Interview with Historical Western & Contemporary Romance Author Kristy McCaffrey
From the Wild West to the world: Kristy McCaffrey talks to us about her experience taking her romance novels global! Award-winning historical western and contemporary romance author Kristy McCaffrey has captivated readers with tales of rugged cowboys, bounty hunters, sweeping landscapes, and fierce, independent heroines. But her stories don’t just resonate with English-speaking readers—they’ve found an enthusiastic audience across the world as well. In this exclusive interview, Kristy shares her experience bringing her books to new readers through foreign editions in Italian, German, and French. From the translation process to navigating international markets, she shares her experiences with the rewards, challenges, and surprises of expanding her publishing journey beyond the English market. If you’re curious about how romance travels or simply dreaming of taking your own stories global, Kristy’s insights are not to be missed.
Hello, Kristy, and welcome to Spanish Book Translations! Would you like to introduce yourself and briefly tell us a bit about your career as an author? (For example, when did you start writing and publishing? Are you a traditionally published author, or are you an indie or hybrid writer? How has your author brand developed over the years?)
Kristy McCaffrey: Thanks for having me! I’ve been published since 2003. I began with a small press and eventually started self-publishing. It took about ten years to turn my hobby of writing into a business.
What made you decide to translate your series Wings of the West into French, Italian, and German? What market did you explore first and why?
KM: I wanted to begin building an infrastructure for my business and I decided to begin with translations over audio. I started with German, and I spent two years investigating how to do it. Germany has a strong literary market, and I knew they liked American westerns (from my husband’s German business contacts), so it made sense to begin there. Once I felt comfortable with managing those translations, I moved into Italian and then French.
Winds of the West – Kristy McCaffrey – German translations
What research did you do before choosing which languages to translate into, and how did you approach book translations?
KM: Most of my research was looking for good translators. I’m in many author groups on Facebook, so I used recommendations from other writers. That led me to my German translators, a company called Indie Translations, run by two wonderful women. They were more expensive than most, but they offered a translator, an editor, and a proofreader (all different people), and that type of quality was important to me. Unfortunately, they no longer translate as they wanted to pursue their own author careers.
How did you find the right professionals to handle your foreign editions? How did you test their skill set and experience? Did you always work with the same linguist team in each language? Do you think this is important? If so, why?
KM: As I mentioned above, the German translations were handled by Indie Translations, so I didn’t pick the professionals involved. I had two different translators for the four books they worked on, and I was happy with both.
For Italian, I went through TekTime initially. That’s where I found my Italian translator, Rosa. TekTime is a royalty share translation company, which is very beneficial if you can’t afford to pay for translations up front. To screen the submissions, I reached out once again to my husband’s business contacts, this time in Italy. Unfortunately, these men and their wives weren’t romance readers, so while they could tell me if a translation made sense, they had no feel for whether it had a romantic flair to it.
Ultimately, I contacted another romance author who had worked with Rosa and, based on that recommendation, I moved forward. After the first translation, I chose to work with Rosa directly for the next three books, since I wanted more control over those projects. When she was unable to translate the fifth book due to health issues, I found my second Italian translator, Roberta, by word of mouth. I had no problem switching translators because Roberta matched the style and verb tense used in the previous four books.
For French, I went with a company, Valentin Translations. Again, based on recommendations in the author community.
Winds of the West – Kristy McCaffrey – Italian translations
How much say did you have in the decision-making process during the translations for each language? How long did the process take, and what was that experience like?
KM: Most of the translations took 3-5 months per book, and the translators reached out to me with questions if there was something they didn’t understand. Generally, everything went smoothly. Since I don’t speak any of those languages, it was a leap of faith for me to enter the translation world, and I really had to trust who I was working with.
To date, you have released the first five books in the Wings of the West series for the French market, the first seven books for the German market, and the first five books for the Italian market. All these titles seem to have been received very well by foreign-speaking readers, based on the high number of reviews and their ratings. Could you tell us a bit about this experience? What does it feel like to reach new markets with your writing? What were your initial expectations? Were they met? Are you planning on translating the rest of the series?
KM: It’s been fun to reach readers around the world, but I can’t deny that it’s a challenge to market and interact with fans because of the language barriers.
Entering these new markets, I kept my expectations pretty low since I’m not in a popular genre (historical western romances). My progress is more slow and steady rather than blockbuster.
When I began translating my Western series, there were only five books, so I committed to these in all three languages. As in the English market, the deeper a series is, the easier it can be to market. But although I’ve added to the English series — four more novels and another coming —, I decided to halt translations for now. It’s been a lot to manage, and I needed a break.
Now, about book sales: How do the sales of the translated books compare to the titles published in the English market? Did you recover the investment in translation costs? If so, how quickly? If not, how long do you think it might take at this rate? Do you think having an established author brand beforehand helped you succeed in a new market?
KM: The translated books performed well in the beginning, on par with the English books, but each year, sales have declined. Book markets have become more saturated, and it was easier to move books ten years ago. It requires much more advertising to gain discoverability today.
I appreciate that you consider me to have an established author brand. But in truth, I don’t have much name recognition, and that has definitely affected my ability to sell in other markets, especially German. None of my translations have earned out, although my German ones are in the black because I had profit set aside for the initial investment. I estimate it will take me an additional six years to break even on the Italian books and four years for the French ones.
