BLOG: INTERNATIONAL SELF-PUBLISHING

This blog is about the joys and challenges of self-publishing worldwide

Roller Coaster Writing in Difficult Times

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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.meeutp.com with other options worldwide) or shutupwrite.com.

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. This 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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Happy Birthday, Buecherfrauen!

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It’s Women in Publishing (“Bücherfrauen“) Germany’s 25th anniversary this year. There is a big celebration coming up at the Frankfurt Book Fair this week, and here is my tribute to this great network.

First I woul like to clarify something: I don’t want any men to freak out and think with an organization like this, women want to turn things around and try and dominate you now 😉

Women in Publishing’s motto is: “For women, but not against men”.

Celebrating buecherfrauen networkingThe network was founded because there have always been a lot of women working in publishing, but in the beginning there was no woman at all at the top and even today there are still not that many.

I wrote about the power of networking earlier in another article and Buecherfrauen have certainly been a powerful network for me. Many years ago, I joined them in Germany, I attended events and sometimes helped organizing them as well. I would now like to say thank you to some of the women that I met somewhere along the way:

First of all thank you Marlies for telling me about the network in the first place. Thank you also to my first small local group in the North-West of Germany in the Bielefeld/Osnabrück area about 15 years ago for welcoming, inspiring and motivating me to follow my passion. Thank you to Inge, who was part of the group and introduced me to a big publishing house. And Inge did a great job last year editing “Pentecost”, the first self-published book that I translated into German. Thank you to Eva for offering to let me sleep on her couch in Frankfurt this year in case I wouldn’t find any other place to stay – it is a shame I can now not make it, but I hope I will be able to attend again next year!

Thank you to everyone whom I have met during all these years. And when I moved to London, it was only natural to join the sister organisation Women in Publishing in the UK – I was part of the committee here for several years and it was great to make new friends and continue networking in a different country, but in a similar way.

Here’s to everyone who has contributed to making the organization a success.

Happy birthday and cheers to you all!
anniversary-157521_640[If you are reading the following dates after October 2015, they will be outdated, but there are other interesting events at the Book Fair each year]

These are the details of the main event at the Frankfurt Book Fair:

There will be an award ceremony for the “Woman in Publishing of the Year”, the prize goes to Frauke Ehlers, long standing member of the network, the laudatory speech will be held by Silke Weniger and a welcoming speech by Federal Minister Manuela Schwesig, followed by the actual party.

Thursday, 15/10/2015
4:30 – 6:30 pm

Reading Zone of Independent Publishers
4.1 C37
Exhibition site

Before this event at the same place from 3.30 – 4.30 pm  there is another one, also organized by Buecherfrauen:

A talk with Indonesian Women in Publishing about literature and the book trade in Indonesia – the country is the Fair’s guest of honour this year.

Participants:

Laura Prinsloo of  Kesint Blanc Publishing

Kartini Nurdin of Yasayan Pustaka Obor

chaired by Eva Streifeneder

 

In addition, you can find Buecherfrauen at their stall 4.1 D55

You might also be interested in the following Book Fair event:

LiBeraturpreis 2015: Madeleine Thien

The LiBeraturpreis is the only German literature prize that is awarded exclusively to women from Africa, Asia, Latin America or the Arab World. In 2015, Madeleine Thien will receive the award for her novel “Dogs at the Perimeter” (German title: “Flüchtige Seelen”, Luchterhand 2014, translated by Almuth Carstens), which deals with the repercussions of the terror regime of the Khmer Rouge.

Saturday, 17/10/2015
4.30 – 5.30 pm

Venue:

Weltempfang – Stage, 3.1 L25,  Exhibition site

 

And if you speak German, you may like to read another tribute to Buecherfrauen, written by German author Nina George.

 

Related article: The Power of Networking

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Celebrating International Translation Day at the British Library 2015: Talking about Self-Publishing as A Panelist

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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 a self-publisher, but then starting his own publishing house with translated literature as a labour of love. He recently published “Southeaster”, a book that was first self-published by the translator and I wrote about this earlier in another blog post.

The other speaker was Rachel Ward, a translator who has worked with self-published authors herself and she mentioned her mostly enjoyable experience. Only a recent experience wasn’t so positive, because the rules how to work together had not been clear enough. And she talked about a problem that is generally not uncommon for those who translate into English: The author had a certain knowledge of English and wanted to interfere a lot to make his or her voice heard.

I personally have never had this problem, because I translate into German and none of the authors I worked with spoke my language. My problem is a different one: the rates for translations into a language other than English are usually low and I live in London, which is an expensive place, therefore I wasn’t able to continue working for German publishing houses when I moved here and I have been looking for new models to make a living.

