Book translation

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jacob
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Post by jacob »

I'd like to hear some informed opinions on whether it would be worthwhile to publish/plan for translated versions.
The two main translations I could see happening would be German and French.
However, I presume anyone under 40 (primary target audience) read English no matter which country they come from. Correct?


michel
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Post by michel »

A professional translator usually translates 2000 to 3000 words a day. I assume you book has about 60000 words. That would take 20 days of work. Ideally it would be proofread by someone else (that's how publishers do it). That would be much faster, so I guess you would have your book translated in a month.

The thing is: do you think you would be able to get back the $4000 -$5000 it would cost you?

I think it would be a very risky investment.


jacob
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Post by jacob »

The book has closer to 100000 words. I had something like a 25% of my royalty plan instead of a flat fee in mind. The 25% seems to be standard or at least that's what I learned from 10 minutes of googling.
I'm more "concerned" whether a translation would actually be worthwhile. A lot has changed in terms of the global English language book market over the past 10 and 20 years.


michel
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Post by michel »

I would wait. If the book turns out to be a bestseller, then you will be contacted by publishing houses everywhere. No risk for you.


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