A Bleg and a Business Proposal

I’ve long been kicking around the notion of a German translation of my books, especially the Adelsverein Trilogy since that story has to do with German immigrants to the Texas frontier, and the Wild, Wild West as a concept is madly popular in Germany, and has been so for decades, if not centuries. Yeah, I know weird concept, but it is true. I’ve fielded the occasional email from readers asking if there were such, as they have friends who don’t speak English but would just love-love-love to read the Trilogy in German. Early on, I had kind of hoped that I would get some interest from a German publishing house wanting to clean up from all those Karl May fans, but that hasn’t happened, not so far.

So, being advised by another newly-indy author, and a couple of friends, and my daughter (who had a great many caveats, seeing that she is not only my assistant but heir to the whole ongoing literary concern) I have decided to give up on any offers from German-language publishing concerns, and take command of the situation in a time- honored indy-author/free blogger way. Feh like I had all that many offers for mainstream American publishers anyway …Amazon has the ability to distribute their wares in Europe, and I am the junior partner in a boutique publishing firm with an LSI (Lightning Source International) with the ability to publish in any language that we specify so publishing a German-language edition of my books would be a fairly simple matter: a separate ISBN, and another set of relatively small fees to upload.

That’s the easy part the hard part is getting a German translator. I can’t afford to hire one directly. My checks for sales of my books, while adequate, are not yet into four figures. But sales for my books are a good and steady solid stream. I am mildly renowned locally and I do have a solid core of local fans, plus generally good reviews for my books. I figure that I am at the start of an arc of success, and that I can do on turning out another ripping good yarn every two years or so. Every book that I go on writing will bring in more fans; every reader who discovers a book of mine and instantly adores it will go to my back-list and buy all the rest. Such is my strategy, confirmed by the experience of a good few other indy authors … who have a nice augmentation to their regular day-job paycheck. Not enough that many of them can afford to quit their day jobs or start shopping for castles in the neighborhood of R.J. Rowling’s … but in this current economy, a regular income stream is a regular income stream, and to be valued accordingly. Given the focus of the Trilogy, the existing fan-base in Germany for Wild West adventures, I figure this venture would be a pretty solid … for anyone who wants to take a chance.

I am proposing to offer a significant percentage of ongoing sales of a German-language edition of the Adelsverein Trilogy to any qualified linguist prepared to take it on spec. Yeah, to do a lot of work in expectation of eventual royalties, which would sound a bit problematical except that it’s what I have been doing with my books all this time since I published my first book, just like about every other author does, indy or mainstream pubbed. I gambled that my work on it would pay off eventually and over time. That gamble looks like it is beginning to pay off, so I am in a position to offer this to anyone with mad translating English-to-German skills.
I do have access through friends to means of judging abilities and of setting up the legal matters … so, anyone out there who can translate from English to German, who wants to take a gamble on a steady income, and is prepared to do the same work I have done and take a long view … let me know.

4 thoughts on “A Bleg and a Business Proposal”

  1. Sgt – To your dilemma – as you probably suspect one can’t simply run your text though a translator (software) and expect a good German version. You have to imbue what the Germans call das Sinn – the Soul – of the language. And they might say things differently from how you would say it in English. A good translation will imbue to the German mind the same mental imagery you have so diligently written in your book. Germans are interested in the West and Texas –

    My German is such that the Germans consider it – for the most part – verstandlich – understandable – but I am no way fluent.

    But to give you an example – many years ago (again my standard preface) while at the Frankfurt Zoo I saw a sign “Keep off the grass” – only auf Deutsch it said “it is forbidden to be on the grass”.

    I think your idea of finding someone willing to share in the profits is on the right track.

    It will take some research bit I would see who has transcribed other English books to German and contact the publishing houses?

    Just my idea…

  2. As it happens, I am a native speaker of German and just starting up as a self-employed translator (mostly English and French to German), so your project would be interesting to me. Contact me and maybe we can work something out.

    Isn’t the Internet a wonderful place?

  3. Indeed it is, Lukas – my direct email addy is clyahayes-at-yahoo-dot-com. I believe this project would bring you a small but steady income stream, once completed.

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