| Pages in topic: [1 2] > | How do you get in touch with translation copyright holders for book translations? Thread poster: yue dong
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yue dong 
Canada
Local time: 16:23
English to Chinese
I have been struggling with this issue for a while. When I find a great English book, I constantly think about having it translated into my mother tongue-Chinese. However the copyright is always the obstacle along the road. It seems impossible for an individual to come in contact with the author or the publisher. And I have no way of getting to the translation copyright agency. Once I finally talked to someone from an agency and asking about this. The lady got the book's info and disappeared. I... See more I have been struggling with this issue for a while. When I find a great English book, I constantly think about having it translated into my mother tongue-Chinese. However the copyright is always the obstacle along the road. It seems impossible for an individual to come in contact with the author or the publisher. And I have no way of getting to the translation copyright agency. Once I finally talked to someone from an agency and asking about this. The lady got the book's info and disappeared. I understand that they have their own translators, so.
Well, what should I do? Is there any advices? ▲ Collapse
| | | | Rolf Keller
Germany
Local time: 22:23
English to German
| Do it the other way round | Oct 18, 2018 |
There is little or zero probability that a certain publisher wants to publish the five or six books you propose. It works the other way round: The publisher chooses the few books (out of many thousands) to be published. The selection is based on the publisher's business strategy, experience, and philosophy. There is little time for discussions with "unknown" translators.
So, offer "book translations" to publishers. Limit your offer to a certain genre, e. g. "romantic novels from Af... See more There is little or zero probability that a certain publisher wants to publish the five or six books you propose. It works the other way round: The publisher chooses the few books (out of many thousands) to be published. The selection is based on the publisher's business strategy, experience, and philosophy. There is little time for discussions with "unknown" translators.
So, offer "book translations" to publishers. Limit your offer to a certain genre, e. g. "romantic novels from Africa" or whatever but not to a certain book. Don't ask for a copyright, instead ask for translation work.
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| | | | Eliza Hall
United States
Local time: 16:23
French to English
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| Not how it's done | Nov 1, 2018 |
yue dong wrote:
I have been struggling with this issue for a while. When I find a great English book, I constantly think about having it translated into my mother tongue-Chinese. However the copyright is always the obstacle along the road. It seems impossible for an individual to come in contact with the author or the publisher. And I have no way of getting to the translation copyright agency. Once I finally talked to someone from an agency and asking about this. The lady got the book's info and disappeared. I understand that they have their own translators, so.
Well, what should I do? Is there any advices?
You're going about it the wrong way. You're a translator -- you would be hired by a Chinese publisher who's interested in publishing a translation of a certain book. You would not normally buy translation rights yourself and then shop them around to Chinese publishers to see if anyone wants you to translate it. What you want to be doing is cultivating relationships with publishers who publish Chinese editions of English-language books (I assume you're talking about English-language ones), and gaining experience and improving your reputation as a translator.
If that were the proper way to go about it, then you would simply contact the publisher. It's not impossible at all; their name and city should be printed on the book, possibly even their contact info, and you can check their most current contact info via the web. If it's hard to get in touch with them it may be because they are used to being contacted by foreign publishers, not by translators. And as for authors, you can typically contact them through their Facebook pages or Twitter feeds -- these days most living authors, at least in the US or UK, have one.
[Edited at 2018-11-01 18:50 GMT]
| | | | Lincoln Hui
Hong Kong
Local time: 04:23
Member
Chinese to English
+ ...
| Go through a publisher | Nov 1, 2018 |
First: Ignore all advice on this topic given to you on a professional level. You are not doing this as a professional (in the getting-paid sense of the word). If you really want to see a book translated, you pay to get the copyright and you pay to get it published. If you aren't willing to fork up the money, you don't want to do it badly enough.
The way this goes is that you find a publisher in whatever location you want to publish the translation that provides a self-publishing ser... See more First: Ignore all advice on this topic given to you on a professional level. You are not doing this as a professional (in the getting-paid sense of the word). If you really want to see a book translated, you pay to get the copyright and you pay to get it published. If you aren't willing to fork up the money, you don't want to do it badly enough.
