How do publishing houses find/select translators? Thread poster: Giia Weigel
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Giia Weigel 
United States
Local time: 13:15
Member (2008)
English to Estonian
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I have been translating books from English into Estonian for years, but lately I have become curious about reversing the direction. My English - after more than 20 years in English speaking countries/environs - is akin to native, and I would love to challenge myself! Any ideas and suggestions would be most welcome.
Update. As my post is a bit vague - I would love to translate into English (from Estonian) and would lik... See more I have been translating books from English into Estonian for years, but lately I have become curious about reversing the direction. My English - after more than 20 years in English speaking countries/environs - is akin to native, and I would love to challenge myself! Any ideas and suggestions would be most welcome.
Update. As my post is a bit vague - I would love to translate into English (from Estonian) and would like to know if anyone has any ideas as to how this process works.
[Edited at 2024-11-14 09:17 GMT] ▲ Collapse
| | | | SAMON UT
Cambodia
Local time: 02:15
English to Khmer (Central)
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It might help to put together a portfolio showing your experience translating into English. You could also reach out to agencies that specialize in book translations or join translation networks and forums where publishers might be looking.
| | | | Lingua 5B
Bosnia and Herzegovina
Local time: 20:15
Member (2009)
English to Croatian
+ ...
| The title and body | Nov 14 |
Not sure your title and the description match. Are you looking for ideas in general or wanna learn about publishing houses?
I believe with publishing houses it’s mostly who they know and internal connections/networking. They also prefer published authors as translators.
| | | | Giia Weigel
United States
Local time: 13:15
Member (2008)
English to Estonian
+ ...
TOPIC STARTER
Thank you for getting back to me!
I was hoping that the reader would read both and it would make sense then - as it did to you.
Several of my translations have been published, but these books have been translated into Estonian, of course. I could contact the publishing houses directly, but I was curious to see if there was another way to approach them, i.e., via certain sites.
Will keep looking!
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Baran Keki
Türkiye
Local time: 22:15
Member
English to Turkish
| What exactly are you asking? | Nov 14 |
Are you asking whether you can translate novels into your source language? If so, then you shouldn't.
Are you asking how publishing houses find translators who translate into their native language? Well, they find you. In my case, they couldn't find me because, unbeknownst to me, the contact form of my website hadn't been working for years, and I lost out on a potentially 250 to 300K deal (true story).
| | | | Giia Weigel
United States
Local time: 13:15
Member (2008)
English to Estonian
+ ...
TOPIC STARTER
However, I am a bit curious as to why you would discourage me from translating into English altogether?
I do sympathize with you though, for your loss of a good project.
| | | | Lieven Malaise
Belgium
Local time: 20:15
Member (2020)
French to Dutch
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Giia Weigel wrote:
However, I am a bit curious as to why you would discourage me from translating into English altogether?
If your English is really close to native, you could give it a try, I suppose.
But in general it's a bad idea to translate into a language that's not your mother tongue. It's already hard enough to translate properly into one's mother tongue, let alone into a language that in most circumstances can't possibly be mastered as good as one's first language.
There's a reason why agencies and businesses looking for quality translations will only work with translators working into their mother tongue.
| | | | Baran Keki
Türkiye
Local time: 22:15
Member
English to Turkish
| Don't let me discourage you then | Nov 14 |
Giia Weigel wrote:
However, I am a bit curious as to why you would discourage me from translating into English altogether?
I tried reading the English translations of Jose Saramago many years ago to improve my English (I didn't know better). His books were translated by a few translators, some of them had Anglo Saxon sounding names, but one of them was named 'Costa'. I believe I read two books translated by that woman named Costa, which I found very difficult to read. Of course, the man's idiosyncratic, if not outright absurd, style didn't help, but the book, as Turks would say, 'stank of translation', it just didn't flow naturally... Now having remembered that woman Costa (thanks to your post), I googled her and found that she was actually English (needless to say, I always thought she was Portuguese), a native English speaker! If a native English speaker translates a book that bad, I wouldn't want to imagine the work of a non-native English speaker... I stopped reading English translations of writers outside the English speaking world, and switched to Paul Auster (RIP).
That said, don't let me discourage you, in fact just disregard my post. If you're confident of your English skills, go ahead.. I was just recounting my experience since you asked.
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Giia Weigel
United States
Local time: 13:15
Member (2008)
English to Estonian
+ ...
TOPIC STARTER
If your English is really close to native, you could give it a try, I suppose.
But in general it's a bad idea to translate into a language that's not your mother tongue. It's already hard enough to translate properly into one's mother tongue, let alone into a language that in most circumstances can't possibly be mastered as good as one's first language.
