Becoming a translator for publishers Auteur du fil: Jean-Rémy Émorine
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I have been a professional English to French translator for 25 years and I would like to enter the publishing market.
I would be very grateful for tips and experience sharing.
Thanks!
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It would probably help people answer if you at least tell us whether you're interested in translating fiction or non-fiction.
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From what I've been told by literary agents, publishers hire translators according to the projects they have. Meaning that if they want to expand the sales of books in some country/region/language, then they hire translators for it.
So, the best way to get hired by a publisher is to **offer** them a project to translate—that is, a book you're interested in getting translated.
Sometimes it helps if you contact the author of that project/book you want to work on as a means to ... See more From what I've been told by literary agents, publishers hire translators according to the projects they have. Meaning that if they want to expand the sales of books in some country/region/language, then they hire translators for it.
So, the best way to get hired by a publisher is to **offer** them a project to translate—that is, a book you're interested in getting translated.
Sometimes it helps if you contact the author of that project/book you want to work on as a means to make her/him/they interested and help you talk with the publisher.
From my point of view, it seems it requires a lot of time investment in networking, much more than in translation itself. ▲ Collapse
| | | | Anton Konashenok 
Tchèque (République)
Local time: 04:02
français vers anglais
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| May not be worth it | Feb 9 |
I have been in contact with several publishers in the course of my career, but no contracts ever materialised. Not a single one of them was willing to pay more than half my regular rate.
[Edited at 2025-02-09 21:34 GMT]
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| BEoming a translator for publishers | Feb 10 |
In response to a very relevant comment, I have no experience in fiction translation, but I am interested in translating documents like reports, memoirs, historical, political and sociological studies and advocacy documents
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I have translated engineering books for a major scientific publisher in the past. It was interesting work, but less well paid than my normal agency work at the time taking into account all the backwards and forwards between me and the publishing company and the author. There was quite a lot of faff involved.
I didn't set out to get that kind of work - the publisher found me through my marketing efforts - so I don't really know how you would go about it. I'd suggest finding publisher... See more I have translated engineering books for a major scientific publisher in the past. It was interesting work, but less well paid than my normal agency work at the time taking into account all the backwards and forwards between me and the publishing company and the author. There was quite a lot of faff involved.
I didn't set out to get that kind of work - the publisher found me through my marketing efforts - so I don't really know how you would go about it. I'd suggest finding publishers specialising in the fields you are interested in and getting in touch. Can't hurt to try. ▲ Collapse
| | | | Vanessa Dias
Brésil
Local time: 00:02
Membre (2022)
anglais vers portugais
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| Ask for a translator test | Feb 11 |
One way to contact publishers is by sending an e-mail asking whether they have translator tests open. Even If they don't have one, they may save your CV for the future.
I've translated a book last year and, yes, as some colleagues have mentioned above, publishing houses usually have a lower rate than some agencies, but I must say that translating a book was really rewarding.
| | | | Susanne Döring
Jordanie
Local time: 05:02
Membre (2017)
anglais vers allemand
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Jean-Rémy Émorine wrote:
I have been a professional English to French translator for 25 years and I would like to enter the publishing market.
I would be very grateful for tips and experience sharing.
Thanks!
I do translate novels, but rarely for publishers, most of the time for self publishing authors or smaller enterprises who help self publishing authors to get their books translated and marketed. The per word rate is very low, agreed. But other than with very specialized texts I can translate mostly in a flow, so the per hour rate is good enough for me. The main advantage in my eyes is that my time is again mine to plan - no short deadlines, no daily querying for work.
The downside: just now many authors complain about the market getting worse, I am having less work than ever in the last ten years. And it is not so easy to acquire new clients - most of these authors don't go to places like ProZ, much more often they ask other authors whose books they see for sale in other languages - or, like in some cases with me, they see my name as the translator of a book in their genre and search for me - which is why I keep a very small blog to show some of my work and an email addy to contact me.
Big publishers would not give me work - that might be different for you depending on your credentials.
One caveat: I see a lot of translations from people who might be able to deliver a good translation for non fiction texts, but who make a mess with reproducing an author's way of telling a story. It looks easy, but it is not - like, not anyone would be able to write a story themselves, would they?
Of course, forget all I wrote if you want to translate non ficition. I have very little experience with that.
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trying to get a book contract for .....2 years now....
sent off sample chapter for 4 or 5 different books and all the elements eg what is the intended market,
titles of all chapters , and so on.. i used the manuscript template publishers provide on their site as a structure. Sadly , replies were very few and no one was interested. Yes , i scrolled through their titles to match what i would like to work on, still no joy . Find a publisher who does bi lingual titles or
separ... See more trying to get a book contract for .....2 years now....
sent off sample chapter for 4 or 5 different books and all the elements eg what is the intended market,
titles of all chapters , and so on.. i used the manuscript template publishers provide on their site as a structure. Sadly , replies were very few and no one was interested. Yes , i scrolled through their titles to match what i would like to work on, still no joy . Find a publisher who does bi lingual titles or
separate german _ english editions of one book. I think biggest block is that publishers much prefer to select their own titles from other publishers lists , and are not open to suggestions from outside.
Most likely because they dont " know you " they will say NO.
How you ' get into their networks ' is the crux.... if you find out , pls let me know ! ▲ Collapse
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