The way this goes is that you find a publisher in whatever location you want to publish the translation that provides a self-publishing service, because copyright holders and agencies that deal in copyright don't want to deal with individuals, and no publisher is going to put their own money on the line for this. Any self-respecting publisher will know how to negotiate copyright and they will do everything for you once you have a self-publishing memorandum of agreement with them.
The bill is one month's worth of a well-established translator's income. You make about half of that back if you sell your entire print run.
Do not bother contacting the original publisher or the author. Go through a legitimate publisher and present a bona fide offer, otherwise you're not worth the effort of replying to.
[Edited at 2018-11-01 19:21 GMT] ▲ Collapse
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Eliza Hall
United States
Local time: 16:23
French to English
+ ...
Lincoln Hui wrote:
If you really want to see a book translated, you pay to get the copyright... Do not bother contacting the original publisher or the author.
Wow, that advice is as wrong as it's possible to be. To translate you don't "get the copyright," you get a license from the copyright holder -- and the way you do that is by contacting the original publisher or the author, because one of them is the copyright holder. (Exception: if the author is dead the copyright is likely held by their heirs; to find them, you'll probably need to go through the original publisher, or else figure out who the author's literary agent is and go through them).
Even if the process did include "getting the copyright," as opposed to getting a license for it, you would still have to contact either the author or the original publisher. How else, Mr. Hui, do you propose "getting the copyright"?
PS: in addition to being a translator, I'm a US lawyer specializing in intellectual property (i.e. copyright, patent, trademark and related law).
[Edited at 2018-11-02 16:09 GMT]
| | | | Lincoln Hui
Hong Kong
Local time: 04:23
Member
Chinese to English
+ ...
| Is your attention span two sentences? | Nov 2, 2018 |
You find a publisher for the book, and the publisher figures out everything that you mentioned. You do not do it yourself, because nine cases out of ten you will never get a response.
Which is, you know, the entire point of my post if you had bothered to actually read it?
I have no doubt that you're a lawyer, you definitely spend too much time nitpicking details and ignoring the entirety of the core message, intentionally or not.
[Edited at 2018-11-02 17:01 GMT]
| | | | jyuan_us
United States
Local time: 16:23
Member (2005)
English to Chinese
+ ...
| The Chinese publishers have their own systems | Nov 2, 2018 |
yue dong wrote:
I have been struggling with this issue for a while. When I find a great English book, I constantly think about having it translated into my mother tongue-Chinese. However the copyright is always the obstacle along the road. It seems impossible for an individual to come in contact with the author or the publisher. And I have no way of getting to the translation copyright agency. Once I finally talked to someone from an agency and asking about this. The lady got the book's info and disappeared. I understand that they have their own translators, so.
Well, what should I do? Is there any advices?
If you want to work as a literary translator, the only way to get a job is to get an assignment from a publisher to translate a book that has already been in their publication plan. You might not like the book that you would be assigned at all.
It is not advisable to initiate the process of convincing a publisher to publish the translation of a book that you think is great. You will eventually find your efforts in vain. A great English book in your opinion, if translated and published, might not sell at all, in the publisher's opinion.
[Edited at 2018-11-02 21:41 GMT]
| | | | jyuan_us
United States
Local time: 16:23
Member (2005)
English to Chinese
+ ...
| I agree with most of your points, but | Nov 2, 2018 |
Eliza Hall wrote:
If it's hard to get in touch with them it may be because they are used to being contacted by foreign publishers, not by translators.
What can foreign publishers do to a domestic publisher? How could a publisher be used to be contacted by foreign publishers?