I’ve always considered translations to be a long-term investment because American historical Western romances are a smaller genre than others. It helps to study the markets in other countries before moving forward. One way to do this is to study the top listings at Amazon in the language you’re interested in and see if there are any books like the ones you have. For instance, I looked into translating in Portuguese but couldn’t seem to find any books like mine doing well in that market.
Would you like to share what your main concerns were when hiring a translator and an editor, and how you handled them? What advice would you offer to other indies dealing with similar fears?
KM: The main criteria I had for the translator was that they have experience and appreciation for the romance genre because the prose can be a bit stylistic. If they’ve translated for another romance author, then that recommendation can be golden. Many of my translators are authors themselves, so that’s a big plus. The hardest part is vetting potential translators, so you may need to pay to have someone read through submissions.
As for fears, I’ll reiterate that this requires a leap of faith and a certain letting go of the process, of trusting those you hire. I’ve not had any bad experiences, but I was cautious and did my due diligence before contracting with someone. (Reaching out to authors they’ve worked with, looking at the number of translations they’ve done, along with what they charge.)
In terms of marketing foreign titles, how do you approach this? Do you have a special Newsletter to connect with foreign readers and let them know about your releases in their language? Do you share updates on social media? Is this something you outsource altogether? How different are your English marketing campaigns from the French, Italian, and German ones?
KM: I have a small German newsletter, and I tried to build French and Italian newsletters but that was a bust, so I’ve abandoned it. I post on social media, but mostly I run Amazon AMS ads, along with Facebook ads. It’s the same strategy I use for my English books, and some of it (like FB ads) works better in Italy and France than in the U.S. or Germany. Those markets are far more competitive and expensive.
My German books started in Kindle Unlimited, but I now market them wide, and I make more money doing this. Mostly distributing through Tolino, which gets me into more German markets, and Tolino has been very helpful with getting me advertising deals. I can also submit to Buchdeals, which is like a German BookBub.
The reverse has been true for the Italian and French books. I did well initially having Italian wide but after the first year sales died, and I couldn’t revive them. So I put them into Kindle Unlimited, and they’ve been doing much better. The French books also do well in KU, so I have no plans to take them wide anytime soon.
Have you received any specific feedback on the quality of the translations? Are there any recurring comments that keep showing up?
KM: In general, when I read the reviews, any complaints are about the story itself, so that’s on me. I take that as a good sign that the translations are good and didn’t impede the enjoyment of the book.
Would you recommend other authors to explore the exploitation of foreign rights? In your opinion, is it worth the time and investment? If so, what advice would you give to other writers in your genre?
KM: It’s definitely worth considering, but there can be a substantial financial investment if you choose to pay up front (vs. royalty share). I only did one book as royalty share via TekTime, and I ultimately bought out that contract because I wanted more control of the distribution. I also feel that good translators deserve to be paid for their work and that the risk of selling the book should be on me.
So, my advice is this — know yourself and your finances. Understand how much risk you’re willing to take. If you’re looking at going into debt over this, I would advise waiting. Historical western romance is a small genre but with a fairly devoted readership if you can tap into it. Other genres will have different outcomes, but in the end, publishing is a very speculative business. There are no guarantees.
And one last thing — when working with a translator, check if they have an editor/proofreader they like to work with. If they don’t, then it will be on you to find one, and if they don’t have a compatible working style, then it can cause a bit of stress on your end.
Lately, there has been an increase in the use of AI translation, including for literary translation. As an author who has worked with human translators and editors, what do you think about this trend?
KM: I do understand how the financial aspect of translating can be daunting for some. But the nuances required in translations can only be done by a human, and preferably one who understands fiction, genres, and the inevitable cultural expectations of that language.
What is next in your writing journey? Are you planning new books? Are you considering translating into new languages? If so, which ones have crossed your mind, and why?
KM: My translations are on pause while I regroup. I’ve been hoping to move into audio (English) and am trying to save for that. While I’ve considered other translation languages (Portuguese, as I mentioned, as well as Spanish), I’ll probably continue in the ones I’m already working in. German would likely be at the top, but as it’s three times as expensive, I may pursue French or Italian first.
Winds of the West – Kristy McCaffrey – French translations
Are there any final words or advice you would like to share?
KM: While it’s possible to contract your foreign rights to a third party, it can be advantageous to handle translations yourself. If you pay outright, you control the covers, titles, formatting, distribution, and pricing. You can choose Kindle Unlimited or go wide, and if either doesn’t work, you can pivot quickly to the other.
But you can also choose royalty share. TekTime was easy to work with. They take a small percentage of your sales, and initially, most royalties go to the translator. It shifts as the book begins to earn out. They allow you to produce your own cover and formatting. They distribute wide (to all major channels) and they allow you to choose your price. But they do own the book for five years. (I bought out my contract early because I wanted to enter KU. The cost was reasonable, the buyout went mostly to the translator, and the process was straightforward.)
I hope this helps!
Thank you so much for your time today, Kristy! We are thrilled to learn from your experience in foreign markets. Sincerely, we hope this interview will shed some light on the sometimes obscure world of literary translations and inspire many authors out there to explore new ways of exploiting their foreign rights.
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Dear Carolina and Ayelen,
Thanks for having me!
Kristy xx
Thank you for sharing your knowledge and experience with us!
Great interview! Very informative. And I’m in awe of your indie greatness, Kristy. That’s a lot of plates to keep spinning.
Thank you, Melissa! It means a lot coming from you. 🙂
Thank you, Melissa! We’re so glad you could take something from it!