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The Benefits of External Keyboards

27th November 2020 By Tina 2 Comments

They are essential for desktop computers, but has it ever occurred to you that external keyboards can come in handy for other purposes as well?

For laptops

Some advantages will not be obvious for everyone, but in case you type as much as I do, laptop keys could be jammed and become useless sooner rather than later.

It is much cheaper and more convenient to buy an external keyboard from the start. You will then still be able to use the laptop’s internal one as long as you want to and whenever it makes sense, for example. while typing in bed or on a sofa.

Unnecessary costs can also occur, if you, like a friend of mine, accidentally spill a cup of coffee on a laptop and have to buy a new one. This is another example when an external keyboard would have been cheaper and easier to replace.

Laptop with external keyboard indoors

Other uses

In the past, I carried a big laptop around with me, whenever I was out and about to write.

Another little old 10” laptop/tablet gathered dust in a corner, and I didn’t use it much, because I found the small keyboard too fiddly to type on. I thought about getting a medium-size laptop for writing away from home, but then I found a better solution.

Now I am often using my smartphone with an external keyboard when I am writing away from home, which is not as bulky and allows comfortable typing.

And there are more advantages: My keyboard Logitech 380 features three extra buttons to assign different devices. When I bought it, I did not expect to need this function but discovered later that I can now quickly and easily switch between my laptop and mobile phone and could use a tablet as well, if I wanted to.

Besides, I always hated writing lengthy messages on my phone in the past, but they are now a breeze.

Things to watch out for

Before I bought my current keyboard, I was looking for a typing experience that I liked and chose my laptop for this reason. There is even a case available if you want one.

Just note that mobile phones do not work with all wireless keyboards. Those with USB receivers are unsuitable; they have to be Bluetooth enabled.

It is also useful to make sure you have a keyboard with the right language layout.

The one I mentioned above comes in two different versions. As I do not just type in English, but in German as well, I need letters that I don’t find on English keyboards (ä, ö, ü and ß.)

Changing the underlying language to German in the settings is okay to a certain extent since I touch-type and know where the letters are, but special characters are a pain to deal with because I need to look at the keyboard to find some of them and would hit wrong keys too often.

These special characters can even be annoying within one language. If you, for example, normally touch-type on a US keyboard and are suddenly using a UK layout, you might be annoyed, when you find out that certain keys are not where you would expect them to be.

My laptop itself is UK English, as I live in London and bought it here, but this is no problem, as long as my external keyboard is German.

I am already looking forward to warmer and more mobile times, although not even the Coronavirus lockdown and the cold can now prevent me from doing short writing sessions outside with my mobile phone and an external keyboard!

Outdoor writing

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Roller Coaster Writing in Difficult Times

13th May 2020 By Tina 2 Comments

Challenges like the Coronavirus lockdown can affect us in various ways, from horrible to wonderful and everything in between

Can distress lead to great art?

At first, I found it nearly impossible to write at all during the lockdown.

I was unhappy, because I couldn’t go out and had more time, should it then not be even easier?

And it is sometimes said that challenging life situations are beneficial for art and many great artists had difficult lives.

As far as my humble writing is concerned, I did eventually notice at least something, which was easier than before, and that was writing about feelings, because many emotions wanted to be released in one way or another.

I have met more like-minded people than ever before

The surprising thing is, although I am stuck at home, it has been easier to meet fellow writers.

It happens online via video on Zoom, Skype and Google Hangout because meetings in public spaces are currently impossible where I live.

The advantage is, it cuts out the travel time.

Besides, some people who live in the countryside or have small children and were rarely able to meet other writers before the lockdown, have now easier access to other writers via video as well.

We cannot just travel virtually where we live, but even worldwide. You could do the same, provided you speak the group’s language.

Many meetups work like this: Everyone writes in silence either 25 minutes or 1 or 2 hours. There are breaks between sessions and/or we talk afterwards, and some groups offer advice and feedback and writing challenges.

I often get more done than on my own, we share advice and tips and receive information and inspiration.

If you have never attended any of these meetings, I encourage you to check them out, for example at londonwriterssalon.com, Write Together (also based in London and part of www.meetup.com with other options worldwide).

Setting up new routines with mini habits

As much as we might be attached to our routines, we cannot go on with everything as before, and establishing new routines is often a challenge.

