Category Archives: Translation Advice

Translators Are Authors Too

20 Wednesday Jul 2016

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In a previous post, I discussed the unfair and disastrous practice of revenue sharing (aka the “Translate for Royalties” model, or TfR). If you didn’t read the previous article, or just don’t want to re-read it, let me refresh your memory: offering your translator a share of the royalties instead of real money is a Bad Thing. You’re asking a professional to work professionally for a promise of payment that may or may not come true. Very bad.

With this article, I want to focus on one aspect in particular of the TfR model, one that perhaps clarifies more than any other the fact that such a model is totally unfair to translators: author control.

But wait! you may say. Author control is a great thing. Author control is everything! And you are right… when said control is about your creations. However (and this is something every author who whishes to be translated should have clear), translations are the translator’s creations. Yes, that’s right: what, if not an act of creativity, would you call taking a book and rewriting it in another language? But in a deal that follows the TfR model, the translator has little or no control over the product of their work.

Let’s begin with something really basic: pricing. In a TfR deal, the translator gets a share of the royalties, right? Well, what if the author decides to price the book at 0.99 dollars, euro or whatever? The translator would be getting a handful of pennies per copy sold. Which is kind of abysmal, especially if the book we’re talking about is quite long. Sure, this strategy may help the other books in a series and/or other books by the same author sell better… but what if those books are going to translated by another person (some authors employ multiple translators in order to have all their backlist and new releases translated quickly)? And anyway, why should the translator be undercut by a decision in which they had no say?

The same is potentially true about everything else that affects the price or the availability of the books – promos, giveaways and the like. Author decides to make the book free for a week? Translator isn’t getting any money for the copies sold during that week. Author decides to give a free copy of the book to anyone who will write a honest review? Translator isn’t getting any money for copies given away. Sure, all these decisions may be right and eventually pay off – but why should I, a competent adult, trust another person to “make the right decision” about something that affects my income? I did my job, and hopefully I did it well. Why does the money I’m going to get for it depend on someone else’s choices?

Back in the days when I was still translating for royalties, I worked on a book by Author X. I was supposed to do a second one, but then I decided to quit the TfR world for good, so I told Author X that they should look for someone else (all in due time and following the appropriate channels). The other book, a sequel to the first one, was translated by another person and released. Well, you know what? Not long after the release of the second book, I looked at the first book’s sales and found out a huge spike… in free downloads. I made a few checks and realized that Author X had made a free promo of the book, without consulting me or telling me anything. The hundreds of free copies downloaded by readers during the one-week promo obviously didn’t bring me any gain, but I’m reasonably sure they boosted up the sales of the second book… you know, the one I didn’t translate and on which I’m not earning a share of the royalties. Cool, uh?

There’s worse. I’m not a fan of websites that promote the TfR model, but the one I used to work on at least required the translator’s authorization before making a book permanently free. Other contracts, especially those agreed upon directly by author and translator, do not necessarily grant this luxury. I’m sure that there are many translators around the world currently at the mercy of unscrupulous authors who could make the books they worked on permanently free at any moment, increasing the sales of their other books while denying compensation to the translators. Again, those who did the work have no control over decisions that could deprive them of the whole income coming from said work. How is that even remotely fair?

The total lack of author control for translators means that TfR deals can never be fair. They may work occasionally… but I think they are much more likely not to work. Which makes them a bad practice that you shouldn’t encourage.

The reason why you should look for translators with their own proofreaders

29 Wednesday Jun 2016

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As a translator, I employ a proofer who corrects all my translations. She fixes my typos, streamlines my sentences and in general acts more like an editor than a proofreader (I, on my turn, try to pay her accordingly). Her contribution helps making sure that my clients receive a translation of the same quality or better than those commissioned and published by traditional publishers.

Of course, professional proofreading has a cost. Good work deserves good pay, and you would be surprised by how much a translator can and should invest in proofreading. This cost cannot be avoided by any serious professional, because – as every writers knows – you can’t proof your own work and expect perfection. Your eyes will see perfectly formed words instead of misspelled ones. Your brain will fill the gaps where missing words should be. It happens all the time. This is why you need another, clever pair of eyes.

Also, sometimes, a good proofreader can save a translator’s life by pointing out a solution to the problem they had been struggling with. Maybe the translator didn’t know how to translate a certain word or expression, and the proofreader did. It rarely happened to me, but it did happen. It’s like trying to tear down a wall with your bare hands, and then someone comes and points at the door that has been there all along. It’s liberating, in a way.

