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 […]
Celebrating International Translation Day at the British Library 2015: Talking about Self-Publishing as A Panelist
Last Friday I attended a big event at the British Library to celebrate International Translation Day. It was an inspiring day and I was on the panel of one of the sessions to speak about self-publishing as a translator. This session was chaired by Stefan Tobler who spoke about starting out more or less as […]
It’s International Translation Day Today
Did you know that translators have a patron saint? Each year on 30 September, it’s International Translation Day, and a normally rather invisible industry becomes a bit more visible. There is a reason for this very date, as St Jerome, bible translator and patron saint of translators, who translated the bible from Hebrew, Aramaic and […]
The Power of Networking
Some incredible figures When it comes to work-related recommendations, nothing beats personal contacts. Yes, it is good to make connections online, but in my experience, personal meetings are even more effective. I first learned about this many years ago, when I attended a talk by Sabine Asgodom, who is a well known book author and […]
Haroldo Conti’s “Southeaster”: Talk with Translator and Self-Publisher Jon Lindsay Miles
A few days ago, I attended an event at the Free Word Centre here in London with Jon Lindsay Miles as the translator and self-publisher of “Sudeste”, a book that was originally published in Spanish. He talked to senior editor Sophie Lewis of And Other Stories, the publishing house that has now picked up […]
Retrieving Translation Copyrights: Important For Both Authors And Translators
Some authors are now retrieving their copyrights of out of print books and become self-publishers. But what happens to book translations that are no longer in print? The current situation If you are an author, you may feel lucky if a foreign publisher is publishing your book in translation. And for me as a translator […]
5 Reasons Why Self-Publishing Could Help To Get More Books Translated Into English
Many books are translated from English into other languages, but not vice versa. A certain rumour is wrong, though: There is no “stigma” attached to translations in the English-speaking world… they can be just as popular as original English books. The last London Book Fair was an eye opener for me: A bookseller told us, […]
What Do Translators Want?
I have had interesting discussions with other translators following my last article and Joanna Penn’s interview with me on her blog, therefore I am now writing a bit more about creative translations. Most of the literary translators I have talked to really like their work and none of them has been in it for the […]
“Translation Is Like Housework…
…it is only visible if it has been badly done.” Pieke Biermann, German literary translator and author, said this in an interview many years ago and there is a lot of truth in the statement. In a way, being invisible is actually required. The translation should be a good read in the same way as […]