This is where mini habits come in handy. It means doing only a little of something new, but regularly, until it has become an established routine.

We only have a limited amount of willpower and it takes less effort to set up new routines in baby steps.

My goal is to write at least 5 minutes a day, and on most days I write a lot more now, once I have started, but I reach my goal even after 5 minutes, which gives me a sense of achievement and I feel good about myself as I am sticking to the routine. It keeps me going.

Taking time to reflect

We have a unique chance to think about how we really want to live now and after the crisis when life might not be quite the same as before.

I find it important to take time for reflection, and I have decided I want to focus more on writing, among other things.

In addition, I was browsing through two suitcases full of old diaries. For a long time, I didn’t know whether I should keep them or not.

I shredded most of them in the meantime and kept only certain pages where I wrote down important things that I want to remember. I am sure it is the right decision as it is a relief to let go of the past.

Always important: having fun!

I have chosen “roller coaster” in the title for a reason.

Like a roller coaster, the lockdown can often be scary and even make us sick.

But roller coasters are meant to be fun – you do not just go down, but up as well.

And because I like black humour even in the most difficult circumstances, here is, last but not least, a link to Coronavirus jokes from fellow writer Zhana.

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Can Books Be Translated Automatically?

12th December 2019 By Tina 2 Comments

Professional, automatic book translations seem to be possible now, new tools are developed all the time and this blog post is about a promising one

Deepl versus Google Translate

Virtually everyone knows Google Translate, and Deepl works in a similar way. They are supposed to produce better quality translations than Google Translate and after having tried it, I do agree.

Deepl’s paid version comes with an additional advantage because it deletes translated documents, once the job is done. Google Translate does not guarantee anything like that and we can’t be sure how they are using our texts. With Deepl’s free version, however, you have to be as careful as with Google Translate.

Some books are easier to translate automatically than others

The general rule is that non-fiction is easier to translate automatically than fiction, but there are exceptions.

When you are dealing with special language, for example a scientific text, it would even require an expert to translate manually. The more specialized the book is, the more sense does it make to let an expert with language skills translate the book rather than a linguist, and in these cases, automatic translation is even more difficult for an app.

And then there are extra difficult texts.

I tell you a story to explain, what I mean. Many years ago, I attended a literary translators’ conference and there was a workshop with a famous British author plus two of his translators to give us an idea how they work.

The author mentioned one of his books and said he wrote it within two weeks. It turned out that both translators had spent months to translate it. They had obviously worked hard to figure out “What does the artist actually mean?”

I suspect there is not always as much meaning in the original as everyone thinks, but that’s another story and I won’t tell you the name of this particular author 😉


Childrens’ books, on the other hand, no matter whether non-fiction or fiction, are usually easy to read, but I am sure authors often work hard to make complexities understandable for children, which can then make it easier for the manual translator and for automatic translation as well.

I would always be cautious with automatic translations, because the trickiest mistakes that can occur are the ones that SEEM right but are not. Errors may even be easier overlooked than in manual translations, if we are not careful.

Change is happening fast

(updated in 2022)

When I first wrote this article, things were still different and I was not willing to pay for automatic translation, but this has changed. I am using DeepL most of the time. The more data is fed into a system, the better the result and there is now obviously a lot more data in various AI systems than when I first wrote this article.

In general, non-fiction will still work better with automatic translation than fiction, which tends to be more complex, but improvement can be seen everywhere.

When I first asked professional translators, whether they were willing to use artificial intelligence, no one was prepared to do so, but now I know I am not the only one, but many of my colleagues are also using automatic translation as a basis all the time.

Maybe there will even gradually be more authors, who translate their books via Deepl or similar tools – if they speak the target language – and ask linguists to do the final edit, which will then be faster and cheaper, although I am sure, a thorough final edit will always be necessary.

Something else to bear in mind

For those who want to publish internationally and do not want to use translations – I think it can make sense, if the original language is English.

In many countries, people are willing and able to read books in English, and Amazon offers affordable ads in Germany now, the most successful market for self-publishers after English-speaking countries.