At some point, I found out that translators have the right to self-publish a book if they hold the translation copyright, and if they do not hold it, they can get it back from the publishing house that published the translation. In addition, they need permission of the original copyright holder. (See another of my articles re. the procedures).

Then I mentioned the platform Babelcube, where self-published authors and translators can find each other to work together. Even though I like the idea, I am not happy about the fact that translators receive fewer royalties when a book becomes more successful. Therefore I would not work with them myself and only recommend the platform for beginners who are desperate to get some experience.

Apart from Amazon, which the majority of self-publishers are using to self-publish a book, there are other platforms like Smashwords which make sure an ebook is published in various other ebook stores. Neither Amazon nor Smashwords require you to pay anything upfront – they simply take a percentage of the royalties.

And someone in the audience asked whether it can hurt a translator and make them look less professional if they do self-published books. To this I replied, not in my experience, I even received an offer from a German publisher who liked my self-published translation, without applying for it and I had to refuse because I cannot affort to work for their rates. My advice is as followos: make sure the result looks professional and it doesn’t matter whether a book is self-published or not. I have even seen quite a few self-published books that looked more professional than certain traditionally published ones!

The way I got into self-publishing myself was through the cooperation with self-published British author and blogger Joanna Penn on a split-royalty basis, because I knew I could learn a lot about the process by doing this and here is a link to an interview she did with me regarding my work.

On the whole, I see a variety of potential ways how translators can earn an income these days:

  • Being paid by a publishing house or self-published author, for example per 1,000 words (the traditional model);
  • receiving a certain flat fee for a translation plus royalties;
  • working on a split-royalty basis;
  • using copyrights of out of print books;
  • especially for English native speakers: finding books that you think are worthwhile to be translated and help to get more books translated into English, not just by pitching to publishing houses, but also by self-publishing;
  • and last but not least: why not write your own books as well and even have them translated by colleagues who translate the other way round or with different language combinations? Whatever your plans and preferences look like: the power of networking can help you in every respect.

I have often heard self-published authors say they needed more than one book to make serious money and I think this can work for translators as well with a mixture of different models, as marketing one book can help to make others visible as well – the more you have out there, the better.

And I would love to see more translators as authors – I am sure, many have books in them – translation is a great preparation for writing after all.

But authors could also be translators, if they have a certain standard of language skills. I am sure some authors would be capable of doing this – provided they have a good edtitor – this would make sure they keep more of their own voice and they do not have to annoy translators by trying to interfere too much.

 

You can read more about the event on my fellow panelist Rachel’s blog here

 

And see also my related article: 5 Reasons Why Self-Publishing Could Help To Get More Books Translated Into English

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The Power of Networking

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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 coach in Germany. She presented the audience with these figures:

So what are you waiting for?

In the beginning, I could hardly believe it, but the more I got into networking myself, the more I actually understood that this was not exaggerated. Of course, the 10 % achievements are still vital, but never underestimate the power of networking.

When I think of all the contacts I have made over the years, the opportunities that have come up and frelance jobs that I was able to do just because someone recommended me for something, I can definitely confirm these figures from my own experience.

Is it ethical?

Sometimes I meet people who have moral doubts about networking, they apologize for taking opportunities through contacts and believe they should have achieved everything in a “better” way. Don’t feel guilty, this is how most opportunities come up for everyone else as well, you were just not aware of it.

Those who have doubts are usually thinking of some kind of corruption and taking advantage of others, but this is not networking.

A book with networking advice

Now let’s talk about how to proceed when you are approaching someone you would like to network with. I would definitely think first what you have to give them and only afterwards what they may have to give you.

The book Give and Take gives valuable information and networking advice. And author Adam Grant is also providing a strategy to make sure others are not walking all over you after you have been generous first.

Useful organizations for authors and translators

Joining relevant organizations can make networking easier and I have tried out a numer of them. I am a member of the Society of Authors in the UK, because I find their legal advice and networking opportunities are just what I need – and they give legal advice to both translators and authors.

You can nowadays even join as a self-published author, if you have sold a certain number of books – just check out their eligibility criteria. And they have a network for emerging translators as well.

As a self-published author or someone who would like to beome one, you might also like to join the Alliance of Independent Authors.

Male and female networks

Networks have a long tradition and in the past they were often known as “old boys” networks, which excluded women and therefore women founded their own networks, for example Women in Publishing or Women in Journalism in the UK. A while ago, a man said to me: “It’s not fair, I want a network like this for men as well.” My answer was easy: nobody prevents you from setting up your own “new boys” network. 😉

You can argue whether female networks are still necessary today – theoretically women and men should now be equal, at least where I live. Conditions have definitely improved for women, but we are not quite there yet.

