Update on Translations

by Elizabeth S. Craig, @elizabethscraig

I’ve received several emails and a couple of Facebook messages from writers in the last few weeks asking me to post an update with my thoughts on different translation platforms…so here we go. :)

First off, I want to link to other posts I’ve written about options for getting our books translated. You can find them here:

A Closer Look at Babelcube for Translation

Translation Alternatives to Babelcube 

Translation Hyphenation Issues on Babelcube

I currently have 19 translations of my books in various languages and two more are in the process of being published. I’ve found translations, with royalty-sharing, to be a nice source of income. It also pleases me to reach an audience in non-English-speaking countries. Income-wise, the money I make isn’t much, but it’s steady. The German translations earn me the most income.

Nearly all of my books have been translated through Babelcube . Sadly, I’m not a huge fan of the platform. I’ve run into numerous issues (including, somehow, my name being listed incorrectly on retail sites) and customer service is either extremely slow (6 months for some issues) or non-existent. The most frustrating thing is that, as a self-publisher, I’m used to being able to correct issues myself. Since Babelcube is the distributor/publisher, I don’t have these books on my dashboard to tinker with them.

I do have a couple of books available through TekTime. I do like the platform, although I was disappointed that I couldn’t have my translated text  on ACX, etc, because the translated material was still considered their property (it would be the same with Babelcube). I did find their customer service better, however. Although the service has 22,467 translators on the platform, I get the feeling that Babelcube has more.  To be fair, I need to list more books there and give the platform more of a chance.

Babelcube is an excellent place to do translator matchmaking. It’s the oldest translation platform.  There you can list your books and translators will audition for the job.  After finding a translator and before you both sign the Babelcube contract, you could go indie with the process at that point. And that has been what I’ve recommended as a possibility to the writers who’ve contacted me lately.

It used to be that this wasn’t a feasible option for royalty-splitting translations because it would mean a lot of work every month for an author to PayPal the translator their take of the royalties. But now, this is something you can do automatically through Draft2Digital’s new payment splitting option. BundleRabbit also has payment splitting and I have a book or two there.

Obviously, you’d want to have a contract. You could probably use a lot of the language from Babelcube and TekTime’s contracts, both of which are accessible online, or have an IP lawyer to draw something up.

Aside from a book or two that I’m using BundleRabbit for, I haven’t chosen this indie option…instead, I’ve continued with the frustration of dealing with Babelcube.  That’s because I’ve found many of my translators are wary of going indie with me. And why wouldn’t they be? They’re dealing with a stranger who lives in another country and have no idea how good I am at the publishing process and managing distribution, various formats, etc. My translators are often very young, as well. The risk is mainly on their end because they’re devoting many hours of work on a translation project and I’m only funding a cover tweak with the translated title and cover copy.  I can understand how it would seem less-risky to go through a major platform like Babelcube.

Another option would be to find your translator on Babelcube and see if they’re amenable to shifting over to TekTime, if you like the idea of better, more-timely, customer service.

Yet another option is to find a translator and pay them out of pocket without using royalty sharing. I’ve done this once, for my latest German book. But this was after working with this duo of translators for several other books and after seeing strong sales for the other titles. Paying out of pocket is definitely a pricy option and I’d caution authors to be careful…you would be taking on a good deal of risk and it would be a challenge to promote the book in the market it’s intended for.

UPDATE to post: The Authors Guild has just released its “Literary Translation Model Contract” for use by all writers. For those of you looking for a good contract to use with translators, this is a great tool.  More information about the contract here.  And the contract itself, with notes, is here.

I hope this helps. I still feel a little like translations are the wild west of indie publishing, but I do like the end results and the reach I’m able to have.

Have you had any books translated?  Do you have any questions about the process?

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