One self-published American author even told me she had SOLD MORE ENGLISH-LANGUAGE BOOKS IN GERMANY than anywhere else…

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Why Even Publishing Houses Can Benefit When Authors and Translators Play A Part In Book Cover Design

11th April 2018 By Tina 2 Comments

Book covers are crucial for readers to decide whether they are interested in a book or not. Although authors are the brand behind their books, unfortunately, covers do not always fit the brand, because, in traditional publishing, writers often do not have a say in book cover design. I would love to see more authors and translators involved in the cover design process – and not just in self-publishing

Some writers hate their book covers

Imagine you are over the moon, because you wrote a book, landed a deal with a publisher and cannot wait to hold a copy in your hands, but when you do, your jaw drops…

Several years ago, I attended a book reading with an author who spent a long time telling us how much she hated her book cover that she was forced to put up with. This could have been avoided if the publisher had involved her in the design process.

In this case, it was the all-dominant colour that the writer resented the most.

book cover design by authors and translatorsAuthors can dislike their covers for various reasons, and here is another example: author Maureen Johnson said in a Guardian article how her covers implied she was a romance writer and because of that, a lot of men told her they didn’t want to read her books, which were intended for young adults and “no romance at all.”

Maureen tweeted:

I do wish I had a dime for every email I get that says: ‘Please put a non-girly cover on your book, so I can read it’ …  signed – A Guy.

 

Due to her frustration, this author decided to self-publish.

I translated a novel whose cover did not look like the book I had worked on

When I received my translator’s book copies from a publisher, I thought there had to be a mistake.

The book was set in Australia and as Australia has a large countryside, maybe the old, shabby shed on the cover was meant to symbolize this?

But the book was not about rural life and why was the shed so shabby? Perhaps the shabbiness was supposed to represent the events that led to the suicide in this novel – although the overall atmosphere was actually not as bleak as the cover suggested.

Translators are arguably the ones who, (apart from the author, of course) work so thoroughly on a book that we are more likely than most to get a deep understanding, yet I have never come across any traditional publisher who wanted to hear my opinion.

It can make financial sense for publishers to involve authors and translators

Professional in-house editorial, sales and marketing teams are usually the ones that know best what will or won’t sell and decide on the book cover.  

As you can see in the example above about men who resented certain covers, however, this can obviously mean losing out on potential sales, if the author doesn’t have any say in the design process.

In addition, as the majority of authors are expected to do most of their marketing themselves, I cannot imagine any writer being motivated to promote a book if they resent its visual appearance. Again, this means publishing houses could probably make more sales if the writer loves the look of the product.

And whenever I have been mislead by a book cover, I will probably not buy another book by the same author again. As publishing houses tend to sign on authors for more than just one book, they can also lose out, when a cover has attracted the wrong audience.

Self-publishers have the freedom to participate in book cover design as much or as little as they like

I am currently experimenting with the cover designs of several books and I am loving it, although some people might say I should stay away from it and let trained professionals do the job.

To this, I answer I am a professionally trained translator, but will always say people who want to try their hands at literary translation without professional training should go for it if they have certain skills, are passionate about it and willing to learn.

Finding designers who have created book covers in the past that we liked and briefing them as well as possible is one way of dealing with cover design as a self-publisher.

A major reason for DIY cover designs is, of course, a lack of money, but this is not my only reason, because I want to learn and experiment and make book covers look exactly the way I want them to look.

I am the translator and not the author of one of the books I am working on and cannot ask the author’s opinion anymore, because she died, so it is an interesting additional challenge.

I know what kind of emotional reaction the book evoked in me, I would like to evoke a similar response in other people and want the cover to reflect just that.

Everything I do as a self-publisher, is a work in progress, I make mistakes along the way, tweak the results and move on. Freedom is important to me.

I strongly believe, if we do not allow ourselves to make mistakes, we cannot come up with truly new and worthwhile solutions in any area of life, including self-publishing.

The following quote by Mahatma Gandhi is one of my favourites:

Freedom is not worth having, if it does not include the freedom to make mistakes.

 

 

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Have You Ever Tried Google Doc’s “Speech to Text” Solution? No? Here is How It Works and Why You Might Like It

10th October 2017 By Tina Leave a Comment

I have only recently discovered Google’s speech to text solution and although I can type fast, this is even faster, and there are a number of other advantages

Choose the most suitable language — it is important

First, you need a Chrome browser and a Google or YouTube account (these two are nowadays the same). After logging in, click on Google docs, then on “Tools” and on “Voice Typing”.

