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This paper integrates the concept of translation policy (Meylaerts 2011, González Núñez 2016, van Doorslaer 2018) in the imagological research dealing with the export of national and cultural images through translation (van Doorslaer, Flynn & Leersssen 2016). Translation policy is, implicitly or explicitly, adopted by authorities and other institutions for managing the use of translation. The export of literature through translation is part of a cultural policy disseminating images of the source culture and/or source nation and co-determines “the way in which clichés about a certain population are created” (Gentile 2018). In many countries or language areas, particularly Literature or Translation Funds act as state agents developing an explicit or implicit translation policy. In a contribution investigating the translation role of the Dutch and Flemish Funds for the Dutch language area, McMartin (2016) mentions cultural-protectionist ends, counteracting the effect of a globalist book market and canonizing the national literary patrimony as main motives. In this paper the focus will be on the translation policy of ELIC, the Estonian Literature Centre. It will study the criteria for the translation grants and for the selection of marketing booklets such as Twelve Estonian books to translate from an explicitly imagological perspective, keeping in mind that translation is instrumentalized in power relations between countries and “would help improve the image of the country” (Sapiro 2016: 84). Smaller and medium-size language areas, particularly from Central and Eastern Europe, have generally remained understudied in seminal works such as Beller & Leerssen (2007). As such, this Estonian case will add value not only from an imagological and translational, but also from a geopolitical and geocultural point of view.