=WSJ: Amazon: Co To Launch Publishing Imprint For Translations By Geoffrey A. Fowler and Jeffrey A. Trachtenberg

Of THE WALL STREET JOURNAL

Amazon.com Inc. (AMZN) said it plans to launch a publishing imprint that will produce English-language translations of foreign-language books.

The imprint, AmazonCrossing, plans to acquire the rights to books and plans to hire writers to translate them into English before printing and selling them through Amazon's own retail website and national and independent booksellers via third-party wholesalers, said Jeff Belle, Amazon's vice president of books.

(This story and relatedbackground material will be available on The Wall Street Journal Web site, WSJ.com.)

Amazon will also sell digital versions of the translations through its Kindle e-bookstore, he said.

'A very small percentage of books are translated from foreign languages into English and sold in the U.S. and U.K.,' Mr. Belle said. 'It is an imbalance,' he said, and an area where Amazon is positioned to add to the market.

Amazon will use customer reviews, sales and other data from the online retailer's international websites to pick books that might attract a wider audience, he said.

The first AmazonCrossing title, which will be released in November, is French author Tierno Monenembo's 2008 novel, 'The King of Kahel,' Mr. Belle said.

The book won a French literary prize, the Prix Renaudot. The book is being translated by Nicholas Elliott, Mr. Belle said.

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