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Should I Hire Several Translators for My Book Series?

Should I Hire Several Translators for My Book Series?

Up to now, we have deeply analysed what Literary Translation is. Then we have looked at some red flags that will help you stay away from bad linguists. So, it might be a good time to start thinking about effective ways to enter new markets through translations.

Most indie authors who have been in the authorship business for a while must have heard, at the very least, about the rapid release strategy other indies use when launching titles in the same series or universe.

The strategy basically consists of holding off the launch of the titles that make up a series until it is complete (or almost complete) and then proceeding to release the books in short intervals. This technique offers authors tempting benefits, such as getting readers hooked and reading the author’s series non-stop. This can easily result in increased sales and potentially reaching #1 New Release on their Amazon categories, for example.

Nonetheless, not everything that shines is gold. In fact, this strategy also has its cons, which is why some experts think it only works for established writers with a solid fan base and a good author platform.

Now, When it Comes to Translating Books: Is this the Right Approach?

Authors often feel tempted to hire several translators to work on different titles in the same series in order to release faster. After all, the book is already written. So, why should they wait for the three to four months it’d take one professional translator to do the job when they can have a whole series translated in the same amount of time?

All in all, it certainly sounds like irrefutable logic, right?

However, first as an avid reader (one of those binge-readers even) and second as a literary translator, I strongly recommend you not to do this. Even though the pros of this decision might seem to surpass the cons, more often than not the reality proves to be different.

On the one hand, each literary translator possesses unique knowledge, creativity, and skill which are, of course, reflected in their translations. On the other hand, as they perform their work, they must make decisions or resort to different techniques, resources and literary devices to solve translation problems and overcome obstacles. Multiple ways of solving these issues might be equally valid, and the truth is there might be as many ways of solving them as translators available.

Maybe Not...

Once readers get used to their voice, which is the translator’s take on the voice of the author, changing narrators might not be the best call. As a matter of fact, it could even backfire on you due to the potentially jarring change in tone.

One of the greatest advantages of sticking to your translator for a whole series is that this one professional knows the whole story. Thus, the translator is familiar with all its subtleties, characters, settings, and every detail that makes the narrative and the author’s voice. Your readers might get deeply upset when encountering inconsistencies in a series. And this is more likely to happen the more different translators work on the same series, even if your translators work together and share a glossary of terms.

No doubt, you have made a huge investment in finding the right professionals (not just your translator, but also the translations’ editor, the cover artist, the book formatter, etc.). And that is why you should be aiming to make sales, not lose readers who will get irritated by the change of narrative on the second or third book in your series.

It is okay to feel eager to enter a new market, to connect with a new audience, and to want to please your readers with quicker releases. But as a rule of thumb, remember what Bruce Lee once said:

“Long-term consistency trumps short-term intensity.”

This does not mean you can’t aim for a quick release schedule and have to launch three or four translated titles a year (depending on your translator’s turnaround and availability).

What You Can Do Instead...

If you have decided to have your titles translated into Spanish (or any other language, for that matter) and are hell-bent on launching your books as quickly as possible, you could do what many writers do when choosing the rapid release strategy:

Choose your translator based not only on their experience and skill, but also on their availability and turnaround
Consider increasing your translators’ fees in exchange for exclusivity and faster turnaround. (But bear in mind, some professionals will decline these sorts of offers)
Hold off the release date until more books in the series are available (though if you do this and you haven’t worked with the translator before, it’d be a good idea to ask a few native speakers to beta read for you. This way, you can make sure the audience won’t find any issues with the translation when you release a couple of books in a row)
Start connecting with your Spanish speaking audience before launching your first book; generate momentum! (Psst! You probably have a lot more Spanish speaking readers on your social media or Newsletter list than you know!)
Start building book buzz for your upcoming translated titles (work with your translator and hire a professional graphic designer)
Do not delegate marketing translations to someone else to keep your translator focused on your books. Do not underestimate your audience. Remember readers will judge the quality of your work based on the translation of your marketing campaigns and if they find your social media content poor and unengaging in their language, they’ll certainly not be buying your books
Get your audience involved and have them become your first fans (ask them to review your ARCs of your Spanish translations and to join your Spanish Street Team)
If you absolutely must, hire a second translator to start working on a different series

Final Thoughts

As a literary translator, meeting authors who are successful in their markets and have done thorough research to effectively reach new audiences is always a thrill. Especially when they’re ready to dive in!

