by Elizabeth S. Craig, @elizabethscraig
My strategy for the last couple of years is increase the income streams for my already-published books by branching into international publishing, libraries, and translation.
I’m about to publish my first translated book, A Dyeing Shame, in Spanish. My translator is the gifted Alfredo Moyano-Barroso. I was lucky that Freddy not only speaks Spanish and English fluently, but he lives in the US and was easily able to convey Southern US customs and traditions to a new audience. Right on that book’s heels is an Italian version of A Body in the Backyard, translated by Valeria Poropat, another wonderful translator.
Babelcube is a platform that allows indie authors to audition and retain translators for their books. Here is my experience working with them:
The Good:
- The royalty-share agreement. For writers, there’s lots that’s good. There’s very little risk on our side as writers (except, perhaps, the risk of a bad translation). We pay nothing upfront. Babelcube handles payments to the translator, distribution of the books, etc.
- Checkpoints for quality control. We have opportunities to end the translation process.
- A partnership (for ebooks) with StreetLIb: a company I already do business with and respect a good deal. That expands the distribution options (although I wish that StreetLib would take over the print distribution–more on that below).