translation Archives

Translation Hyphenation Issues on Babelcube

September 20, 2019August 8, 2019Business of Writing, Uncategorized

by Elizabeth S. Craig, @elizabethscraig

This is one of those posts that will only help a very specific group of writers, but I thought I’d throw it out there since the issue is one that I’ve struggled with for about a year.

I’m still working with the translation platform Babelcube, although I’m also working with a couple of other platforms, as well (Tektime and BundleRabbit). There are translators who prefer to work with Babelcube…knowing that the platform has its problems, but at least it’s something of a known entity.

This particular issue has to do with hyphenation at the end of lines for paperback books. The problem is that Adobe likes, naturally, to hyphenate as though the text’s language is English. This, as you’d imagine, doesn’t work well for other languages…specifically, in my case, German and Spanish. It may also not work in others, but I haven’t yet gotten any complaints about hyphenation in Portuguese. The hyphenation is very distracting to readers.

There may be a way to turn off this automatic hyphenation (the Word files I’m uploading are from the translators and do not have this errant hyphenation) in Adobe, but I’ve yet to find a solution for doing so.

If you choose to use the Babelcube automatically-generated PDF instead of uploading your own for a paperback, you’ll also encounter the problem.

After poking around online in forums and through blog posts, here’s what I’ve been able to come up with:Continue reading

Translation Alternatives to Babelcube

April 9, 2018April 9, 2018Business of Writing

by Elizabeth S. Craig, @elizabethscraig

Last year I started branching out into translation. At the time, the main platform I found to support royalty-sharing translation (no upfront costs to the author…the author and translator share the royalties for the project) was Babelcube. Babelcube has definitely been around the longest, but there are some problems with the platform. In particular, I wasn’t happy with their distribution/ sales channels and the exclusivity in their terms of service (my Spanish translator, Alfredo Moyano, was interested in creating an audio version of Dyeing Shame in Spanish and the ToS didn’t allow us to pursue it, although Babelcube doesn’t have its own audio platform). More about my thoughts on Babelcube in this post. Continue reading

A Closer Look at Babelcube for Translation

September 22, 2017September 21, 2017Business of Writing, Uncategorized

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).

Book Translation

June 5, 2017June 5, 2017Uncategorized

by Elizabeth S. Craig, @elizabethscraig

I’ve worked hard to make sure that my books are available internationally. They sell well in Canada, the UK, and Australia, in particular. Not only do I have them available through the Amazon sites in those countries, printed books are available internationally through Ingram. Because Ingram has printers all over the world, shipping costs are a lot more reasonable for international readers than purchasing a printed copy through Amazon.

But why are my books doing well in the previously-mentioned countries, in particular? Because they’re English-speaking countries. Although my books do sell in Europe, Japan, and India, the sales aren’t nearly as strong. This is completely understandable. I know with my college French that I wouldn’t want to tackle a book in French to relax. I want to read in my native tongue.Continue reading

Trying New Things for More Visibility

November 2, 2015November 2, 2015Business of Writing

By Elizabeth S. Craig, @elizabethscraig

The business side of writing seems to take more and more time.

If I knock out my writing goal first, though, I don’t have that uncomfortable sense of being conflicted. And I remind myself that whatever time I spend putting my content “out there” should be repaid later on by sales. Hopefully.

AmazonCrossing. Although I think there is still a huge untapped English-speaking or ESL audience out there in the digital reading market, I’ll admit to an interest in translation. After all, if I want to relax with a good book, I sure as heck want to read it in English. Reading it in French (my high school and college foreign language) would be a struggle and certainly not as relaxing.

AmazonCrossing is the arm of the retailer that’s working on projects for translation. I pitched them a book and am waiting on a reply. We’ll see. I have a feeling it’s tricky to get in.Continue reading