Now you have a little box on your left with a grey microphone inside and at the top, you can change the language.

Make sure you choose the right option, otherwise you will not get good results.

English is not my first language and I have a foreign accent, but I have lived in the UK for a long time and UK English works fine for me, whereas US English does not. Whenever I am not writing in English, however, I need to switch to German or it won’t work at all.

After you have chosen the right language, click on the grey mike. It will turn red and you are ready to go. Any texts that you create now, will be saved in the “Google Drive” cloud.

By the way: my laptop’s built-in microphone works fine and there is no need to buy expensive gadgets.

 

If you want to know more details, you can look them up on this info website.

Another tip: punctuation marks work best if you say them quickly after the last word, otherwise they might be turned into text.

I guess speech recognition will work better for some accents then for others and if your experience is different from mine, I would love to hear about it.

You could avoid writer’s block by speaking instead of typing

“Writer’s block” is an issue for many, but I have never heard of “speaker’s block” – and speaking is what you are actually doing here.

Speech recognition can be helpful for anyone, who like me tends to over- analyze, which sometimes made it difficult for me to finish anything in the past.

You can still go back and edit after having created text via speech recognition, but I have noticed I am not double-checking as much as I used to and I get a lot more writing done like this.

It is also often said it is best to “write as you speak” and what better way could there be to do just that and speak?

Preventing monotony and repetitive strain injury

Another thing I like about speech recognition is that it gives me more variety.

I have found that it inspires my creativity and prevents boredom.

In addition, too much typing can lead to wrist problems, eye strain, back and neck pain and other physical problems.

Speech to text even allows me to occasionally close my eyes while I’m talking whenever I feel like it.

You will get correct spelling straight away, at least as far as Google’s dictionary permits and so far, I have not found any problems with this.

There will, of course, be natural limits, for example with proper names and unusual words. A few errors will always occur, but I never worry about them and simply correct everything manually as I go.

One of the biggest benefits is the simplicity.

I guess there is more sophisticated software out there, but I am neither up for a steep learning curve nor can I afford to spend a lot of money for something that might not even work better than this.

Speech recognition can also help people with certain disabilities, who would otherwise not be able to type texts on their own.

Last but not least, I have my own, special reason for using the speech to text option: when I was younger, I sometimes worked as a typist, because I thought it might allow me to develop skills that would come in handy later —fast touch-typing is indeed helpful for translators as well as writers.

During my work as a typist, however, I noticed that only seemingly “really important” people were allowed to have their texts typed by somebody else and when I started writing myself, I had this vague feeling I wasn’t important and good enough to write.

Having my texts typed for me has done wonders for my self-esteem and it has brought my writing to the next level — especially because my typist is not a human being, but a machine.

In my opinion, we should all get rid of menial, repetitive tasks as much as we want and need so that we can focus more on our creativity.

Coming up with more creative solutions will become even more important in future. Just think of all the jobs that are being made redundant — not just those of typists — and there will definitely be more, especially the unskilled ones that require us to follow someone else’s orders.

We need more new, creative solutions in various areas of life, not just to develop more meaningful jobs, but also to deal with the many challenges we are facing in the world.

Unfortunately, most people fear nothing more than change. So why not start by changing something rather simple like speech to text?

I am enjoying it a lot, and this doesn’t mean I am using it all the time. Instead, I prefer a mixture of dictating, my own touch-typing and sometimes handwritten corrections on a printout.

It is this freedom of choice that I love most.

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How to turn a print book into an ebook when you do not have a digital copy

14th June 2017 By Tina Leave a Comment

My motivation was to self-publish an out-out-of print book in translation, but you may like to convert a print-only book into a digital copy for another reason when there is no digital copy available

The scanning process and how I dealt with yellowish book paper

old computer storage

Lost in translation on a floppy disk

The original translation had been on a floppy disk, but as this is an outdated medium, I had thrown it away at some point and did not save the content anywhere else, because I never expected I might want to use it one day.

I do own a print copy of the book, and I thought it would be easy to scan since I am using the latest Microsoft Office version that allows you to convert scanned PDFs into word files. Unfortunately, the not so white paper made the process more labour-intensive.