However, when it comes to the world of translations, there seems to be a lot of (un)reliable sources providing incomplete or incorrect information which might prove harmful both to authors and translators; for example, encouraging authors to make potentially bad decisions when it comes to exploiting their foreign rights.

As discussed in several instances in this blog and in our upcoming book, literary translation is a profession that requires much more than the ability to write a text in a foreign language.

I hope this article sheds some light on what literary translation really is and the importance of not taking your future new audience for granted. Instead, I strongly encourage you to respect it and have fun getting to know it.

Lastly, please don’t take literary translation advice from people who simply write advice on where to find the cheapest translators (a.k.a., not skilled or professionals), how to make “the most” of your investment the fastest way possible or how these professionals should be paid. After all, would you tell an accountant how much they should charge you for completing your yearly tax forms?

Understandably, this is a new subject for you, so you should be excited to explore it and find out all there is to know about this profession and how working with the right professionals will benefit you as an author.

And even though at SBT we might not always have availability to take on new customers, we’d be happy to answer any literary translation questions you might have in the comments or on a separate post, so don’t hesitate to share your thoughts and inquiries.

This post may contain affiliate links

Carolina García Stroschein

English > Spanish Literary Translator

Contact me

Should I Hire Several Translators for My Book Series? Read More »

5 Common Mistakes All Untrained Literary Translators Make and How to Avoid Working with a Bad Linguist

5 Common Mistakes All Untrained Literary Translators Make and How to Avoid Working with a Bad Linguist

Translating a book into any language requires much more than speaking a language. It’s a work of skill that calls for a proficient understanding of the source language, deep knowledge of the target language’s grammar, and experience.

In order to achieve this, most qualified literary translators usually get a bachelor’s degree in Translation Studies. During their academic years, not only do they study their language combination in depth as they develop their translation skills, but they also study Literature, Culture, and History, thus gaining a deep, comprehensive understanding of the culture of both languages that goes beyond the mere meaning of words.

When hiring a linguist lacking those carefully gained language skills, the result is a poor translation that will fail to engage readers and will cost authors lots of time and money in multiple good editors to fix.

That’s why hiring the right translator for your books is essential. And for this purpose, we wrote a full-length article with all the essential information you should have to get you started on the right track and avoid unnecessary headaches. You can read Literary Translation: An Overview here.

Today, however, we’ll focus on the most common mistakes most untrained translators make to help you stay away from unscrupulous bilingual speakers selling language services and save you lots of headaches.

Bear in mind, our knowledge is on the Spanish market and this article will therefore focus on Spanish grammar.

1. Poor Command of the Source Language - Big Red Flag!

When dealing with a potential translator, writers often notice the linguist struggles to communicate in English (either speaking or writing). However, some authors mistakenly believe a good translator has excellent skills in the target language (their mother tongue) and it’s okay not to be fluent in English because it’s not their mother tongue.

Psst! A trained, professional literary translator spent years at university studying English and Spanish (or any target language) grammar, so if you’re dealing with a linguist who lacks good command of the source language, don’t waste any time and just run away.

Plus, how could someone who struggles to communicate in English fully understand your book and rewrite it in Spanish?

2. Wrong Translation of Idioms

Each language has its own idioms. Some translate perfectly well, others have a more natural idiom in the target language, and others simply don’t translate and need a little skill from the translator to be reproduced.

Any unskilled translator typically struggles to spot literary devices in a text. Not being too familiar with the source language (English) means they’ll most likely translate these devices word by word (creating a literal translation). In turn, readers will have trouble understanding these ‘foreign’ idioms that make little to no sense to them and will also fail to engage with a story that lacks an engaging and fluid narrative.

3. Lack of Reasearch

Most untrained translators don’t know the importance of research, for they’re too focused on writing the English words (source text) in Spanish (target text). However, this is one of the first skills you learn to develop in Translation Studies—question everything, research all.

As a result, the translated text is full of mistakes and inconsistencies that confuse and upset readers.

Research is also key in your marketing campaigns. A literal translation of keywords might result in Spanish keywords no one ever uses, which will undoubtedly cause your books to sink in the ranks and make your ads and campaigns lose more money than the profit they might turn.

Lastly, research is vital when translating your book titles and series titles (a process in which both author and translator should be deeply involved). But this is a topic we will be discussing soon in another article.

