Authors want to reach as many people as possible with their books. Naturally, that includes those who speak other languages. To accomplish that we have to have our books translated. Where can we go for said translation and how much will it cost?
In doing research I discovered there are many translation companies out there we can hire to translate. They have experienced, talented translators. Many testimonials from satisfied customers, and exorbitant fees to ‘prove’ they are good. I’m not saying that translators don’t work hard, because they do. But for most struggling authors who are not New York Times Bestsellers, paying thousands for the translation of one book is not feasible. Does that mean we can never have our books translated? Never reach the millions of people who speak other languages?
I decided I don’t want to miss out on that opportunity. So, I set out to translate one of my books. Being a native speaker of two languages, I decided to put my own skills to use and translate it myself. How hard can it be? Turns out, much harder than I thought. Even though I grew up speaking two languages simultaneously, there were a lot of words I did not know, which I had to look up. That takes time… lots of time. I discovered a good Spanish-English dictionary and thesaurus are invaluable. It also helped to read other books in my genre that had been translated to see how they are formatted.
In the end, after several weeks of challenging work, I have completed the translation of Tender Triumph. Next step, I will send it to a professional editor/proofreader to be polished. Once that is done I can send it to the publishing company.
I was fortunate to have the skill needed to translate my book and not have to pay thousands of dollars to a professional translator. I certainly don’t have the $.09-$.14 cents per word they normally charge. At that rate, the work I did would have cost me roughly $1500.
That is my translation story. Tell me yours. Have any of you had a book translated or read a translated book?
Ruth Roberts 