This is why translations are expensive: most often, they receive the contribution of more than one person. Beware of translator who don’t have their own proofers: they are more likely to leave typos and mistakes in their work, simply because their own eyes cannot catch all of them (again, this is something every writer knows). Cheaper rates may come from the fact that the translator is willing to cut the costs, but in this case, removing the cost of proofreading will reduce quality.

A translator with their own proofreader also provides you with the benefits of a partnership, which acts as a force multiplier: just like a writer and their personal translator, a translator and their personal proofreader form a work relationship that matures over time, leading to every project being better than the one who had come before. If you ever worked with a partner, you know how deep that bond gets, to the point that you can understand each other without talking and you end up producing great results. This is what happens when a good translator and a good proofreader work together. I know that my proofer is good, so I take all her suggestions into consideration. And the authors I work with greatly benefit from that.

The Reason Why Royalty-Sharing Is a Bad Practice

14 Saturday May 2016

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I just finished to read the Indie Author Survival Guide by Susan Kaye Quinn. Full disclosure: I love this book. I think every indie writer should read it. It’s a treasure chest full of advice, encouragement and plain useful stuff that nobody should miss. If you don’t own it already, don’t waste time and get yourself a copy.

Since I admire Quinn’s enlightening work so much, it caused me great pain to read stuff like this:

I recently signed an innovative, revenue-share contract to translate Open Minds into German. There were no publishers involved, just an agreement between myself and the translator. Because it’s revenue-share, the translator (who is based in Germany) is incentivized to help tap the German market, making contact with bloggers and reviewers.

[…]If you’re a well-selling indie, you can finance all of the costs of translation on your own, but I actually think there’s an advantage to doing the revenue-share: my translator is making a business out of translating and then promoting his translated works. He’s a fellow indie author, just an ocean away.

Very cool.

My reaction in a nutshell:

giphy

Translators are not “fellow indie authors”. They are service providers who, well, provide services. One-time services that should receive prompt payment, cash. Treating them as anything else shows a lack of knowledge at best, a lack of respect at worst.

The “Translate for Royalties” model (“TfR model” from now on) has been gaining ground for a while. More and more authors have been experimenting with it, and a few websites began advertising it as a “free” way of reaching new markets. I believe it’s an unsustainable model that shouldn’t be encouraged, else it will result in the death of book translations (no kidding). There are two main reasons for that.

The first reason is simple: when you come to me, a translator, with a TfR proposal, you do not come bearing gifts. You come bearing risks. In fact, the TfR model is a way for an author to take a business venture (the translation) and put all the risk on their so-called “partner”. Think about it for a minute. You are telling someone to work for weeks or months, not for money, but for the promise of an unknown amount in royalties. How much will the translator earn in six months? In a year? Will that be even remotely close to their normal rates (and even in that case, will it be worth it to wait six months or a year to collect the money)? Or will the whole job turn out to be a waste of time?

Fact is, 50% of not enough is still not enough. If, at the end of the year, the translated edition of your book ends up earning us $10 in royalties (this happened; see below), for you, the author, it’s $5 in your pocket that you didn’t have before. For me, the translator, it means receiving $5 as compensation for weeks or months of work.

Would you work for weeks or months in exchange for $5? Unless we’re talking about volunteer work, I don’t think so.

nono

“But I cannot know in advance if the translation will sell or not!” Sorry, but it’s not your translator’s problem. They provide a one-time service and should be paid for their time and their expertise, just like your editor and your cover designer. Come think of it, I’ve never heard of an “edit my book for royalties” model or a “do my cover for royalties” model. I wonder why.

The second reason has to do with marketing. Translators are not marketers, they didn’t study marketing and cannot be expected to improvise it. It’s completely unfair to have someone market your book for free after they already translated it for free. What are you doing to help your collective success? Nothing. While the other person is doing everything.

If that’s a relationship, I’m gonna call it an abusive one.

