Professional translation

[Varian P]

Does anyone have any experience with or knowledge about getting a work of fiction translated into another language?

I'm toying with the idea of having one of my published books translated, perhaps into Spanish, given the huge potential readership in Latin America + Spain, to see whether it pays off, or not, before considering translating the rest of my novels.

Any sage advice on good translators worth approaching and or cautionary tales would be much appreciated.

 

[elfin_odalisque]

I think you are coming at this from the wrong angle. Novel translators work with publishers in many languages and get paid well. Few would take on one-off work and, if so, would charge more than you can probably afford.

Amazon, Smashwords etc., haven't made an European footprint to date - just look at Lit's European sites.

Write some erotic novels that sell , approach Spanish publishers to push them to get translations and hope. Think you are in a dream world.

I know, I do French - English translations for my company (no pay).

I don't think your idea holds water.

Sorry.

 

[sr71plt]

Amazon is big business in various European venues, where they are set up in separately compartmented online bookstores. My e-books are placed in these markets by my publisher and sell nearly as well from the UK, German, and Spanish bookstores as from the U.S. one. The kicker, of course, is to connect with a translator. I was approached by a German one, so some of my erotica has been translated in German and published to the European market.

Maybe a posting to the Spanish section on this web site or doing googling to find the intersection of Spanish/translator/erotica might come up with something(?)

 

[Varian P]

Thank you both--food for thought.

 

[elfin_odalisque]

Varian -yes. I have a good friend, French but living in Belgium, who has been a literary translator for years. She has worked her way up the greasy pole slowly and has just cracked a bottle of champagne because Gallimard, the most prestigious publisher in France has given her a contact on a seriously important English novel book.

If you want to succeed in Europe you need a literary agent who can sell your work to European publishers. Else you can follow sr's sticking-plaster approach.

 

[sr71plt]

Folks can sell on the Amazon outlets in Europe just like they do here. The print publishing world--as well as the world of published erotica--is a separate one from this. As usual, Elfin is trying to show as the expert on something she's never done and doesn't have a clue about.

 

[sr71plt]

The major barriers of having a translation done of a self-published--or small erotica published--work is the added (considerable) expense if a friend doesn't do it gratis and the uncertainty of the translation if the author isn't a near-native speaker in that language. In 99 percent of the cases, an e-book/POD publish of an erotica work is going to be hardpressed to cover the costs of an edit let alone another pricey service. And unless you have someone whose language skills you respect backing up the translator for a read, you have no idea how good the translation is (unless you speak the language yourself).

 

[Varian P]

The major barriers of having a translation done of a self-published--or small erotica published--work is the added (considerable) expense if a friend doesn't do it gratis and the uncertainty of the translation if the author isn't a near-native speaker in that language. In 99 percent of the cases, an e-book/POD publish of an erotica work is going to be hardpressed to cover the costs of an edit let alone another pricey service. And unless you have someone whose language skills you respect backing up the translator for a read, you have no idea how good the translation is (unless you speak the language yourself).

Yes, this is why I'm mainly thinking about Spanish, because while I wouldn't dare to translate myself, yet, I read it almost fluently and think I could judge a translation--in any case, more so than I could with any other language apart from English. Still, it's looking rather cost-prohibitive. Not completely beyond the pale, but depending on the novel, it would take a while to recoup the expense, and I'm thinking for the time and effort, maybe the more fun option for selling more books is just to write more porn.

 

[sr71plt]

Indubitably.