1. Bakkerbaard

    Bakkerbaard Contributor Contributor

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    About translations

    Discussion in 'Self-Publishing' started by Bakkerbaard, Aug 29, 2021.

    Can't really find any thread on translating, nor where to put this one, so since I'm self publishing, here it is.

    How to go about it?

    Theoretically, I could do the English to Dutch version myself, but I don't want to, for starters. And though I speak both languages well enough individually, I sometimes have trouble linking a word in one language to the proper one in the other. Context, and all that.

    Now, I'm pretty much interested in getting an English-Dutch translation going, because my mom says she'll read the English just fine, but... I've heard her speak.
    Anyway, preliminary calculations put the translation of a 98k novel just shy of 10,000 euros.
    This is slightly above budget.

    That can't be right, can it?

    I've been looking at some services, and this Babelcube thing looks promising. In the sense of "too good to be true". Which usually means it is.
    For a mere 15% of the royalties they'll translate and distribute. You'll have to prepare for distribution yourself, but why isn't everybody doing this?

    Unrelated to the Babel-thing, on top of the translation costs, I should be expecting to pay the cover artist and typesetter again too, shouldn't I?

    Anyway, some interesting tips on getting translation(s) going would be cool.
     
  2. SapereAude

    SapereAude Contributor Contributor

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    I am currently doing a translation for the assistant pastor of my church, from Spanish to English. The English is no problem -- I'm a native-born American speaker of English, my grandparents were both highly educated and made it a practice to ensure that their grandchildren spoke (and wrote) correct English, and I was one credit shy of an English major in college. Spanish, on the other hand, I speak only conversationally and imperfectly.

    I have tried Bing Translator and Google Translator, and I found both of them to be rather bad. I now use a translator called DeepL, which is fairly new and (IMHO) pretty good. There is a free version on-line and as a download, and you can upgrade to a Pro version that does longer passages in one pass. DeepL comes out of Europe and it includes Dutch. It might be worth a look.

    https://www.deepl.com/home

    [For the record, the pastor knows that my Spanish isn't great. I would not volunteer to translate from English into Spanish, but I am comfortable using DeepL to go from Spanish to English, because I'm well qualified to clean up the resulting text.]

    Here's a translation service that wants 20 cents per word for English to Dutch. For 98 thousand words, that works out to $19,600. ( don't know what the exchange rate is from dollars to Euros, but I'm sure that comes to more than 10,000 Euros.)

    http://www.professionaltranslation.com/price-list

    Here's one that estimates £ 12,740.00. Again, I don't know the current rate of exchange from pounds to Euros, but it doesn't appear that the 10,000 Euros price you have is unreasonable.

    https://www.atlas-translations.co.uk/price-calculator/

    Basically, all those people have to sell is their time. Changing a book cover to a different language is less work (less time) than the original layout, so you should expect to pay for it but probably not as much as the original design cost. I would guesstimate perhaps one-third to one-half the cost. How are covers laid out in The Netherlands? In the U.S., when a book is laid on a table with the front cover up, the spine is right-side-up and can be read. I know in my late wife's native country it's the opposite -- when a book is laid on a table, the spine is upside-down. So your cover artist might also have to flip the spine -- which also isn't a big deal, but it does involve his/her time.

    I don't see any way to reduce the cost of typesetting a book in a different language. To do it correctly, the typesetter has to go through every single page, the same as for the original edition.
     
    Last edited: Sep 12, 2021
  3. JLT

    JLT Contributor Contributor

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    That's a problem that Albert Schweitzer encountered when he was asked to translate his memoir Out of My Life and Thought from German to French. (Or was it the other way around? I've forgotten.) As an Alsatian, he was fluent in both languages.

    But when he underwent the translation process, he found that he couldn't simply translate the work, because nuances were lost. So he ended up writing the book all over again. Most of the English translations of the book are a blend of these two separate works.

    That said, I don't have much to add, except that a beta reader who is Dutch might be able to help you. Ideally, that person would also be fluent in both languages.
     
  4. marshipan

    marshipan Contributor Contributor

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    Translations are very expensive and you won't see many self publishers doing it because of that. I've been hearing more about self publishers getting agents and then selling specific rights, such as paperback rights or translation rights, to publishing houses. Though that only happens if you are pretty successful, as far as I know.
     
  5. Bakkerbaard

    Bakkerbaard Contributor Contributor

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    Somehow I missed your reply earlier.
    Anyway, I'll have a look at DeepL. See if that could help me expediate the process.

    Yeah. Yup. Hm-hm.
    Looks like with the current exchange rate it comes to exactly mom-should-start-brushing-up-on-her-English euros.

    My neck hurts on the right, when I pass the bookcase, so that would make it the same as US.

    I have a beautifully archived CD collection. Alphabetized per band and chronological per that band's album. It's just glorious.
    Except for the two feckin' albums that have the spine printed upside-down. Sometimes I cry a little bit when I pass them.

    Well, nuance is probably not what my story will ever be known for. But it's packed with stuff that only works in English. It could be translated, but I fear I couldn't bring myself to "butcher" it.

    Secretly, that's what I'm hoping for.
    This thread, however, is my realistic side asking questions. ;o)
     
  6. SapereAude

    SapereAude Contributor Contributor

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    As I commented, I'm using DeepL to do the initial translation of my pastor's manuscript from Spanish to English. It's not perfect, but it is light years ahead of the mess that Bing Translator and Google Translator create. For a technical edit, the machine translation doesn't need a whole lot of cleaning up. The manuscript could really benefit immensely from a developmental edit, but that should be performed on the original Spanish version, and I'm certain the padre doesn't have the money to pay for a developmental edit even if we could find someone who can do it in Spanish. So the good padre will have to make do with my humble efforts.

    Maybe.

    I just sent off the first few chapters of both versions to an old girlfriend who is bi-lingual. She has agreed to take a quick look at it and let me know how bad my edited translation is. If she says it stinks, I may have to reevaluate my opinion of DeepL.
     
    Last edited: Sep 12, 2021
    Bakkerbaard likes this.
  7. SapereAude

    SapereAude Contributor Contributor

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    Update: I sent the translation of the first six chapters to the padre, with just a quick editorial clean-up. He's very pleased with it, so I still feel comfortable suggesting DeepL as a translation tool.
     
  8. Bakkerbaard

    Bakkerbaard Contributor Contributor

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    I keep missing notifications that you replied. Fortunate then, that I came here for an update of the same caliber.
    I've done the first chapter of my book, translating paragraph by paragraph, and I have to say that DeepL does a pretty good job indeed. It doesn't need very much hand-holding. Translations are contextually accurate, within reason, though they sometimes feel a little old fashioned.

    Sterling suggestion. Makes translating the whole bastard myself a lot more doable.
     

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