(no, “I wrote the book!” is not a valid excuse. The book was already published and earning you money before you decided to have it translated. You didn’t write the book specifically for your translator, so you didn’t contribute to this “partnership” at all)

The success of the TfR model would spell the death of professional translation. I’m sure of that. In a world where the income of a translator were completely uncertain (it already is quite unstable, given that it’s a freelance job), very few people could afford to translate full-time. Soon, the only translators available on the market would be young people living with their parents, and the partners and spouses of affluent people who could afford to support them. The average quality would drop, and the scarcity of freelancers available would cut the quantity considerably. It wouldn’t take long before everybody figured out that being a translator just isn’t worth it and abandoned their glorified hobby for a real, lucrative job.

The end.

howaboutnogif

How do I now all this stuff? Because I’ve experienced it. I used to offer a hybrid, cash advance + royalty sharing model (notice that I was still asking for cash up front) and I actually worked for six months on a website that promotes the TfR model (no, I’m not linking it, and I just removed their name from this post. I don’t want to give them traffic). I lost count of the words I translated during those months, but I’m sure I was well past the 500,000 line. Eleven months after I begun, do you know how much I earned in royalties for translating all those words?

$243,18. Most of which from the only two books that actually sold.

That’s an average of $0,00048 per word (and I’m being conservative with the word estimate). Less than a twentieth of a cent. But, hey, I helped authors reach new readers, right? Right?

My point is: if you want to be translated, but can’t afford to, seek out translators willing to do volunteer work. Because that’s what you’d be asking them to do if you offered them a TfR contract. At least be honest about it.

Otherwhise, if you’re seriously interested in reaching foreign markets, invest money. Find a good translator and pay their fees. They will still be interested in doing a good job (to get more work from you and to build up their reputation) and you will have paid honest money for honest work.

Nobody should be forced to work for free just to satisfy your vanity.

P.S. The saddest thing about Quinn promoting the TfR model is that, in other parts of her book, she insists that indie authors need to “invest time and money in editing/copyediting/cover art for [their] book”. Looks like we translators are children of a lesser god. The Survival Guide is still a great book, though, so buy it. Seriously.

“How Long Will It Take?”

27 Monday Apr 2015

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As I explained in a previous post, you should aways specify a deadline in your translation contracts. Having a deadline will motivate the translator and, more importantly, should guarantee the delivery of your translated manuscript. That said, how much time should you agree upon? The answer depends on whether you’re in a hurry or not.

If you don’t need the book delivered before a specific date (ie. around Christmas), you may set a distant deadline. I would suggest one day per 1,000 words as a reasonable compromise: this will give even a slow translator plenty of time to work on the manuscript and edit their draft. This would mean giving your translator 50 days to translate, review and deliver a 50,000 words novel. You can agree to a different amount of time, but don’t make it too lax: a deadline that’s many months away is equivalent to “eventually”. Be decisive.

If you need your book translated before a certain date (again, it may be December 23 or around that)… well, that depends on how reasonable you’re being. I’m going to use myself as an example, because everyone I worked with considered me quite fast. I routinely do 5,000 to 6,000 words per day, so I can complete the first draft of the translation of that 50,000 words novel in 10 days (hey, I need a day off every once in a while). My proofreader would then need about 10 more (she reads and edits all my drafts three times – yes, she’s amazing). Then there’s the beta-reading phase, which could take from 2 to 10 days, depending on how much my wife likes your book. Give me a few extra days for the finishing touches, and let’s call it 30 days for the translation of a 50,000 words novel. If we sign the contract a month before you need the book on your hard drive, it will happen. I can work faster if you absolutely need it, but I may be forced to apply an extra fee for the urgency, since all the extra time I would be spending working would be subtracted to my family and my personal life.

Other people might be slower, or they might work faster but sacrifice quality; take this into account before trying to coax your translator into working much faster than they usually do. A bad translation released at the right time might be worse, for the author’s reputation overseas, than a good translation that comes out slightly late.

Translations take time, and time is usually synonymous with quality. However, infinite time is almost never synonymous with infinite quality, so unless you truly have no interest in seeing your novel translated before your newborn baby begins college, set a deadline.

Are you an independent author who wants to know more about the world of translations? Are you interested in exploring new markets? Or maybe you simply want to say “Hi”? Go to my Contact page and send me a message.

