Sharing knowledge !

Soumis par Ukyuu le sam, 2010-10-16 13:42

Hello everyone,

Since it has been proposed in many groups I'm from already and the subject has yet to be created, I took on myself to initiate it.

In order for this subject to be clear, on your first post please mention :

- Your pair (put brackets around your native tongue
- The country you work in
- Your domains.

Title your post like this :
[Gen] for generic informations
[Spe] for specific informations

Since there is many differents peoples involved and that all don't speak the same language let's keep this thread in english only.

To start, type of informations that can be useful would be :
- How to become a translator in your country
- How to create a network
- What additionals jobs a translator in your country /domain needs to do.

If you're also a job issuer give your point of view so people can understand it !

Any information you share have a chance to be commented and thus also gives you a chance to see how people find it, thus gives you the ability to evolves, sharing knowledge in a human translation world is also a way to get informations that might have lacked you up to now... expanding your minds is the best way of expanding the buisiness and trust other people gives you.

Ukyuu / Djenny Floro.

Groupes:

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[Spe] Literature

Par Ukyuu, le lun, 2010-10-18 07:14.

English to [French] / France / Literature

Becoming a translator here is more a fact than an actual established work. Like everywhere there's agency and state works for those who have adequates certificates on various domains, but as far as litteracy is concerned, it's on the hands of publishers to decide if you're or you're not a proper translator.

Starting is a bit hard as you have to take untranslated books, translate them then send your translation to a lot of publisher. You can't ascertain if there is or not a problem with what you sent as they will never bother to reply you about why they refuse. Only when you get a sucessful translation, will they contact you and then you'll be able to start.

From here on, either you accept a job as an official translator for the compagny, or you work as a freelance. In the first type of contract you're only to translate the books of the authors they give you, on the second you're free of your book choices but take on the risk that they might not accept the second... however it's compensated by the fact that you can work for a lot compagnies if you find a way to enter in them.

Another option who's not yet so developped in France is to sell your own translations and have them sold in libraries nears where tourist gathers, you get higher wages this way.

Building a network is really hard, that is why, if you're just begining, you should get an agent. As literature agents are only a very handful in France due to a long-history monopole over publishing by some major compagnies, you have to convince a commercial to become your agent. From here on, if he does his job right and sell your books to the library, you'll be able to concentrate on more book's translation and once you have something like 5/6 books who sold well (over 7000 units on a local area) then you can begin to have him sell your services to publishers.

Never get your contracts by yourself, you'll get ripped off your rights, always have someone who is a commercial and have, even if a little, knowlegde about contracts and such. Make sure you have a lawyer you, or your agent, can consult before each contract with a compagny. Don't let your guard down when it comes to publishers, they're not here for the sake of culture or whatever they can telle you (and I swear they're so credible when in front of you!) they're mainly sent to you for getting a maximum advantage out of your lack of knowledge about contracts. They'll try to ripp you off up to the last legal bit of rights they can on the incomes who should be yours...

That's why, even if the way is harder working with a commercial selling directly your translations to the library is the best and safest way, use the auto-entreprise status to do so in order to avoid creating an over-charged compagny, Just be aware of the limits of this status but frankly, if you're ever to the point it's higher than the status, you're doing well enough to create a full-fledged compagny... I've never seen the case so far. (Limit being at 80 000 euros per year or around).

You will have to get a proof-reader and a story-checker, those two have to be separate people and know both of the target and source language too since when you translate a book you're forcibly up to a lot of mistake (and no, there's nobody who can do that right all by himself regardless on how this person feels).

If you have any question, please ask, if it's whithin my range of knowledge, I'll answer as much as I can.

Ukyuu / Djenny Floro.

"literacy"

Par soniamaria R9, le lun, 2010-10-18 08:46.

Hello everybody,
Sorry, but I am getting a little confused here. Why are we talking about literacy? I may be wrong, but as far as the dictionaries tell me, it means: ability to read and write; education; familiarity with a particular subject or field, or in french:alphabétisation, fait de savoir lire et écrire; instruction. The publishers are more likely to be interested in Literature, I think.

Best regards,

Sonia

Thank you for letting me

Par Ukyuu, le mer, 2010-10-27 13:13.

Thank you for letting me know, I've asked if the post could be changed on this details.

Next time you see one however, don't hit "reply" straight under the post, use the one under the general post. The forum is made so you prevent the person from changing her / his post when you reply straight to it. so it requires to have a website administrator to change it... and thus the whole thing becomes harder to correct.

And bout literacy / Literature, I understand where the problem came from. Aside the translation on this website where I participated, I am also working on some documents who explain scholar difference between hot zone in France and normal ones, (it's the problem about the 74% of absenteeism at school on some schools) and thus, as I was writing one and the other, the confusion came from there. I didn't really realized it when I first answered you so I didn't saw where it was coming from, but I guess doing two things at a time leads to some problems like this.

Djenny Floro.