[Edited at 2018-11-02 21:53 GMT]
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Eliza Hall
United States
Local time: 16:23
French to English
+ ...
| Foreign and domestic publishers | Nov 3, 2018 |
jyuan_us wrote: Eliza Hall wrote:
If it's hard to get in touch with them it may be because they are used to being contacted by foreign publishers, not by translators. What can foreign publishers do to a domestic publisher? How could a publisher be used to be contacted by foreign publishers? [Edited at 2018-11-02 21:53 GMT]
If a foreign publisher wants to buy translation rights (i.e. a license) in a book, the easiest way for them to start the process is to contact the domestic publisher. The domestic publisher will either have those rights and be able to sell them, or will be able to tell the foreign publisher how to get in touch with the writer's agent in order to negotiate for those rights.
| | | | Eliza Hall
United States
Local time: 16:23
French to English
+ ...
| Not how self-publishing works | Nov 3, 2018 |
Lincoln Hui wrote:
You find a publisher for the book, and the publisher figures out everything that you mentioned. You do not do it yourself, because nine cases out of ten you will never get a response.
Which is, you know, the entire point of my post if you had bothered to actually read it?
[Edited at 2018-11-02 17:01 GMT]
Your entire post talked about a translator SELF PUBLISHING a translation of the book, and then you said that the self-publishing company would handle the negotiations for the copyright license (i.e. permission to translate). That is completely wrong in every way.
Self-publishing companies don't handle rights negotiations and licensing. Here's what Amazon's Kindle Direct self-publishing site says about copyright: "It is your responsibility to ensure that your content doesn't violate laws or copyright, trademark, privacy, publicity, or other rights. Just because content is freely available does not mean you are free to copy and sell it." https://kdp.amazon.com/en_US/help/topic/G200672390
And here are the services offered by Lulu.com, one of the biggest self-publishers in the world. As you'll see, none of their packages include anything along the lines of getting rights -- rather, they assume you have rights and then help you publish and sell: https://www.lulu.com/services/packages
What experience or expertise do you have that makes you think your advice is correct? Everything I know about copyright law, as an intellectual property lawyer, and everything I know about publishing, as a writer and legal advisor to writers, tells me your advice was completely wrong.
[Edited at 2018-11-03 19:51 GMT]
| | | | Lincoln Hui
Hong Kong
Local time: 04:23
Member
Chinese to English
+ ...
I have in front of me a publishing contract, and the memorandum of agreement with the author's agent working on behalf of the author.
There's a difference between self-publishing services from a publisher and self-service self-publishing. For all your love of nitpicking details, you seem to have missed this fairly important one.
Bonus points for thinking that what applies to English self-publishing must necessarily apply to Chinese self-publishing. You ma... See more I have in front of me a publishing contract, and the memorandum of agreement with the author's agent working on behalf of the author.
There's a difference between self-publishing services from a publisher and self-service self-publishing. For all your love of nitpicking details, you seem to have missed this fairly important one.
Bonus points for thinking that what applies to English self-publishing must necessarily apply to Chinese self-publishing. You may have noticed that neither Amazon nor Lulu's services support Chinese-speaking regions. And if you looked more closely you may also have noticed that I said self-respecting publisher, for which we perhaps have different definitions for.
Not that it's at all surprising that lawyers and translators think that every corner of the world must subscribe to their rules.
[Edited at 2018-11-04 00:17 GMT] ▲ Collapse
| | | | | Websites/Rights page | Nov 4, 2018 |
jyuan_us wrote:
If you want to work as a literary translator, the only way to get a job is to get an assignment from a publisher to translate a book that has already been in their publication plan.
From what I know of French-English literary translation, this is correct, but it is nigh on impossible if your name doesn't feature on the publishers' short lists of preferred translators. And it's difficult to get onto those lists.
What most literary translators recommend, as does BCLT (http://www.bclt.org.uk/home), is to do sample translations and send them as part of a well-prepared pitch to publishers. This brings great books to their attention, and if they like the translation, they might even hire the one who sent it to them (but they may not). In order to do this, you need to know that copyright is available. This is what I think yue dong is referring to.
I guess it's difficult to find this information for Chinese books. I can't help with that. I know that for French books, it's usually quite easy. You go to the publishers' website, click on their Rights page, get the email of the person in charge and ask them if copyright is available. You are not buying it, just getting proof that it's available if the English-language publisher should decide to go ahead with the translation and will want to buy rights. In my experience, they have replied fairly promptly and have been very helpful (they do want to sell those rights, after all). In one instance, I asked the author directly through her website, but it turned into a fiasco because the author didn't really know the process and didn't hold the rights herself.
