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Can you earn a living as a literary translator?
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Thread poster: Susan Welsh

Can you earn a living as a literary translator?

Andrew Grishin
Russian Federation
Local time: 10:51
English to Russian

Yes, I can

Sep 27, 2009

It’s my only job nearly fifteen years, and all this time my earnings are above the average wages in Russia. But much less than earn “commercial” translators and far from the fat city. Fairly my case is rare enough, ‘cause I work with bestselling paperbacks – I was fortunate to be in the right place at the right time. But we are few such lucky beggars. Many much of literary translators in Russia work somewhere else and for them it’s only hobby. And I must admit that translating good, high literature can’t enable earn a living ‘cause it requires slow and serious work unlike shooters and all that jazz.

Susan Welsh wrote:
It's not like translating a business contract or marketing copy.

If I was young enough I would now find another craft. But for nowadays enough is as good as a feast.

Rupert Spedding

United Kingdom
Spanish to English

theory and practice

Sep 28, 2009

It's been interesting reading this thread as a recent MA in Translation graduate, who not long ago dreamt of being a literary translator before realising the relative impossibility of that. But I still have all the theory and language philosphy that comes along with it fresh in my mind. The processes that are involved illustrate the most complex and intricate aspects of translation and it's a shame that this is so undervalued.

It was one of the criticisms of my course that there seems to be such a gap between translation theory and the professional practice. Has anyone else found this?

Lise Smidth

Austria
Local time: 07:51

Member (2002)
German to Danish
+ ...

CEATL survey to be presented on Vienna Conference

Oct 16, 2009

In case someone is interested in the details of the CEATL survey allready mentioned (links provided by urbom some time ago in this thread) there will be a chance to hear a presentation of the survey by Jacqueline Csuss (representing both the Austrian association of literary translators (Übersetzergemeinschaft) and CEATL) on the Vienna conference November 27th - 29th 2009 - for more details pls see
http://www.proz.com/conference/118

conference program:
http://www.proz.com/conference/118?page=schedule

br
lise

PS: the conference itself (being af regional event) will be held mainly in German but this specific presentation (and a couple of others) will be in English

Amy Duncan

Brazil
Local time: 04:51

Member (2005)
Portuguese to English
+ ...

You could mix it up

Oct 17, 2009

Hi Susan,
I'm almost always translating some book, and since the deadlines are pretty loose, I just fill in with other stuff, so I'm able to make a living that way. I've gotten to the point where I won't do anything I hate, though. And as time goes on, I'm grateful to say, the "other stuff" jobs are also becoming more and more interesting. For instance, I've been getting quite a few translations of song lyrics and the like, which I love to do.

Susan Welsh

United States
Local time: 01:51

Member (2008)
German to English
+ ...

TOPIC STARTER

Good idea, Amy

Oct 17, 2009

I sure got the message from the other posts, that one cannot expect decent pay. But your way of operating sounds like it might be fun, if one can swing it. Thanks for the ray of optimism.

Giovanni Guarnieri MITI, MIL

United Kingdom
Local time: 06:51
English to Italian

not entirely

Oct 17, 2009

many literary translators in Italy have a part time job as a teacher, for example. Only the very best (I'm thinking of Umberto Eco) can command high rates. So, maybe you could do that or just keep some of your technical translations.

Amy Duncan

Brazil
Local time: 04:51

Member (2005)
Portuguese to English
+ ...

Depends on your life style, too

Oct 17, 2009

Susan Welsh wrote:

I sure got the message from the other posts, that one cannot expect decent pay. But your way of operating sounds like it might be fun, if one can swing it. Thanks for the ray of optimism.

Hi again Susan,
I also think people have very different ideas about what is enough money to live on. And then some have to support families (I don't at this point). I also live a simple life style. On the other hand, if I decided I needed more money, I could work more!

I work just enough to support myself in the manner to which I am accustomed.

Another thing, as I pointed out: the "other stuff" jobs don't necessarily have to be technical ones, if that isn't your cup of tea (it's not mine). I also do not use CAT tools.

Thayenga
Germany
Local time: 07:51

Member (2009)
English to German
+ ...

The "other stuff" jobs

Nov 12, 2009

Amy Duncan wrote:

Another thing, as I pointed out: the "other stuff" jobs don't necessarily have to be technical ones, if that isn't your cup of tea (it's not mine). I also do not use CAT tools.

Hi Amy,

I agree that the jobs one is doing to make a living don't necessarily have to be "dull". There's job offers out there in all fields, and if one can afford it to pick those of interest, then there's time - or should be - to translate literature. There are a few publishing houses which prefer to have their "own" (freelance) translators.

One's best bet would be to translate one's own novel, even as part-time translator with the publishing company. To accomplish that is my goal.

Morten Alme
English to Norwegian

Prices in fiction

Dec 7, 2011

Montefiore wrote:

Susan Welsh wrote:

I'm not sure which topic suits this question best, but here goes:

It is notorious that literary translation pays poorly. I recently did a job of this nature, which I really enjoyed, and the pay was indeed lousy. I was "outsourced" to help a quite distinguished literary translator who was having trouble meeting her deadline for health reasons. She was getting paid a lump sum for a book, with no royalties, and could only pay me a low rate (I believe her, by the way). This seems so odd, because with literature, you could spend half a day thinking how to translate just one phrase in the best possible way. It's not like translating a business contract or marketing copy.

I would really like to do more of this, since it is fun and challenging. But is it a losing proposition, from the financial standpoint?

Thanks for your input,
Susan

Dear Susan,

Literary translations are not profitable ventures, and one is lucky to get paid anything at all at times:) However, there are grants, and I still need to research their sources, as I am thinking of doing another literary translation. Unless, of course, you can get a contract with a big publishing house on translating Tolstoy, Dostoevsky, or someone of similar stature - and even then I am not sure what the compensation would be, but you'll be getting the percentage of royalties if it's a big, widely read author (this is to the best of my knowledge).

So when a translation company is post jobs here, what is the normal rates we should offer? Is 4.5 eurocents per source word too much?

KatKoz
Croatia
Local time: 07:51
Croatian to English

How much to expect, then?

Jan 5

Hello!
After reading this topic, plus several others in this forum (and numerous others in other similar forums), I am more confused than ever! I don't translate literature for a living, instead I do it for the extra income and because I enjoy doing it. So far, I have only translated web pages and books for publishers in Croatia (translation of books from Croatian to English) for bookfairs and for promotional purposses etc.

Just recently an author hired me to translate selected chapters of a book, plus the author's biography and an abstract about this non-fiction work. On the basis of this, he found a publisher interested in publishing the book in Canada. The publisher is willing to use my translation of the whole book (it's a relatively small publishing house, specified for this kind of non-fiction), and I am now waiting for the contract to be sent to me. What can I expect at all from the publisher?

I'm under the impression from this topic, that I should be happy if the publisher offers to pay me anything at all!

To add, the author (and copyright holder of the original) had phoned the Ministry of Culture here in Croatia, and was told that funding would be provided once a publisher is found. Should this funding compliment what I receive from the publisher, or is it more likely this funding will serve to reimburse the publisher once he pays me?

Maybe I'll be able to ask some more specific questions once I see the contract.