Breaking up with Italian: an author’s perspective
Italy.
As you read this little word, I could bet my left hand that the first things coming into your mind are the Colosseum, great food, and people with funny accents. That’s what everybody thinks about, isn’t it?
To this short list I would also add another element: one of the most beautiful languages in the world — and this is coming from a guy whose first mother tongue is Spanish and who loves English about as much as humanly possible.
After spending more than half of my 24 years of age in Italy I’ve gotten to know the in-and-outs of this wonderful language, with its incredible range of words, its fascinating linguistic registers, and its intrinsic musicality.
However, I’m an author, and this is about as great as it gets if you take into consideration what I just told you… and it is, for God’s sake! Even if you’re an author — unless you dare thinking you have what it takes to make it big and make a living out of it, that is.
Don’t get me wrong here, I love this country. It has given me a lot and I’ve spent my teenage years here, but there comes a time when all of us have to decide if we want to move on and grow as human beings, or if we have to live under our true potential.
There’s a reason if over 20.000 young people finish university and flee the country. You see, the thing with Italy is that it does not let you even try. Whether you want to be an entrepeneur or just want to work in the same field you wished to have a job in when you first walked into university, it’s like Italy pushes back until your best efforts die out.
As I said, I’m an author that happens to be able to write in one of the world’s richest languages, and yet there’s little chance that someone here turns books into a living: less than half the population reads, and since there isn’t enough money in the industry publishers aren’t prone to take risks and push some new talent.
The situation doesn’t look that good when you publish either: I published my first book, an historical novel, at 16 with a contract that gave me 0% per book for the first 1.000 copies — a tough call for a young guy in a country of non-readers. That 0% would become 5% only after the thousand sales milestone.
I also wrote a second and a third book; the former won an honorable mention in a contest (great result for a sci-fi), while the latter… well, let’s just say I ran into a conman disguised as a publisher.
Long story short, I broke up with Italian as you would with a toxic partner that doesn’t let you reach your full potential. It’s a matter of fact and sheer numbers: not a lot of people around the world speak Italian, most of Italian speakers don’t read, whereas English is a beautiful, practical and widespread language… which happens to be also one of my favorite ones, as well as the language that provides me all the content I consume on and offline.
All things considered, the purpose of this article is to stand as mission statement and to be the start of many others I intend to write.
It took me a long time to decide which language I needed to use when it came to writing my books, but now that I’ve made up my mind I feel finally free of pursuing my dream of writing for a living and, perhaps, even moving to an English-speaking country somewhere in the future.
As for my books, a few months ago I was asked to translate a hundred pages of my third novel so a friend of mine could send it to the US… and I did.
The first and second ones are currently being translated — by myself.
Whatever it takes