There's a reason why agencies and businesses looking for quality translations will only work with translators working into their mother tongue.
Yes, really close to native is what I would call it. I have reached the point of doing all my thinking in English...
Also, I have been translating into English for over a decade and I read ferociously, mostly English books. True, up till now, I have translated medicinal product descriptions, not books, but one must start somewhere. Even the best translators were novices at one point.
| | | | Giia Weigel
United States
Local time: 13:15
Member (2008)
English to Estonian
+ ...
TOPIC STARTER
Baran Keki wrote:
I was just recounting my experience since you asked.
Yes, of course! And I do appreciate your feedback.
I have always felt that in order to be a good translator, no matter the subject, one must have a creative flare, great imagination and, a lot of courage, especially with literary translations. It is easy to translate word for word (thus creating something as unreadable as the books you are referring to), it is much more challenging to translate the ideas. My feet rarely touch the ground most of the time, hence my desire to spread the wings even further - pardon the poetic presentation.
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I was recently contacted by a publisher for a book about Civil Engineering. They found my profile in the directory of the Institute of Translation and Interpreting and contacted me because I had relevant engineering experience.
I think when you say 'books' you mean 'fiction' though, is that right?
I would contact the publishers directly, I don't know of any reputable sites for doing this (I do know of a site for pairing up authors and translators who are willing to wor... See more I was recently contacted by a publisher for a book about Civil Engineering. They found my profile in the directory of the Institute of Translation and Interpreting and contacted me because I had relevant engineering experience.
I think when you say 'books' you mean 'fiction' though, is that right?
I would contact the publishers directly, I don't know of any reputable sites for doing this (I do know of a site for pairing up authors and translators who are willing to work for almost nothing. I obviously don't recommend that). ▲ Collapse
| | | | Lingua 5B
Bosnia and Herzegovina
Local time: 20:15
Member (2009)
English to Croatian
+ ...
| Not translations, but original works | Nov 14 |
Giia Weigel wrote:
Thank you for getting back to me!
I was hoping that the reader would read both and it would make sense then - as it did to you.
Several of my translations have been published, but these books have been translated into Estonian, of course. I could contact the publishing houses directly, but I was curious to see if there was another way to approach them, i.e., via certain sites.
Will keep looking!
I thought I had expressed myself accurately (obviously not). I said published authors, not published translators.
Giia Weigel wrote:
Baran Keki wrote:
I was just recounting my experience since you asked.
Yes, of course! And I do appreciate your feedback.
I have always felt that in order to be a good translator, no matter the subject, one must have a creative flare, great imagination and, a lot of courage, especially with literary translations. It is easy to translate word for word (thus creating something as unreadable as the books you are referring to), it is much more challenging to translate the ideas. My feet rarely touch the ground most of the time, hence my desire to spread the wings even further - pardon the poetic presentation.
True, it is even more challenging to create ideas from scratch.
One of the ways they select translators would be to send you an email asking you this:
Please send us a portfolio of your published works (not translations, but original pieces you wrote that had been published). They will then measure how popular you were and how much sales your piece yielded.
[Edited at 2024-11-14 11:16 GMT]
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Jessica Noyes
United States
Local time: 14:15
Member
Spanish to English
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| Profile and experience | Nov 14 |
I would like to suggest that if a publishing house seeking a translator of fiction from Estonian to English were to search proz.com and find your profile, they would see someone with clear expertise in medical translation, and none whatsoever in fiction (or creative non-fiction, journalism, etc.) They would have no reason to contact you with any kind of offer.
My idea would be that you update your profile and/or seek related experience.
I notice that you indicate willi... See more I would like to suggest that if a publishing house seeking a translator of fiction from Estonian to English were to search proz.com and find your profile, they would see someone with clear expertise in medical translation, and none whatsoever in fiction (or creative non-fiction, journalism, etc.) They would have no reason to contact you with any kind of offer.
My idea would be that you update your profile and/or seek related experience.
I notice that you indicate willingness to translate pro bono for certain groups. (I instantly think about translating an Estonian poem or article for an Amnesty International magazine.) There could also be all kinds of items you could translate for the various Baltic Studies and related journals that exist in the English speaking world. By doing something like this, you would build a portfolio, and also build your own confidence. Then you could demonstrate your skills to publishers. ▲ Collapse
| | | | Giia Weigel
United States
Local time: 13:15
Member (2008)
English to Estonian
+ ...
TOPIC STARTER | Thank you, Jessica! | Nov 15 |
I really appreciate your insights and suggestions, they make perfect sense, THANK YOU!
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