Research is one of the first skills translators learn to develop.
It is key in your marketing campaigns and vital when it comes to translating book titles and series titles.

4. Literal Translation of Literary Devices, such as Personifications

As stated earlier, a trained literary translator spent years studying English and Spanish Literature and knows how to identify the literary devices each language uses and how to translate them so that the target text flows naturally.

Make no mistake—unfortunately, some things will get lost in translation. A good translator will go to great lengths to make sure the translation conveys all the meanings in your book.

Unable to detect these language subtleties, an untrained translator will closely focus on the words and end up creating a weird text in an attempt to reproduce every single word, metaphor, and idiom.

As a result, whereas English literature authors use a lot of personification, in Spanish, for instance, things don’t do things. Instead, people carry out actions. And when a personification is present in a text in Spanish, it’s to bring focus to a particular action or event. This means the translation process requires a trained linguist to restructure a sentence (or multiple sentences and paragraphs throughout the book) to create a text that flows naturally in the target language.

5. Simplification - or Stealing Meaning from your Text

The English language is rich in verbs we use to clearly describe ways of speaking, talking, looking, moving, behaving, etc.

Sometimes, translating these verbs into Spanish can prove challenging, as there might not always be one word to accurately convey the same meaning, and translators might need to adopt a more descriptive approach.

A widespread mistake unskilled translators tend to make is what can be described as “stealing meaning from your text”, for they struggle to find an exact term in the source language and they simplify it. So, regardless of whether your character is gazing, staring, peering, glancing or scrutinizing, in Spanish, they’ll simply be “looking” (or “mirando”).

If your translator does this with every word that poses a conflict, the result will be a plain, monotonous text that fails to communicate your characters’ feelings, emotions, and complexities and will succeed at making readers angry at the repetitive vocabulary used throughout the book.

Final thoughts

No doubt, finding the right translator when you don’t speak the target language is not easy, and hiring a linguist who charges lower fees might sound tempting.

However, these lower fees might come at a high cost—it might cost you tons of money in editors’ fees to fix the translation or even paying a new translation altogether to save you at least a dozen headaches.

Or, if it’s too late when you realise the kind of translator you’ve been working with, it might cost you an entire new audience that will never get anywhere near your books again.

Hopefully, this article will help you sharpen your criteria and easily spot red flags to avoid working with unqualified translators.

This post may contain affiliate links

Carolina García Stroschein

English > Spanish Literary Translator

Contact me

5 Common Mistakes All Untrained Literary Translators Make and How to Avoid Working with a Bad Linguist Read More »

Literary Translation: An Overview

5 Comments / Translation World / SBT / 25/06/2023

Literary Translation: An overview

There are so many myths and wrong ideas about what it means to translate literature. This article aims to show what it means and what it is like to work as a literary translator, which possibilities translators have to improve their skills, the labour’s importance, how the market changes, and what can be expected.

What Makes Literary Translation

It would be an appropriate place to start by sharing a description of translators written by James Wood, a literary critic, as it is not a typical example — many critics and reviewers tend to forget to mention or even notice translators’ work:

Literary translators tend to divide into what one could call originalists and activists. The former honor the original text’s quiddities, and strive to reproduce them as accurately as possible in the translated language; the latter are less concerned with the literary accuracy than with the transposed musical appeal of the new work. Any decent translator must be a bit of both… Translation is not a transfer of meaning from one language to another, Pevear writes, but a dialogue between two languages. (Grossmann, 2010)

Literary translator Márgara Averbach has a similar idea; she says that to understand better the position and function of translators, translation is to be thought within communication: the translator is the bridge between the writer and the readers that do not share the same code, meaning the same language. (Averbach, 2011)

Literary translation is the kind of translation in which it is as essential to keep the authors’ style and structure as it is to transmit the exact meaning of the original text.

For this reason, many consider that translating literary texts is an art form in itself and as important as the creation of the original piece. This comparison is not farfetched: working with a text in which the meaning is just one of the many things to consider is an arduous task and a gratifying challenge when the deed is done.

In the translated text, the author’s style, tone and voice have to be present and reflected; the reader of the translation has to get what the author wanted to say and experience all the feelings the original readers did. It goes without saying that it is impossible to produce an exact one-to-one translation, making precisely the same piece; as the author had chosen one word over another, the translator does the same. Nevertheless, the effect of the text has to be the same, no matter the language. That is simply what makes a good translation, or in the words of translator Edith Grossmann:

As a first step toward accomplishing so exemplary an end, translators need to develop a keen sense of style in both languages, honing and expanding our critical awareness of the emotional impact of words, the social aura that surrounds them, the setting and mood that informs them, the atmosphere they create. (Grossmann, 2010)

Thus, this is what the aim of a translation should be: getting as close as possible to the original.