I ended up scanning the book with my multifunction printer, copying and pasting the text into a word file. Many mistakes occurred during this process, and another thorough proofreading process was necessary, although it has to be said that you will always find at least some errors in scanned texts.

Why I edited the translation again

I didn’t mind the additional thorough proofreading process too much because I was planning to revise the translation anyway. First of all, I did this because my translation skills had improved over the years and I knew I could make it better.

The second reason for the revision was the fact that the original editor had changed part of my translation to a rather formal language, which I found inappropriate for this novel. Back then, I couldn’t do anything about it, but as I am now holding the translation copyright, I was able to make changes.

This shows you that it is not just the translator who can create a different style than that of the original but an editor can sometimes contribute to this issue as well if he or she has the authority and wish to make major stylistic changes. This can sometimes drastically change the way how a book is perceived by readers in the other language.

A surprising discovery regarding German book formatting

Then I discovered something else only because I had to scan the book: I noticed inverted commas had been formatted «like this» in the German traditionally published version.

When I double-checked with other German self-published books, in almost all of them, inverted commas were formatted „this way‟ which is the usual formatting in most German documents, but not in traditional publishing, and I was surprised to notice that most self-publishers, including myself, never seemed to notice.

Doing it „like this‟ is not wrong and some people might even prefer it, but I think «this other version» looks better and more professional in books and I will definitely do it this way again, whenever I self-publish another book in German.

Digital copy important for print version as well

The e-book of [easyazon_link identifier=”B06XDRWWL2″ locale=”UK” tag=”internaselfpu-21″]”Knowing Sophie – die Unbekannte”[/easyazon_link] is now available (of course only in German, though) and for a short while at a reduced price.

My next job will now be to create a self-published print book, and for this purpose, I  will need the digital copy as well.

 

Related articles – How to self-publish an out of print book in translation:

Part 1: Why All Writers and Translators Should Care About It

Part 2: Solving Copyright Issues

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How to Self-Publish an Out-of-print book in translation, part 2, copyright issues

29th March 2017 By Tina Leave a Comment

The most challenging part of my project turned out to be copyrights and although not the sexiest topic, it is very important.

If you ask yourself why you should even bother about self-publishing an out-of-print book in translation, maybe because you do not (yet?) have a book with a publishing house, let alone in translation, there are various reasons for this and I am writing about them in part 1 of this article.

Know your rights

If a book is out of print and the publishing house ist not going to publish it again, you have the right to get you copyright back – don’t think publishers are doing you a special favour.

When the German publishing house returned my translation copyright to me, they were then saying I HAD to get in touch with the original Australian publisher to sort out the original rights and my biggest mistake was to do just that.

My attempts to get information from the publisher in question and the original literary agency were mostly ignored – they were obviously not prepared to tell me who the original copyright holder was. Eventually they said they were not in touch with the right holder, although the book was still available as an ebook on at least one platform and I found this hard to believe. I am sure they saw me as a pain in the neck, as I tried to approach them various times in various ways.

To cut a long story short: in the end I got hold of the author’s son myself who is in charge of the literary estate and he retrieved the original rights to self-publish the book from the relevant publisher and was willing to cooperate with me directly. We now have a contract with each other to share any royalties.

I would strongly advise translators and authors to contact each other first and retrieve their rights separately.

I assume it might still be easier for authors or someone else who is entitled to the original rights to receive information regarding the translator than for the translator regarding the author.

If the translator is the most pro-active part in the game, I would recommend to put all your energy into contacting the author/the other party. Don’t waste your time approaching a publishing house or literary agent, if they are not legally obliged to give you information.

Message from Amazon: “We do not let translators self-publish their translated books”

It did not stop with the above mentioned issue, however. When I tried and publish the book on Amazon, the e-mail I got back from them was saying they wouldn’t let me deal with this myself, it should be the author. The author is dead, however, and it would not have made much sense to ask the original rights holder to deal with it, because I was the one who wanted to go ahead with this project in the first place and I know from another experience that publishing platforms are sometimes sending information in German if you have uploaded a book in German and it would have complicated matters enourmously if we had accepted this option. In Germany, Amazon is not as dominant for self-publishers as in the English-speaking world, by the way.

