Yes, we can "plan" a book to become a trend. Southeast Asia has it all: rich culture, shared similar moral value, population and gotong royong (re: a term in Malay that we often come together and solve problems together voluntarily).
As an agent, I am experienced in offering or presenting titles. When a novel published five years ago or more, is not sold yet in the neighbouring countries (where generally similar values and cultures are shared), it is no longer interesting. It is like going for a job interview wearing pyjama – not impressive at all.
How to make first good impressions of titles from Southeast Asia
Each European government (includes European Union) supports exchange culture and spend trillions of Euros per year on translated books and films/tv series. There is a publisher in Slovenia that only translates and sells books from Italy. There is also a Polish publisher that translates and publishes only French literature, etc. The European Union gives generous grants for inter and intra European country translations, productions and promotions. That what makes the literature a success. They sell inter-European rights first before offering to outside the region. They are also inter-European fairs and festivals. Sometimes no payment is required at all (for classics) and the rights are sold to more than 20 European countries within the first year and the rest of the world follows. This is how Europe conquers the publishing world.
We can be like the Europeans. We can buy each other’s promotional rights,- exchange rights with no fee and limited print editions. This is the cost-effective. If you think it's worthy (means sell well in your country), you can buy commercial rights the usual way. Translation costs is always the main problem. While the Europeans have many translators across continent among European languages (which they fully support), we need English versions. In that way, the English version is even needed way before the original version is published.
How much value we gain and how to calculate it
Biographical and Historical Non-fiction:
Narrative non-fiction biographical and historical books should NOT be measured commercially. It will be a win even if the publishers agree to buy and publish them as it means there are foreigners who are willing to read, understand, study our history, and even to invest (to pay production cost) as well as to voluntarily promote our culture in their country. Even if it doesn’t sell that well, they are already promoting our culture without extra costs. My point is to not to calculate the asset. The translation cost is NEVER a waste.
Fiction and other non-fiction:
After a book is sold in five Southeast Asian countries (promotional or commercial rights), we are then ready to offer to the Europeans. Why? You cannot market in North of America and the rest of the world (except other Asian countries) without first selling in Europe. Being sold in Asia means, ”This book is serious!” (not just because the agent or the publisher works for it). Being sold in Europe means, “This is going to be big!”;while sold in the North of America means: “This is worldwide best seller! We must have it!”
The Calculation And Conclusion
If at the point of publication, we already sold the translation rights to five (Southeast) Asian and five European countries, within a year, we can expect another ten deals (peak season) and the year after another five to ten deals. So that in total each book is sold in 25-30 countries within less than three years.
We will gain much more value other than economical ones. Rights can be prolonged. The more aggressive our promotions to the world, the more the foreigners will read about us and in turn the more they will “agree” with our culture and way of life. Love and respect will begin to grow, other books will begin to be requested - other authors as well. We will gain our reputation and trust increases.
The important role of CURATORS
Curators hold the important key. Beside selecting the books, The curators should be familiar with worldwide trends and what's new. Each country in the world has its trends and its differences. Cultural differences are also important consideration on how writing is accepted.
As long as we follow the formula: new books, English version provided and available in five (Southeast) Asian countries. We can sell in Europe and the rest of the world will follow.
Large population is power, embrace it. The future is Asia.
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