Good luck with it!
Edited to say: I just realised you are translating from English to Chinese and not the other way around. I think English publishers should have Rights pages on their websites though I haven't checked.
[Edited at 2018-11-04 09:40 GMT]
Edited again: I've taken a look at Faber & Faber and found this page: https://www.faber.co.uk/contact-faber. The Rights person is listed at the bottom of the page. Sometimes there is no Rights tab and you might have to search for Contact Information or Press Inquiries etc. Hope this Helps And hope I'm not on the wrong track altogether!
[Edited at 2018-11-04 09:51 GMT]
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Eliza Hall
United States
Local time: 16:23
French to English
+ ...
| International differences | Nov 4, 2018 |
Lincoln Hui wrote:
I have in front of me a publishing contract, and the memorandum of agreement with the author's agent working on behalf of the author.
An author who has a literary agent, and who got a publishing contract through that agent, isn't self-publishing. Literary agents earn their salaries by getting paid a percentage of what the publisher pays the author. Self-publishing means the author isn't getting paid by the publisher (and therefore there's nothing for the agent to get a percentage of). Instead, the author is paying for the publication themselves. Self-publishing = the author is paying a printer to publish the author's book.
At least, that's how it works in North America and Europe. You made this point:
There's a difference between self-publishing services from a publisher and self-service self-publishing. For all your love of nitpicking details, you seem to have missed this fairly important one.
If it's a distinction that exists and is important in Hong Kong or the PRC, that's news to me and I'd be interested in understanding what you mean. In the US, Canada and Europe, AFAIK there's no distinction at all (and thus obviously not an important distinction) because real publishers and self-publishing companies are never the same companies. Real publishers don't offer self-publishing services; an author can't pay Penguin or Houghton Mifflin or the University of Oxford Press to put out the author's book. If the author can't find a traditional, a.k.a. real, publisher for their book, then the author turns to self-publishing. Self-publishing has a bad reputation because there's no quality control, but historically a few amazing books have been initially self-published (for instance, Proust's In Search of Lost Time, a.k.a. (the original but less accurately translated English title) Remembrance of Things Past).
Not that it's at all surprising that lawyers and translators think that every corner of the world must subscribe to their rules.
China has been a member of the Berne Convention for the Protection of Literary and Artistic Works since 1992, so at least in theory its copyright law is broadly the same as that of Europe and the US (the Berne Convention started in Europe and essentially all developed countries are members; if you care, you can find a list of members and an overview of what the Convention requires here: http://www.wipo.int/treaties/en/ip/berne/). Of course, the law and everyday reality are two different things, and publishing presumably works at least a bit differently in China than it does in North America or EU countries.
[Edited at 2018-11-04 18:29 GMT]
| | | | | Self publishing by "real publishers" in US | Nov 4, 2018 |
Eliza Hall wrote: "...because real publishers and self-publishing companies are never the same companies. Real publishers don't offer self-publishing services; an author can't pay Penguin or Houghton Mifflin or the University of Oxford Press to put out the author's book."
Not entirely true as far as use of the word "never." Actually, one of the biggest US publishers --Macmillan-- did have a self-publishing unit called Platform. They shut it down a little more than a year ago. See th... See more Eliza Hall wrote: "...because real publishers and self-publishing companies are never the same companies. Real publishers don't offer self-publishing services; an author can't pay Penguin or Houghton Mifflin or the University of Oxford Press to put out the author's book."
Not entirely true as far as use of the word "never." Actually, one of the biggest US publishers --Macmillan-- did have a self-publishing unit called Platform. They shut it down a little more than a year ago. See this article titled "Macmillan to Close Its Self-Publishing Unit, Pronoun." Nov 07, 2017
https://www.publishersweekly.com/pw/by-topic/digital/content-and-e-books/article/75316-macmillan-to-close-its-self-publishing-unit-pronoun.html
You are probably correct, though, as far as the current publishing scene in the US: I haven't heard of any other "real" publisher (to use your term) that has a self-publishing unit. ▲ Collapse
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