A Checklist for Test Translation Reviewers

15 Wednesday Apr 2015

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I insisted many times on the importance of test translations – short texts you give to a potential translator for the to translate and return. I recommend that you give the result to native speakers of the target language (the language your book is being translated into) and ask them to review the translator’s work. In this post, I’m going to suggest a checklist to present those rewievers with. You may take it as it is, ask your reviewers to concentrate on some elements more than on others, or add more questions. What I recommend against is simply asking the reviewers “Just tell me what you think of this”: that doesn’t provide them with any criterion and may even lead them to mistake a bad translation for an acceptable one. By contrast, if you ask them to focus on specific aspects, they will be able to judge the translator’s work and tell you if they are worth your money.

Without further delay, here’s the checklist!

1. Does the Translation Sound Natural?

Did you, as a native reader of language X, feel that the language flows naturally? Were there weird constructs? Did any passage feel like it was translated too literally? Were you sometimes able to “see through” the translation and find traces of the original language?

This is perhaps the most important point. If the translation sounds “broken”, it’s not a good translation. Everything else – mistranslations, bad word choices, typos – can be corrected, but a translation that sounds unnatural shows a fundamental lack of skill on the translator’s part. Do not waste your money on them.

2. Was the Punctuation Correct?

Were all commas, full stops, etc. in the right place? Did the translator follow every punctuation rule of Language X?

This aspect is often overlooked. I’ve read dozens of Italian translation of English books that still used the Oxford comma, or put a comma instead of a colon before dialogue tags. The resuls was an unpolished, shoddy translation that looked like it was done lazily. You don’t want to give your readers lazy work.

3. What about the Grammar?

Same as above. Did the translator follow every rule and convention? Did they make mistakes? Did they improvise?

Bad grammar can really kill the mood of a story. I’m not referring only to gross mistakes like the use of a wrong tense: even putting the adjective before the name it refers to, instead of after it (the common rule with Italian adjectives) can make the translation sound weird. Weird-sounding translations take the reader out of the story, and that’s never good.

4. Could You See the Message of the Story?

Did you spot any central idea from the language used in the translation? In other words, did you feel like the wording in some places had been chosen to convey a specific mood? If the author told you that they used lots of religious references in the original, could you spot them in the translation?

Test translations are short, but they can – and they should – be chosen among the most pregnant parts of your novel. What is important here is that your translator should have the intelligence to get the reference and the integrity to reproduce it. If in the original manuscript a character aks a waiter to “take this cup away from me”, and the translator doesn’t even bother to convey a similar feel, chances are that they’re not the person you want to work with.

5. Is the Language of the Translation Proper?

Did you feel like the translation was particularly vulgar or, conversely, particularly chaste? Did you find the language particularly lyric, or street-like, or anything else?

This is a very important question for target languages who have many different degrees of courtesy, ie. Japanese. Choosing the wrong forms is the best way to raise a red flag in the reader’s mind. This isn’t limited to dialogue, either: give the same text to a dozen translators and see how they translate the various uses of “fuck” (I hope nobody gets offended by seeing that word here, by the way). The use of the wrong kind of language may turn readers away.

As usual, if you want to give your contribution or simply want to ask me a question, leave a comment or contact me via mail. I always reply. 🙂

TheThree Clauses You Want to Have in Your Translation Contract

30 Monday Mar 2015

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We already discussed the importance of signing a contract before handing someone your book to translate. In this post, I’m going to list some very important elements you want to include in that contract. This doesn’t mean you might not want to include other clauses, of course: contracts are complex animals, and each one must be tailor-made to suit your need. This is just what I consider fundamental and include in every contract I send to my clients.

1. The “No libellous material” Clause

This is perhaps the most important clause. In my contracts, it’s spelled out like this:

The Translator represents and warrants to the Author that no material of an objectionable or libelous character not present in the original work will be introduced into the translation.

What this means is that the translator is bound, among other things, to not put swear words, curses and the like where they weren’t present in your original manuscript. Yes, this might happen, and your translator might even do it in good faith. Some cultures are simply more swear-rich than others (if you don’t believe me, check “Italian Profanity” on Wikipedia. Just be aware: there’s a reason I’m not linking that page here). If your translator was born and raised in one of those cultures, they might be tempted to “vulgarize” your characters’ language because, well, that’s how people usually speak where the translator lives. You might not like this, however. Hence this clause.

2. The “When will the job be finished?” Clause

Deadlines are good for more than one reason: they help us translators organize, and they help you authors get your books translated. A contract that doesn’t include a deadline might as well be a gift of money to the translator. Even if you don’t need your book translated before a certain date, you should press for a deadline. Otherwise, you may find out that the translator has put your book on indefinite hold… and you won’t be able to complain, because they’re not legally bound to deliver unless they feel like doing it.

