Want to get into literary translations (Ital-Eng)
Thread poster: Colin Ryan (X)
Colin Ryan (X)
Colin Ryan (X)  Identity Verified
Local time: 18:15
Italian to English
+ ...
Jan 13, 2004

(Similar posts made to Italian and literary forums.)

Hi. My name's Colm. I've been doing technical translations on and off for a short while. My goal is to translate novels from Italian to English. My questions are...

1. How does one get into that market? Are there specific agencies, publishing houses?
2. Is there a lot of work in this area? (That is, from Italian to English?)
3. If so, does it pay enough to live? (At least, would it pay enough if I did it i
... See more
(Similar posts made to Italian and literary forums.)

Hi. My name's Colm. I've been doing technical translations on and off for a short while. My goal is to translate novels from Italian to English. My questions are...

1. How does one get into that market? Are there specific agencies, publishing houses?
2. Is there a lot of work in this area? (That is, from Italian to English?)
3. If so, does it pay enough to live? (At least, would it pay enough if I did it in conjunction with tech translations et cetera?)

Thanks a million for your answers in advance.
Colm
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nordiste
nordiste  Identity Verified
France
Local time: 18:15
English to French
+ ...
Try to meet publishers at book fairs Jan 13, 2004

Hi ,

I have the same project, i-d translating novels from English into French. Have been dreaming about it for a long time but this year I've decided that the time has come for action.
So I will visit selected book fairs (in Bruxelles, paris and London) and I plan to meet publishers there. I think it's better to have some idea of which novel I could translate, I have already selected a few english ones which I like and I know haven't yet been tranlated.
Good luck !


 
Colin Ryan (X)
Colin Ryan (X)  Identity Verified
Local time: 18:15
Italian to English
+ ...
TOPIC STARTER
Thanks... Jan 26, 2004

Hi. Just wanted to thank you for your input. Sounds like a good idea, meeting publishers. However, from other research I've come to the conclusion that IT>EN literature is not a big area. My dreams are dashed...

 
Özden Arıkan
Özden Arıkan  Identity Verified
Germany
Local time: 18:15
Member
English to Turkish
+ ...
Dear Colm Jan 26, 2004

My humble opinion is that if you conduct a research about a dream, think of a dream in terms of "feasibility" that is, of course it ends up being dashed: research is about reality, which always has a downside to show you. If it really is a dream for you, just go for it. Spanish>Turkish literary translations were not a big area either, until someone came up with the first Marquez translations many years ago - now, they are.

In addition to starting with short-story translations for li
... See more
My humble opinion is that if you conduct a research about a dream, think of a dream in terms of "feasibility" that is, of course it ends up being dashed: research is about reality, which always has a downside to show you. If it really is a dream for you, just go for it. Spanish>Turkish literary translations were not a big area either, until someone came up with the first Marquez translations many years ago - now, they are.

In addition to starting with short-story translations for literary journals, as suggested by other colleagues in another thread you've started, and trying to establish contacts with the publishers, I suggest you check the sites of literary organizations and unions (beginning with PEN). Some of them organize literary translation contests, there is one that does a contest every year for unpublished literary translations into English, whose name I cannot remember now, unfortunately. But if you google it you'll come up with several sites like this one.

Good luck

ryancolm wrote:

Hi. Just wanted to thank you for your input. Sounds like a good idea, meeting publishers. However, from other research I've come to the conclusion that IT>EN literature is not a big area. My dreams are dashed...
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Want to get into literary translations (Ital-Eng)







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