I believe we still need women only organizations, especially with the current influx of refugees in Europe. Although I am very much in favour of supporting refugees, I feel strongly about not going backwards, as they are usually from countries where females have far fewer rights than in our part of the world. In my opinion, women’s organizations can make a positive impact.

 

Related article on a female network: Happy Birthday, Buecherfrauen!

 

 

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Overcoming Language Barriers with Pictures

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It’s a visual world and we may use it to our advantage

If you are reading this, I assume you like the written word, but let’s face it, what captivates and inspires our imagination more than anything? Pictures evoke immediate emotional reactions. They can therefore draw attention to material in foreign languages and spark curiosity.

Book covers can make an impact around the world

In my opinion, book covers can play an important role in achieving global success. One example is the cover of Er ist wieder da with the now well known Hitler image. The picture draws you in, even if you do not understand the language and you just want to know what this is all about. Unsurprisingly, the book was translated into many languages and they kept the idea of the image for all foreign editions.

Music is different

I used to think that English is accepted around the world and if in doubt, I would still go for it, but I discovered that hardly anyone of those who read my German blog are interested in what I say in English on social media.

When it comes to texts like books and blogs, I have the feeling that most readers are still expecting discussions in a language that they are really comfortable with, and this is usually their mother tongue.

In another article I touched on how social media in English works for international music, but I have now come to the conclusion that you cannot always compare it to books, articles and other texts. Like pictures, it appeals more directly to our emotions and in most cases, lyrics are not that important and they don’t have to be understood to enjoy the songs. Once the audience really likes or dislikes a piece of music though, people are more willing to discuss it in English, however basic their English knowledge may be. Sometimes they comment in their own language, even if hardly anyone else is able to understand it. And many listeners seem to care more about the visual appearance of musicians than about song texts. On the other hand, music itself can bring people from differnt countries together.

Pinterest is a visual social media platform

Thanks to blogger Renate Oetjens, who explained the benefits to me, I have now joined Pinterest. This social media platform relies very much on pictures and images do indeed often speak louder than words. I am still a newbie on this platform and I am learning more every day.

On Pinterest, you usually discover pictures before persons, although you can follow individuals if you want to. Therefore it shouldn’t be a problem to use the platform in more than one language, whereas this can sometimes frustrate people elsewhere if they have no clue what you are talking about and might feel left out when something interesting seems to happen in a language they do not understand.

At the recent Problogger conference, one of the speakers even described Pinterest as a “must” for bloggers. As much as I like it myself – in my opinion, nobody has to use a certain platform if it is not for them for whatever reason. For example, most people say you have to be on Facebook, but I disagree. I think it helps to really like what you are doing, otherwise you might give up sooner rather than later or readers can tell that you are doing something only half-heartedly. If you want a strong focus on pictures but don’t like Pinterest, you might prefer Instagram or Flickr instead as visually focused social media platforms.

Videos are popular and don’t always need spoken words

When it comes to visuals, one medium holds special attraction for many and that is videos and they can be shared on Pinterest as well. Therefore I have experimented again and created a new mini video with images and subtitles to show you another way to combine visuals with more than one language. This time, the film has no spoken audio, but comes with subtitles in English and German. You could even add more languages, if you wanted to. In case you are wondering: the music that I am using is from YouTube’s own audio library and I took the pictures myself, therefore I didn’t have to worry about copyright.

You can activate and deactivate the subtitles by clicking on “CC” at the bottom of the video once it is playing and if it doesn’t show the language you are looking for, the settings can be changed via the icon next to it.

 

 

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Social Media For International Self-Publishers

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It’s been a while since I last posted anything on this blog, but I needed some time to figure out what to do next, as communicating in more than one language isn’t always straightforward, especially when it comes to social media.

 

Multilingual communication can be challenging

I have done a lot of experiments and research and there is much information about social media on the internet, but unfortunately, most of it doesn’t work well for me. Especially Facebook has never been something that I enjoyed very much and I have given up on it for the time being. I tried to create different pages in different languages, but it was too much work and didn’t really lead anywhere. I still have a private Facebook account, where I find posts in different languages due to my very international contacts, and sometimes I see interesting posts that I can hardly read and often not at all, let alone comment on them. As much as I am in favour of learning as many languages as possible, there is simply a limit to it. Nobody can speak every language on the planet. I had to find a different solution for my needs, as I do not have one dominant language, but I communicate about as much in German as in English.

YouTube videos with subtitles in different languages

I have now decided to create a YouTube channel with audio in either English or German and subtitles in at least the other language. The following short video was mainly created for my German blog about London, therefore I have recorded the audio in German, but by clicking on CC you can choose to watch it with English subtitles. The subtitles allow me to use videos for my English as well as for my German blog at the same time and I am planning to do more subtitled videos in various other formats in future.

Here is my first short and humble video:

 

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