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I can speak a few languages and I am just about done with my first manuscript in English. Since I found the translation fun and not too difficult, I translated it into French, German, Spanish and Swedish. I read the versions to some of my friends who are bilingual in those languages and found no faults in the translation
I haven't sent the English manuscript in yet, and so, I haven't made a deal yet. I understand it is putting the cart before the horse, but I am curious. Would a publisher be willing to use my translation? I understand that there are several caveats to this.
1) Assuming my translation is correct.
2) Assuming there is a market for it in those languages/countries
3) I know a publisher would probably only translate it there was a reason for it, like having it sell numerous copies already in English.
(My thinking around this part is that if I provide the translated versions, there is less upfront expenditures for the publisher to issue it in those languages. They would only need edit an existing copy, which means less costs to both parties. If the publisher were to translate it, they would take the cost of translation out of the advance/payment to you, which is less ideal.)
4) If the publisher thought that there were not markets for certain languages, or did not want to put in the effort to do the translation, would you be able to work out something to retain those specific rights or just do the translation for them? Or maybe even just self publish those language versions with the publisher's consent? Are languages rights all or none?
I also have friends who would be willing to translate it into Korean, Turkish and Hindi, if it were to be published. I hear that India and South Korea are untapped markets.
(2)More posts by @BetL639
2 Comments
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Leaving aside the reason why would you want your work translated, the short and simple answer is, of course, yes. You can pay for the translation, or you can do it yourself and save money.
Translating your own work yourself will also, as Tom Au pointed out, give you an advantage of better control of the outcome, assuming that you are capable of performing the task.
How it is all going to play out largely depends upon how you are planning to publish your work. If you are publishing yourself, you are in charge of much more aspects of the process.
If you have a publisher, I would allow myself to guess, that all the questions related to translating should be addressed to them.
There are some financial advantages to translating a book yourself, but IMHO, the main advantages are moral advantages.
If you can translate your own books, then you can control how the books are translated. And while some publishers might not pay to have your book translated, they might accept the gift of "two" (or more) for one.
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