Of course, every translator has their own speed. Someone might offer shorter deadlines than others. But having a deadline will make sure that your book will be translated, eventually.

3. The “How much do I pay and how?” clause

Not including payment terms on a contract sounds like going out with your shirt inside out – it sounds stupid, but it happens all the time. “How much” might sound like the most important part, but the “how” matters, too. I will never stress this out enough: never pay the entire sum up front. Even if the translator offers you a discount. Even if they totally look honest. Even if they swear on their firstborn that they will not scam you. Never.

Like every other clause, this one should be spelled out clearly. This is how it looks like in my contracts:

The Translator shall receive a total of [princely sum of money] for the translation. 50% of this amount will be paid upon signature of the contract. The rest will be paid when the translated manuscript is delivered.

Your percentages may vary, and so may the number of payments. But the idea is that you should keep a substantial amount of the money for when the translation is delivered. Only then you will make the final payment. The rest of the amount acts as collateral, making it more likely that the job will be finished.

 

Do you have any question? Perhaps you want to contribute with some firsthand experience? Leave a comment below or contact me.

Going Deeper: 4 Good Reasons Not to Pay Up Front

10 Tuesday Feb 2015

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In some of my older posts, I recommend that no author should pay a freelancer all the money up front. That’s true for all kinds of editorial services: translations, cover illustrations, cover designs, editing, Voodoo magics, and everything else. Honest professionals ask for part of their payments up front and the rest when they deliver; you should stick to that model and avoid those who ask for something different. Here are five good reasons why paying the entire sum up front might hurt you.

 

Reason #1: You Might Get Scammed

It could go like this: you find a freelancer who looks good, or they contact you first. They offer you a “special discount” if you pay all the money in one solution, up front. You trust them, but after you pay, they disappear. They do not reply to your emails. If they gave you a Skype ID or other means of contact, you find out that they blocked you or are simply ignoring your messages. Their online profile turns out to be fake, with made-up personal info and a picture taken from the Internet. The job is, of course, not getting done, and you have little hope of getting your money back.

Dozens of scams happen every minute in every parts of the world. You don’t need to be particularly gullible to fall for one, especially if the scammer is good. Even if you’re not dealing with a dishonest person, though, other bad things may happen when you pay all the money up front. For example…

 

Reason #2: Delivery Might Get Delayed

For a freelancer, the payment is the reward for finishing a job. But if you pay your freelancer the entire sum up front, before they even begin working, you put them in an awkward psychological position: they already got their reward, so all that’s left is the long, tiresome “work” part. They might be tempted to procrastinate and give you excuses for longer delivery times. Or, if they’re dealing with other people at the same time, and those people required a multiple payments model instead of a single, up-front payment, the freelancer might be tempted to put those people’s manuscripts before yours, because, well, you already paid them. The other authors have still money to give them.

From this warning, another one follows…

 

Reason #3: Quality Might Decline

For the same reason stated above, a freelancer is less encouraged to do a good job if they have already been paid. It’s less about ethics and more about psychology: they had their reward already, so why is there still work to be done? Better do it quickly and then look for other gratifications. It might sound silly, but working on a project after you’ve been paid for it feels like you’re working for nothing, because you’re not going to get any reward at the end (you already got it). Perhaps it doesn’t make sense, but it’s how the human mind work.

All the points so far have been about the freelancer; the last one, however, is about you. I put it last, but it’s arguably one of the most important ones. You should never pay all the money for a project up front because…

 

Reason 4: It’s Harder on Your finances

Most people who give advice overlook this issue. Translations easily cost thousands of dollars; cover illustrations by good artists do get well into the hundreds. Paying, say, one-third up front and the rest when the work is done allows you to breathe a little deeper, financially speaking, since you don’t have thousands of dollars going out all at once. As the freelancer is working, you might get some earnings from royalties, previous projects or other sources, which would lighten the burden. Conversely, paying a lot of money all at once might force you to make sacrifices or to postpone other projects you might want to begin sooner.

 

Do you want to know more about dealing safely with freelancers? Subscribe to my blog to be kept up to date with my posts! 🙂 Or perhaps you are looking for a translator? Check out my Services page and contact me for more information on what I can do for you.