Cabaret Voltaire, the publishing house that holds a large part of the French author's work. With that upward trend, confirmed by the Nobel, they have already sold over 200,000 copies of her novels. "It caught us at a good time because we had a lot of stock and could handle a large initial wave of orders." Now Cabaret Voltaire is starting to print Ernaux's work in South America.
Two years earlier, in 2020, the Academy recognized the poetry of Louise Glück. The rights to her poetry collections were acquired by Visor in November 2020, just after the Nobel and the poet's split with Pre-Textos. "Sales are higher than usual, although the poetry market in this country is what it is," says Chus Visor, founder of the publishing house. Specifically, according to the data provided, a poetry book usually sells around 1,000 copies; with the New Yorker, that number ranged between 3,000 and 4,000. "The Nobel is not a huge economic boost, but the prestige is very important," he emphasizes.
In 2017 and 2018, two Anagrama authors received the Nobel Prize in Literature in consecutive years -although the 2018 award was announced in 2019 due to accusations of influence peddling and sexual abuse against Jean-Claude Arnault-. First, Kazuo Ishiguro; then, Olga Tokarczuk. All of the English author's work was translated into Spanish by the publisher, and in the two years before the award, his novels averaged around 6,000 copies sold annually. In the two years following the award, those figures multiplied by ten, with about 60,000 copies sold.
"The effect is quite curious because the increase in sales was across all his titles. But the titles that had a more discreet trajectory, like 'Nocturnes' or 'The Unconsoled,' saw sales multiply by 20 or 30. 'The Remains of the Day' grew by over 600% and 'Never Let Me Go' surpassed 1,000%," recounts Silvia Sesé, director of Anagrama. "The Nobel boosted new releases, reactivated the entire backlist, and consolidated impressive sales for an author who already had many readers."
The case of Olga Tokarczuk was completely different. Anagrama had just acquired the rights to 'The Wanderers,' the book that earned the Polish author the Nobel, who was almost unknown in Spain. The publisher had planned a print run of between 4,000 and 5,000 copies but ended up releasing 10,000. "That same year we had to reprint, and even though the pandemic didn't allow us to promote it properly. She herself canceled her trip to Spain due to Covid. And yet, that book had notable sales, it was read and recommended quite a bit, and she has established herself as an author," concludes Sesé.
This is the business that awaits Acantilado with Krasznahorkai.