How to Become a Literary Translator

As with other professions, the path will look different with different translators. Clearly, studying translation and literature is a solid foundation to start building up a career in literary translation. Fortunately, there are a number of options for translators wanting to specialise in this kind of field; there are several master’s and postgraduate degrees around the world in addition to the numerous options of bachelor’s degrees in Translation Studies. Besides formal education, translators could also benefit from different talks, congresses, conferences, and short courses organised by various translation associations and institutions with a focus on improving the skills of translators and students.

Some Spanish speaking literary specialisation options are:

The Market: A Changing Field

If translators were to insert themselves into the traditional editorial world, they are going to find some obstacles in the way. The translator has to make contact and needs to know whom to make contacts with, which publishing houses do translations and what their specialisation is. Moreover, within this research, the translator needs to note what makes each publishing house stand out; this is what they do “right” and what they do “wrong” or basically what could be improved. The traditional market is a tight network based on the trust and confidence between the editor and the translator. The translator needs to show interest every step of the way and illustrate what makes them different from the rest. It is a bit surprising that the majority of traditional publishing houses have no formal requirements, but it is indeed expected that they showcase enthusiasm, interest, professionalism (respect deadlines) and trustworthiness; in some cases, they want translators with literary knowledge, literary sensibility, good command of both languages and an even better command of the target language. In general, publishing houses and editors have a group of translators that they work with, and they do not tend to incorporate new translators, but when they do, they ask for references and a translation test; additionally, they consistently prioritise translators with experience and knowledge on the topic: the exact reason why it is difficult to enter this world.

As expected, publishing houses ask for fluent and “faithful” translations; what is surprising then is that in the big names of the industry, there is no one to correct/compare the translation with the original to make sure the translated text is of quality; from the translator, it goes to the proofreader that just checks spelling, and only in certain special cases there is a revision in charge of a specialist. Otherwise, translators are in a much more stressful position, as the responsibility falls only on them. Moreover, many editors expect translators to be able to see the potential a book might have, detect its market and place that book in its “perfect market”. This is basically expecting the translator to know the market as well as the editor; maybe this is due to the fact that many publishing houses do not publish what editors want or decide but what translators offer. It is worth mentioning that translators are not being paid for all the extra work and the new role they are occupying.

In the Spanish-speaking market, the major traditional publishing industry is in Spain, as it is the most important market and the one that creates more work. Averbach says that because of this power imbalance, Latin-American translators are asked and are used to use “neutral” Spanish, but translators in Spain do not show the same consideration if the work is to be published in Latin American too, and it is full of localisms that make more difficult the understanding to readers outside Spain (Averbach, 2011). It is important to mention that finding and deciding what is “neutral” will be different for each translator and editor. This particular situation creates an interesting outcome, hiring translators from Latin America is, generally speaking, more economical (at a later time, it could be discussed how problematic this aspect is), and the translations are overall more “readable” and palatable across the Spanish speaking countries and can be sold to both continents without any significant problems, easing the distribution of the book. In the last decade or so, multinational publishing houses import and print translations from different countries. Nevertheless, small and medium size publishing houses, especially independent publishing houses, have taken a more defining role in creating jobs for translators.

If taken into consideration, especially what is happening in the online world, things have changed considerably. Growing numbers of authors are publishing independently, managing their translations and selling their books in different markets; indie authors are everywhere. This change in the paradigm of publishing books has its pros and cons.

Authors understand that to share their work with more people, their work needs to be translated and promoted in different languages.

To do so, they look for translators or are contacted by translators and “translators” to get the job done. Sometimes the “translators” are neither professionals nor trained, and they tend to do a mediocre job at best, which costs more time and more money in the long run; a translation that needs to be corrected, proof-edited and then proofread is going to be more expensive than a translation that just needs to be proof-edited. Sometimes the translator chosen to be in charge of the task is a proper translator and gets the job done. Besides choosing a competent translator, authors need to decide which market they want to favour; what language(s) they want their work to be translated to, in this case, European or Latin American Spanish. The translator and the author need to communicate and work together continuously to ensure a quality product at the end of the line; the translator needs the author to solve any issues that might come up to provide a good translation, and the author needs the translator to create a version of their book in a different language to broaden their audience and share their work with more readers.