The most important reason why Amazon is so successful seems to be the fact that they have streamlined their processes and they are sending you automated answers, which wasn’t helpful in my case and I had to wait until I could talk to a senior Amazon representative at the London Book Fair, who advised me to open a separate account on Amazon, not under my own name as a translator, but create a new name and act as if you were setting up your own publishing house and this is what I did in the end.

My other platform of choice was Tolino Media, a successful German platform for self-publishers. They are providing a phone number and it was great to talk to someone in person from the start, especially about my (so far?) rather unusual project. They allowed me to open an account in the author’s name, because she is dead and I had sorted out the rights. The Tolino Media website is in German, but if you don’t speak the language and would like to include their platform, you can do so via Draft2Digital.

Conclusion

The whole area of self-published translations is still rather new and I believe there is often some confusion about rights and maybe my problems with the original publishers resulted partly from this confusion. In addition, I can imagine they do not not want to encourage translators to go the self-publishing route. There are many authors who are doing this already, but so far, book translations are still almost exclusively in the hand of traditional publishers.

I believe publishers need not worry, as it is not just about retrieving rights after all. There is also marketing involved and this seems to be more difficult for translators than for authors. In self-publishing, the special author-audience relationship can be a distinct advantage which readers love, but this does not necessarily help translators who are trying to promote book translations, because we cannot answer personal questions regarding writing the book, any background information etc directly in the same way authors can.

Therefore I believe the route I am writing about here is mainly for translators who are also promoting something else that fits, like similar books or services, but if they do, I see no reason why they shouldn’t do it, and in my opinion it would even make more sense if translators approach authors than authors approaching translators – not just when it comes to retrieving rights but translating books in the first place, because they know best what kind of books they think they can successfully promote themselves.

If you have any more questions regarding copyrights that I have not yet answered here then please don’t hesitate and ask me.

Here is a link to part 1 of this article: How to self-publish and out-of-print-book in translation: Why all authors and translators should care about it.

And the German translation is available at a special price for a short time only:

[easyazon_image align=”none” height=”160″ identifier=”B06XDRWWL2″ locale=”UK” src=”http://internationalselfpublishing.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/03/41IPBkAipCL.SL160-4.jpg” tag=”internaselfpu-21″ width=”100″]

 

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Reflections and Resolutions 2016 / 2017

18th January 2017 By Tina Leave a Comment


Brexit - Britain leaving EU
Reflections on 2016

  1. First of all: I am still here, I haven’t given up blogging although it’s been a while since I last posted on this blog, but life got in the way and I am not even apologizing for it 🙂
  2. A lot happened in 2016, e.g. the Brexit referendum which effects me as an EU citizen in the UK directly and nobody knows what the situation will be like for someone like me once the country has actually left the EU. I am glad that unlike refugees, I could not just move to my home country but to other EU countries as well. In the end I might even decide myself I would be better off elsewhere – who knows? The referendum taught me a valuable lesson: never to take anything for granted and to embrace flexibility as the new safety. Sometimes a shake-up can even be beneficial and push you to make some overdue changes.
  3. Having said that, I came to the conclusion that London is currently still my favourite place in the world. I am grateful because I have had the opportunity to meet interesting people here from the UK and almost every corner of the world with all kinds of different backgrounds, which has been very inspiring.
  4. In 2016, a large part of my income sources came still from freelance translation work, but for me like for many other colleagues, the situation went from bad to worse. In the end I had extremely tight deadlines and working nights and weekends was no longer an exception but almost industry standard, which affected my life and health in a negative way.
  5. I read A LOT in 2016 and the rise of populists and fake news was obvious. In addition, traditional media mainly focused on bad news, as usual, because this attracts mainstream readers and advertising. Last year you could get the impression there was hardly anything positive happening in the world. I was glad I found inspiring independent media, too, to put things into perspective – including blogs.

