Drawing examples from translations of popular, best-selling American novels into Gujarati, this paper shows how the imperatives of a mass market defy translation norms and yet translations of bestsellers pay handsome tributes to the 'originals'. The paper argues for theoretical frameworks that accommodate a large mass of unacceptable, uninstitutionalized and yet effective translations. It also touches upon the legal context of adaptations and translations in order to evolve a historiography of translation that incorporates implicit worldviews and explicit laws governing acts of translation.