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Author
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Topic: How to start
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Suzy
Member Posts: 3
Registered: Mar 2003
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posted 14 March 2003 11:34
  
Dear friends,I want to start a publishing agency by translating english books into another language. Do I only have to ask the publisher for permission to translate and publish their books or do I have to buy the rights for publishing the books? If I have to buy the rights what is the common rate
that is used for it?
Thank you,
Suzy IP: 217.121.53.101 |
alex
translatortips staff Posts: 462
Registered: Feb 2000
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posted 14 March 2003 12:03
You need permission of the copyright owner. This may be the author or the publisher.They would be unlikely to give this away free. But they might be willing to take a royalty rather than an advance. You will have to negotiate these deals on an individual basis. It will probably be time-consuming to negotiate these deals, but if you pick the right texts and market them well you could do quite well out of it. ------------------
Alex Eames
http://www.translatortips.com
helping translators do better business IP: 62.254.128.4 |
soulco
Member Posts: 16
Registered: Nov 2002
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posted 27 March 2003 07:43
Very timely topic.A guy at the company I work for recently quit. He was a co-ordinator and left to become a translator - we didn't even know he wanted to be a translator, let alone had the ability to do so. Anyway, he translated a book, then took it to the company that held the copyright and said "Look what I can do!" They took him on immediately. This might not be exactly the thing you're looking to do, but I hope it might help in some small way  IP: 218.224.124.61 |
Suzy
Member Posts: 3
Registered: Mar 2003
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posted 28 March 2003 13:22
Well it wasn't what I was thinking but I have received a letter today from a publisher telling me that I can have the permission to translate, print and publish 3,000 copies of a book under the following conditions:
- I have to pay a one time fee of 200 euros.
- The rights of the translated book becomes propiety of the Propietor.
- I have to report once a year the quantity of books sold.
- I have to send 6 copies to the Propietor and one to the agent.
- The Propietor is entitled to purchase copies on my cost plus 5%
What do you think of such conditions? Is this common?[This message has been edited by Suzy (edited 28 March 2003).] IP: 217.121.53.101 |
alex
translatortips staff Posts: 462
Registered: Feb 2000
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posted 29 March 2003 22:19
What are you supposed to get out of this deal?You pay them.
Then you pay for the translation work (either in time or money)
Then you pay for production and building a market for this product.
Then they can simply take it all away from you and leave you with a 5% margin, which will probably not even cover your marketing costs. This sounds like a seriously crap offer to me.  ------------------
Alex Eames
http://www.translatortips.com
helping translators do better business IP: 62.254.128.4 |
Suzy
Member Posts: 3
Registered: Mar 2003
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posted 30 March 2003 13:00
That's what I thought also but because I don't have experience with this I asked you if it is common.
Thank you,
Suzy
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IP: 217.121.53.101 |
soulco
Member Posts: 16
Registered: Nov 2002
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posted 20 April 2003 18:52
quote:
Originally posted by alex:
This sounds like a seriously crap offer to me.
Hi everyone, What kinds of benefits do you think a translator could rightly expect from this sort of job? ------------------
Gareth Swain
Osaka, Japan
www.transoul.com IP: 219.125.210.211 |
alex
translatortips staff Posts: 462
Registered: Feb 2000
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posted 26 April 2003 10:29
quote:
Originally posted by soulco:
What kinds of benefits do you think a translator could rightly expect from this sort of job?
The glib answer is whatever they can negotiate. Are you talking about a permanent full-time job? Or are you talking about translating a book? I don't know for sure, but I would expect a
fee plus a royalty of a few percent - But the publisher takes all the costs and does all the work apart from the translation. In any other case - like self publishing - it's hard to say.
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Alex Eames
http://www.translatortips.com
helping translators do better business IP: 62.254.128.4 |