 

My resolutions for 2017

  1. I enjoy blogging myself, and doing it regularly is one of my goals in 2017. I intend to publish an article every week on each of my blogs.
  2. Another goal is to write a little bit every day and I am happy to say I am already doing it.
  3. I  intend to finish self-publishing an out-of print novel that was translated by me in the past and I am on the case.
  4. In addition, I am planning to write at least one short self-published book both in English and German at the same time.
  5. Writing away from my home desk is good for me and I want to do this more often in 2017. Therefore I am now not just writing in cafes and pubs on a regulary basis but have joined the great Blog Club of London Bloggers Meetup, a get-together with other bloggers to write, share information and encourage each other. We meet at the premises of @WorkHubs, a coworking space in London very close to Euston tube and rail station and within walking distance of the Eurostar terminal at St. Pancras. @WorkHubs are offering various different options and you can even use their desks on a daily basis and they also seem to be a good option for people who are visiting London only temporarily.

 

I wish you good luck with everything that is on your own agenda in 2017!

 

 

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How To Self-Publish An Out Of Print Book In Translation Part 1: Why All Book Authors And Translators Should Care About It

28th December 2015 By Tina 1 Comment

Extra income potential without writing and translating a book from scratch

Who would not want a bit of extra cash? A lot of authors are retrieving their copyrights of out of print books these days. Up to now, however, these have only been original books, but it can be done with translations as well and I am currently in the process of self-publishing an out of print book as a translator.

Now you might ask yourself, why should I bother if I do not yet have a book in translation? Especially as a successful English language author you could be offered a translation contract by a foreign book publisher out of the blue. And in your excitement you may overlook the fineprint.

Or you might  have tried to get a contract with a foreign publisher for a while and all of a sudden it is finally happening and you are so keen on it that you gladly accept any terms and conditions they offer.

I believe it is important to know your rights from the start to be prepared and make the most of any books you have out there – or to make the most of your translation skills as a translator.

Books in translation can easily go out of print

I said it before and I am saying it again: authors are nowadays expected to do quite a bit of marketing themselves and this is rarely possible for books in translation if the author doesn’t speak the other language.

Foreign publishers will therefore usually do a special promotion for translated books in the beginning, but they cannot keep this up. I saw it myself in Germany when books that I translated were offered in large quantities for a very short time and then they vanished from the shops as fast as they had turned up.

If the author does not have a big name, this can lead to a book being “lost in translation” rather quickly.

Out of print can mean different things, however, depending on the clauses in the contract, and in the age of ebooks and print on demand a publisher could theoretically hold on to the rights forever, even if the book does not sell any copies at all. Would you not rather earn royalties instead?

Author and translator need each other…

In order to self-publish an out of print book, nobody can do it on their own but a translator needs to come to an agreement with the author and vice versa.

In general, translators need to do more than they are used to, above all marketing, at least unless the author is able to speak the language as well, which would be even better. On the other hand, more involvement of the normally invisible translator can also lead to a feeling of emporwerment for them. It has certainly felt like that for me. And who apart from the author knows a book that well and can decide whether it might be worthwhile to give it a try?

Most translators that I know are not even used to earning any royalties at all and this can be a totally new experience.

The German translation is now available at a special price for a short time only, e.g. via this link:

[easyazon_image align=”none” height=”160″ identifier=”B06XDRWWL2″ locale=”UK” src=”http://internationalselfpublishing.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/03/41IPBkAipCL.SL160-1.jpg” tag=”internaselfpu-21″ width=”100″]

I couldn’t resist using the following Star Trek analogy, especially because I translated so many Star Trek film subtitles in the past…

…to boldly go where no-one has gone before…

It is actually true: I did something new, I couldn’t find any role models for this project, despite extensive research and talking to a many people in the book industry and had to figure everything out by trial and error and. Although it was a lengthy procedure, I was determined to see it through .

Now I am happy to say I am self-publishing the out of print novel “Knowing Sophie – Die Unbekannte” by Brenda Little after coming to an agreement with the original right holders.

I have now learned more about the rights of translators and authors – or in my case the author’s heirs.

Most people and organisations that I asked for advice were encouraging and helpful, but a few experts told me I had to follow certain procedures, which according to them were essential, but they didn’t lead anywhere.

Next time I am going to tell you in detail what worked and what didn’t so that you do not have to repeat my mistakes and also what to pay attention to before signing a contract with a foreign publisher.