How to Start

In any given situation, each person will have a different approach and experience from the rest. With translation, there is no difference; every translator will have a different experience. Most literary translators find it hard to insert themselves into the literary world. Sometimes they have to study other careers, like literature or the like, to be able to get a job in a traditional publishing house, and they would only translate for those publishing houses. But that is not the only way.

Networking is any professional’s best tool; it can definitely make a difference between being out of work and having a steady inflow of projects. Being in contact with other like-minded professionals, like editors, proofeditors, proofreaders, writers, and other translators, will increase the chances of getting contacted by them or by one of their contacts. Keeping an eye on what the professional associations are up to and the latest topics of discussion in forums, like translators’ rights, helps translators stay updated and connected with the realities of the profession.

Teamwork or Lonely Endevour?

In the traditional sense, teamwork* is not as common; more accurately, the translation is assigned to only one person, then the text might go through other people, like a corrector, editor or proofreader, and “teamwork” might be a thing, but each individual has their own task, and they work together into delivering a final product. Having contact with the author and editor/corrector is key, which could be considered teamwork. Being able to talk to the author to solve comprehension/translation issues is highly rewarding, as it improves the general quality of the final book; the same goes if there is at least a round of corrections in which the translator can see the corrections or suggestions. Sometimes none of these interactions is possible, and the translator has to do their work alone, as there is no other option.

Reading about what is happening in the literary world is also advantageous as it might bring some enlightening or awareness of certain changes or tendencies within the market; this also includes reading publications made by different associations and institutions. As previously discussed, being in contact and continuously conversing with other translators is going to play a major role in feeling connected and not completely alone, even if the job does not exactly involve other people to discuss issues with.

*Some translators share the belief that if there is teamwork involved in the translation per se (the translation being done by several translators), the book has little to no literary value, as an editor would have to unify all the different sections done by various translators and a significant part of the work would be lost by the unification.

What Characterises Literary Translators?

There is a general consensus that translators have to read a fair amount, it seems pretty obvious, but there are many before mentioned “translators” that do not read or are not interested in developing their reading and writing skills; it is not surprising that it shows in the work they do. We have written an article to help authors stay away from these sorts of “linguists”. You can read “5 Common Mistakes ALL Untrained Literary Translators Make and How to Avoid Working with a Bad Linguist” here.

Translators need to be interested in literature and the two languages that they use; they need to be able to detect the identity of the text, the voice, and the style; that is the exact reason why they need to read and write continuously, improve their skills and be updated in any changes in the use of language.

Moreover, a general sense of curiosity should also be present: this will definitely help when researching and solving translation problems and communicating with the author.

Competitiveness

The market is more competitive than ever; current events, like the pandemic and the great resignation, globalisation and the broad reach of the internet have created a more competitive market than ever before. It is active and constantly changing, and people all over the world are competing for jobs that before were just available to one-time zone or country. Even more so, many people are taking these opportunities to change careers, and the hundreds of thousands of articles encouraging people to translate without any prior knowledge or preparation as their side hustle has put professional translators in a strange position. The rates have dropped, but it is not the only thing that has negative consequences; the quality of the translated material is relatively poor, and unfortunately, sets a precedent, as many “new translators” can get away with what they do, without knowing about the ethics of the profession or not even knowing the grammar rules of their language, and by doing so they are damaging not only a profession and thousands of qualified translators but also their very own language by not knowing its grammar or conventions.

Conclusion

Translators are in charge of making their way into the market; they need a solid and ever-expanding network that would help them make new contacts and be in contact with the right people. Publishing houses, independent publishers, and authors generally do not consider translators’ academic training, but they use their contacts and references to find translators. Translators are also expected to identify the market for the material they are translating, what it is worth translating, and tasks traditionally associated with the editor.

Literary translation is the kind of translation in which it is as essential to keep the authors’ style and structure as it is to transmit the exact meaning of the original text.

Any training and further education that the translator can get will be beneficial in getting and improving skills and will help to create better translations and increase the quality of their services.

Times are changing, but it is not the only thing; the rules have changed, and the profession is being challenged, but it is not necessarily a bad thing; it is the opportunity to show and educate people about its importance and the far-reaching and rippling effect it has in the world.