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picking up a book to translate and selling it afterwards...
Thread poster: Scheherezade Surià López (X)
Tsu Dho Nimh
Tsu Dho Nimh
Local time: 02:35
English
Beware of copyright law, and publishers drive translations May 5, 2005

"Once in class they told us that if we weren't offered translations we could maybe pick a book we liked and translate it and then try to find somebody to sell it to."

The holder of the copyright in the original language is the only one who can authorize "derivative works", such as translations. Get the permission first, then do the translations. Often, the author has signed over the translation rights to the publisher, who picks the translator. You could translate for your person
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"Once in class they told us that if we weren't offered translations we could maybe pick a book we liked and translate it and then try to find somebody to sell it to."

The holder of the copyright in the original language is the only one who can authorize "derivative works", such as translations. Get the permission first, then do the translations. Often, the author has signed over the translation rights to the publisher, who picks the translator. You could translate for your personal enjoyment, or to show your skill, but you can't just decide to translate "Harry Potter" into Urdu and sell it.

Translating old (for the US, pre-1928) books that are out of copyright does not require getting permissions, and you would hold the copyright to the translation, but you can't prevent someone else from doing their own translation of the same book.

The authors I know of are paid poorly for the sales of translations of their works. The way it usually works for American romance novels is that a foreign publisher (usually with a long-standing relationship with the American publisher) buys the rights to translate and publish the novel for sale in their country only. It's usually a flat-fee sale, with the publisher keeping 50% or so.

I do not know how the translators are picked, but the Spanish, Portuguese and Italian novels I have compared against the original English were uniformly butchered in translation. Senseless changes abound - to colors of cars, number of eggs in the refrigerator, etc. - a straightforward translation would have been just as easy to do, so why change things? Critical scenes were redacted or accidentally dropped in some, resulting in either a senseless chapter or a total change to the tone of the book.

The only near-decent translations were Italian - they appear to have fairly skillfully condensed the books, but the plot and character development suffered.
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Thomas McElwaine
 
Scheherezade Suria Lopez
Scheherezade Suria Lopez  Identity Verified
Spain
Local time: 09:35
English to Spanish
+ ...
About your comment, Tsu Dho Nimh May 5, 2005

It's ironic, so much fuss about it and I've just done a translation test and I've already got a book to translate

I was surprised to read your comment, Tsu Dho Nimh. It's not like I take it as a personal offence but I'm quite disappointed. I suppose you're here as a translator, so how can you say that ALL translations into Spanish are poor and arbitrary? I mean, I don't know about the others but, for me, it's quite ann
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It's ironic, so much fuss about it and I've just done a translation test and I've already got a book to translate

I was surprised to read your comment, Tsu Dho Nimh. It's not like I take it as a personal offence but I'm quite disappointed. I suppose you're here as a translator, so how can you say that ALL translations into Spanish are poor and arbitrary? I mean, I don't know about the others but, for me, it's quite annoying to "hear" that.
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Angela Arnone
Angela Arnone  Identity Verified
Local time: 09:35
Member (2004)
Italian to English
+ ...
Moderator note May 5, 2005

I've let both postings through (Tsu Dho Nimh and Faeryofthewoods) but could I ask you both not to go off topic?
The forum topic regards Getting Established.
I was concerned about Tsu Dho Nimh's statement regarding quality - I read a great many Italian translated works and to be honest they are often excellent and certainly good quality - so such a blanket statement about colleagues' work was perturbing, but I would prefer it not to turn into a "quality" discussion here.
Thanks
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I've let both postings through (Tsu Dho Nimh and Faeryofthewoods) but could I ask you both not to go off topic?
The forum topic regards Getting Established.
I was concerned about Tsu Dho Nimh's statement regarding quality - I read a great many Italian translated works and to be honest they are often excellent and certainly good quality - so such a blanket statement about colleagues' work was perturbing, but I would prefer it not to turn into a "quality" discussion here.
Thanks
Angela

faeryofthewoods wrote:
I was surprised to read your comment, Tsu Dho Nimh. It's not like I take it as a personal offence but I'm quite disappointed. I suppose you're here as a translator, so how can you say that ALL translations into Spanish are poor and arbitrary? I mean, I don't know about the others but, for me, it's quite annoying to "hear" that.
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Deborah Hoffman
Deborah Hoffman  Identity Verified

Local time: 04:35
Russian to English
+ ...
when does the offer to publish come? May 26, 2005

Do they make an offer on the sample that you submit? Or only after the full manuscript is submitted? I was told to "never translate an entire book without a contract" but I have been communicating with a publisher who indicates they don't commit until it's all done (which I can understand). Are there other publishers who commit based on the sample? Just curious.

Heinrich Pesch wrote:

First you should contact the author or the original publisher, and ask for permission. Do not translate the whole book, only a few pages, and search a publisher.
If the book is older than 70 years or so you do not have to ask for permission, but a publisher you need to find who will pay you during the translation.
Get in touch with your translator's organisation first, they will help you get established.
Regards
Heinrich


 
Annira Silver (X)
Annira Silver (X)  Identity Verified
Local time: 10:35
Finnish to English
Some publishers make offers and sign contracts based on samples... May 28, 2005

...but they are usually provisional, i.e. they reserve the right to withdraw from the project if the whole manuscript is not of the required standard, or the standard of the sample. Naturally, by then, they have seen the synopsis and a table of contents, plus possibly other material, as well as sample chapters. Again, my experience is limited to non-fiction and academic books.

I'd be interested to hear other people's experiences with fiction or children's books, too!

An
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...but they are usually provisional, i.e. they reserve the right to withdraw from the project if the whole manuscript is not of the required standard, or the standard of the sample. Naturally, by then, they have seen the synopsis and a table of contents, plus possibly other material, as well as sample chapters. Again, my experience is limited to non-fiction and academic books.

I'd be interested to hear other people's experiences with fiction or children's books, too!

Annira
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Robert Adamowicz
Robert Adamowicz
United Kingdom
Local time: 08:35
is it legal Mar 13, 2021

to pick over 100 years old book to translate it and then sell it?

 
Elisheva Shlush (X)
Elisheva Shlush (X)
Israel
Local time: 10:35
Hebrew to Czech
+ ...
Maybe try first short kindle novels Mar 14, 2021

Or contact Amazon publishers and writers.

 
jyuan_us
jyuan_us  Identity Verified
United States
Local time: 04:35
Member (2005)
Chinese to English
It is a 16 years old post Mar 14, 2021

Elisheva Shlush wrote:

Or contact Amazon publishers and writers.


Jorge Payan
 
Kay-Viktor Stegemann
Kay-Viktor Stegemann
Germany
Local time: 09:35
English to German
In memoriam
Copyright terms Mar 14, 2021

Robert Adamowicz wrote:

to pick over 100 years old book to translate it and then sell it?


The age of the book is irrelevant, what is relevant is the author's life span. In most countries, books go into public domain on the beginning of the year after the 70th anniversary of the death of the author. In some countries this differs a bit. So there might be 100 year old books that are still copyrighted.

See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Copyright_term

In any case, I would not expect books of this age to be best sellers ...


Jorge Payan
 
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picking up a book to translate and selling it afterwards...







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