Publishing translations of stories

[velcrofist]

A fan has translated my stories into German but I'm not sure how to go about publishing them. Should I start a new login with a joint username? Or perhaps just publish them under my existing username and add a "- German" suffix in the title so they show up as a separate series?

 

[ElectricBlue]

A fan has translated my stories into German but I'm not sure how to go about publishing them. Should I start a new login with a joint username? Or perhaps just publish them under my existing username and add a "- German" suffix in the title so they show up as a separate series?

That's hugely satisfying!!

I'd publish under your account, and use the Series function to group them.

Wouldn't a German story title make it obvious, though?

Also, I'd update your account details to acknowledge the translator. That's a real labour of love, amazing.

 

[StillStunned]

In my work as an editor I often deal with translations. Both full human translation and post-edited machine translation. And sometimes unedited machine translation. Here's a warning: translation takes skill and practice. If an amateur does it, 99 times out of 100 it will be obvious.

I don't mean to diminish the fan's effort, but a professional translator has an output of about 300 words an hour. Even post-editing a machine-translated text is generally no more than 5-700 words per hour. You can't translate the text word for word, or even sentence for sentence. In some cases you can't even translate paragraph for paragraph. There's a reason why translators nowadays get credit alongside the author for published works. It often involves an entire rewrite.

So how much do you trust your fan's translation skills? Enough to attach your name to it? And even if the translation is OK, have they done a proper round of editing and proofreading? With translation, you have the same problem as with writing: you don't see your own mistakes and typos. At the very least, your fan should use Read Aloud or another text-to-voice function to go through the translation word for word, preferably with the original alongside (Word has the option of Synchronous Scrolling, which is perfect for this). Preferably you should have another native German speaker look at it.

If you're happy, just publish it under your own name, I'd say. And always credit your translator, and editor too preferably.

Good luck!

 

[velcrofist]

Thanks, yes I suspect it's an edited machine translation. Probably not perfect but hopefully good enough.
Ok, so I can put -
Title: Title Ch.x - German Version (Title will still be English)
Short description: (Same as the English version but in German)

Now, to credit the translator I can either put him into an opening message on each chapter, or I can put him into the title - "Title Ch.x - German Version translated by xxx". Which would work best?

 

[StillStunned]

Now, to credit the translator I can either put him into an opening message on each chapter, or I can put him into the title - "Title Ch.x - German Version translated by xxx". Which would work best?

I'd discuss that with your translator. You might find the character limit prevents you from adding their name to the title, though.

 

[velcrofist]

The translator will have limited say in it. As much as I want to give them credit, I also want to disassociate myself from the translation just in case it isn't perfect. In my experience on another projects, German speakers are the most critical of any errors.

 

[ElectricBlue]

Thanks, yes I suspect it's an edited machine translation. Probably not perfect but hopefully good enough.
Ok, so I can put -
Title: Title Ch.x - German Version (Title will still be English)
Short description: (Same as the English version but in German)

Now, to credit the translator I can either put him into an opening message on each chapter, or I can put him into the title - "Title Ch.x - German Version translated by xxx". Which would work best?

I'd put the grandfather's details in the preamble to the story. The title field will be too short.

EDIT: weeks later - "grandfather" = "translator", with autopredict on, but not read before sending.

Probably an apposite warning for translation - if English can go so easily wrong, what hope does a translation have?

 

[velcrofist]

I'd put the grandfather's details in the preamble to the story. The title field will be too short.

Yes, I just tested it and there's no way I'll get more than "- German" in there. I tried "- German version" and it cuts off at "versio". I guess preamble it is, or publish under a joint login.

 

[ElectricBlue]

Yes, I just tested it and there's no way I'll get more than "- German" in there. I tried "- German version" and it cuts off at "versio". I guess preamble it is, or publish under a joint login.

Publishing under a separate account means you need to do twice as much work, and who's to say you'll only ever have one translator?

Haruki Murakami, for example, has at least two translators (to put you In highly esteemed company )

 

[MrPixel]

I wouldn't approve of any translation. I have enough German and Spanish instruction from long ago to at least know that much of what I write has a lot of slang and idioms that would not translate well. Humor is that way, especially subtle tricks with wording in dialog. Nope. Just nope.