 

And if you fancy some inspiration to boldly go into new territory, I have a Star Trek music parody for you.
Warning: Only click on it if you are up for a little silliness 😉

 

 

 Read part 2 of this article: How to self-publish a book in translation – copyright issues

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My Experiments With International Email Subscription Services

23rd November 2015 By Tina Leave a Comment

Many bloggers have pointed out how they regretted not implementing opt-in forms to let readers sign up for email updates when they started blogging. I did, but apart from this English-language blog, I have another one in German. Therefore I was looking for a service that would allow me to use both languages – and it wasn’t as easy as I thought.

Why should I even bother to get email subscribers?

Even if you do not (yet) have many readers, it can be vital to find email subscribers from the start. Especially if you are not blogging regularly, it is great to be able to inform people, who are interested in your stuff about new articles. I used to have big gaps between my posts and am only now starting a more regular routine, so this function has been useful from the start.

Dealing with two languages turned out to be rather tricky, though, I wasn’t able to send any infos for quite a while and I will tell you more about this further down.

Let’s now start from the beginning.

First I chose the seemingly most international and professional provider

A company that receives so many good reviews from people around the world must be good for me, too, right? Unfortunately, AWeber turned out to be the wrong choice in my case. With them, it was very difficult to change opt-in forms to another language – most templates didn’t work for customization and sometimes I even needed special permission for using my own subject lines. I am sure they are useful if you are writing only in English, but AWeber are definitely not suitable for people who are looking for multilingual solutions and I had to find a different service.

Mailchimp can be customized, but it is not straightforward

This email subsription service can be customized in different languages, but it is a lot of work

I was happy to learn I could customize Mailchimp in different languages. There was a catch, though: it required a lot of effort. They provide automatic translations, but unsurprisingly with many mistakes. Don’t even think of using them if you are not fluent in the other language. Eventually I translated most of the various templates for subscribing, unsubscribing, changing subscriber details etc. myself from scratch.

Then I encountered another problem: I had translated the text on the “unscubsribe” and “update preferences” links as well, because I needed them to be in German, but Mailchimp does not allow you to do that. My account was blocked and I could not send any mails for quite a while – neither in German nor in English – without knowing what the problem actually was. With a lot of trial and error, I figured it out eventually: once I had changed the text back to English, they unblocked me.

Mailchimp themselves alert people to the fact that you need to give readers an option to unsubscribe and update their preferences according to international law. I don’t understand why they seem to believe having this option in English is enough for everyone. There are still many people, who don’t speak English and they would not be able to find these links.

I almost regretted chosing Mailchimp, but apart from the challenges mentioned above, I find them rather convenient to use. In my opinion, I cannot expect a great service from a provider that I don’t have to pay for so far. At least they allow me to send a large number of emails for free without using an additional German provider. And I have found my own solution for the untranslatable text: I left it in English (as there is no other way) and created a text box at the bottom of my German emails, saying which English language link people need to click on (leading to a German form that I was allowed to translate). Then I saved everything as an email template to avoid dealing with it manually each time.

Once I had my Mailchimp account up and running, I thought I needed to find a suitable plugin to put sign-in-forms on my blogs. With some more trial and error I discovered Mailchimp for WordPress. They have multilingual options and I found them handy to use in two languages.

Whenever people subscribed to my news, they could then also tick boxes, that is decide whether they wanted to receive an email whenever I publish a new blog post or receive a monthly newsletter. But all of a sudden this function stopped working. Maybe they want you to upgrade to a paid version to use it. I have now disovered I can put links to Mailchimp’s own subscription forms on my blogs, which ensures the multiple choice is still available. I may change my mind later and use html code to have these forms directly on my blogs, but I am not striving to be too perfect and am rather going to finish this blog post first 🙂

Most people are better off with an email provider in the required language

I am probably different from most people with my blogs in two languages and Mailchimp looks like the right solution for me. They could also be suitable for you if you are planning to publish anything in another language in future and want to give readers the option to sign up for information in that other language. If none of your texts are in English, however, think again whether you really want to deal with all the work that is required for customizing.

You can find providers in other languages that do not involve any translations and here is an example from Germany: if you speak German, you can make use of the recommendations by internet and blog expert Peer Wandiger. He prefers CleverReach for German mailings. CleverReach allows you to send a certain number of emails for free as well. And Peer’s blogs  “Selbstaendig im Netz” and “Blogprojekt” are also great sources of information on similar topics.

 

Related article: Overcoming language barriers with pictures

 

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