Catch 22 and translating novels into English

Jerónimo Tristante is a Spanish author of historical novels. In a video chat held in Spanish (text here) he said (my translation):

Will your novels be translated into English?

I have no information about that at present. It’s a complicated move because a European publisher reads in any language: English, Spanish, French etc. but English-language publishers only do so in English, which means that it’s a big leap because translating a work without knowing whether you will get it published is very expensive and uncertain, so that at the moment it is a wall that many Spanish authors find it difficult to cross.

This is something that I knew nothing about, and it is very worrying. I knew that there was little publication in English of works written other languages but didn’t know that publishers wouldn’t even consider them without setting up a Catch 22 situation.

Comments

[trebots]

Assuming the public cares at all what it has in front of its nose, I'd have thought an entrepreneur like yourself would be into that niche in an inspired flash. Is JT any good, though?

[Peter Harvey]

It's not that simple. It's hard enough dealing with my own books in the UK, where of course everything is done differently. I have no proper base there and distributors aren't interested in any small operator.

JT wrote Víctor Ros among other things. I haven't read his books but am impressed with VR on TV.