 

[velcrofist]

another option is to just link to the translated stories on Google Drive or something, but then I need a way for people to find them.

 

[ElectricBlue]

another option is to just link to the translated stories on Google Drive or something, but then I need a way for people to find them.

The site won't allow that. You can't link to stories off-site.

You seem to be making this hard for yourself. Loading a translated story to your account, with an acknowledgement to your translator, has to be the easiest solution, surely?

 

[velcrofist]

You seem to be making this hard for yourself. Loading a translated story to your account, with an acknowledgement to your translator, has to be the easiest solution, surely?

It's extremely time-consuming. I have to convert the Word html to plain text for each chapter one by one, and German has a bunch of strange characters, add keywords etc, and then figure out how it will impact the existing stories along with views and comments and so on.

 

[ElectricBlue]

It's extremely time-consuming. I have to convert the Word html to plain text for each chapter one by one, and German has a bunch of strange characters, add keywords etc, and then figure out how it will impact the existing stories along with views and comments and so on.

You could consolidate the whole translated text into one Word document, German characters and all, upload it as a .doc or a .docx, and tell Laurel in the notes what you've done. No conversion needed.

I don't see the connection between your English language versions and a new German version - they're going to target different audiences, English speaking and German speaking, and they're separate submissions. Why would there be any impact on views and comments?

As I say, you seem to be looking for complications. It seems pretty straightforward to me.

 

[velcrofist]

ok, thanks. Uploading the word docs will be easy for me. Hopefully not too tiresome for Laurel.

 

[ishtat]

The translator will have limited say in it. As much as I want to give them credit, I also want to disassociate myself from the translation just in case it isn't perfect. In my experience on another projects, German speakers are the most critical of any errors.

The most humiliating situation is where the translation is better than the original. It does happen.

It would be useful incidentally, if you put a link to your stories in your sig so that it appears with every post.

 

[velcrofist]

It would be useful incidentally, if you put a link to your stories in your sig so that it appears with every post.

 

[Bramblethorn]

It's extremely time-consuming. I have to convert the Word html to plain text for each chapter one by one, and German has a bunch of strange characters, add keywords etc, and then figure out how it will impact the existing stories along with views and comments and so on.

The extra German letters (umlauts and ß) shouldn't require any special handling. Stuff like that normally works just fine pasted into the story submission form.

AFAIK, the copyright of a translation is generally co-owned by the translator and the original author (cf. "derivative work"); neither of you can use it without the other's permission. Presumably you have their permission to publish here, if they translated it for that purpose, but might be good to make that clear in the submission.

 

[velcrofist]

One question about submitting as Word doc, if my story has 28 chapters do I need a doc for each chapter or can I just submit it as one doc and it will be separated out into chapters automatically?

 

[KeithD]

One question about submitting as Word doc, if my story has 28 chapters do I need a doc for each chapter or can I just submit it as one doc and it will be separated out into chapters automatically?

It won't be separated out automatically. You can have it posted as one long file or post the separate chapters. You'd have to do the cutting and separate submitting of chapters, though.

 

[ElectricBlue]

One question about submitting as Word doc, if my story has 28 chapters do I need a doc for each chapter or can I just submit it as one doc and it will be separated out into chapters automatically?

If you want separate Lit chapters, you need separate submissions.

How long is this thing, anyway? Why don't you just submit a single document, and show the chapter breaks within that single submission - and not worry about Lit chapters?

 

[velcrofist]

How long is this thing, anyway? Why don't you just submit a single document, and show the chapter breaks within that single submission - and not worry about Lit chapters?

Quite long. 28 chapters, 125,000 words. Yes, I think I like the idea if this being one document with chapter breaks. It's just an edited machine translation after all, and it will be less clutter on my list of stories too.

 

[ElectricBlue]

Quite long. 28 chapters, 125,000 words. Yes, I think I like the idea if this being one document with chapter breaks. It's just an edited machine translation after all, and it will be less clutter on my list of stories too.

I'd do that - one German version. It'll be around 33 - 35 Lit pages. That's a huge effort from your German colleague!