Don't Be a Dong - Translating in 2019

This thread in a nutshell for those who don't want to read through 9 pages of meaningless argueing:

RWX: if you sellin apples for a LIVING, make sure you sell apples a DAY or consistently, or else you gon be broke honey.

Alice Something for 5 pages straight: Well you might be right, BUT here are all the reasons you're actually WRONG. Look at all these people selling oranges once a month, it worked out for them!

Wuji 10 years later: I love bananas. I love business. Did I mention I love bananas.
P.S If you don't agree to the way I give readers crumbs to make profit, on my ignore list you go! P.P.S Visit my site.

 

This novel is quite interesting would totally give it 5 Stars read it from page 1 to 10 word for word....

Oh wait....

This ain't a novel....

Such a shame.....

 

No idea what's wrong on your end. I didn't add change any fonts and just typed directly into the reply box.

 

That's weird. That reply of yours use the black font colour which is unreadable in the black-themed.

 

I've seen it happen now and then. It's an irregular regular occurrence. Annoys me every time, but who knows it might be some weird forum bug.

 

I find this thread slightly amusing. It is interesting how much of the gap there is between writers and translators.

If you'd read about advice the current writers (western) gives out to the beginners in most cases in can be summed us:
try finding your own way of writing.
try writing the best story you can, even if people around you don't agree on some of the things you are doing.
don't expect to make money from it. have a job to support yourself. if you're moderately successful, you'll be able to get some average salary (meaning you can have money to food/lodging, but buying new car/house is out of reach for many writers), but the truth is that you can earn a lot more money if you are not writer. But one can learn enough money for living (eventually).

While the discussion happening here is more oriented to the business of running translations (instead of aspirations for individual translators), the money grabbing is much more intensive (most likely that the whole eastern novel translating business is not established and it is possible to carve out the niche for oneself).

The days of "have your own job to support yourself and do some random translations as hobby you like" are gone. However I wonder how much longer until the market saturation and niche itself not growing every month/year, but shrinking.

The readers time is finite and there's a limit for the same stories the reader can consume. And the pressure to produce content to stay afloat for writers (especially Chinese ones) is not doing many favors for the quality.

My personal view - is just fuck translations and go support authors directly. I've had my fun with eastern novels, but I'm finding a lot more quality on some western (self)published novels/serials. After tasting the good stuff, the most of the translated novels (I'll admit I barely read now the latest novels though) are very stale.

Whatever you are doing, good luck for all of you. But I think if you are doing for the sake of money only, you are doing it wrong.

 

Its two very different jobs so no point in trying to compare them. As a translator you have limited control over the story, you can't exactly do w/e you want with it. Also there a limited source you can read the eastern novels compared to western novels well there a lot (I mean there a lot of eastern novel but since most people can't read the raw its very little compared to western novels)

Also I completely disagree with your last statement. Many many many great things are made because people want money. I don't see how wanting to make money is a bad thing. At least when people have a goal of making money to support themselves things get done. While I think the practice of how chinese novel are written is pretty shitty (the insane chapter release rate and padding) but I give them credit for doing something most western author fail to do which is to actually fucking write. As someone who write for a period of time on RR its insane how many people just never actually write anything.

 

The translator can chose the story to translate. To find a gem/whatever/something worth sharing, one would need to put some effort. In general, though, translating has a lower bar than writing.

The greed has both positive and negative sides. I think the consensus is, that it is possible to earn relatively decent money for bilingual person (as per person who does not have any other skills besides language ones). However looking at the 5k euro monthly patreons and what not, it is not THAT impressive if you'd look at what kind of money people can earn in other areas. One can make a living and that's about it.

It is more about short term/long term vision. I personally don't think translating novels is viable long term occupation for a person. It may be a better for already established companies like WW or QI. So while it is possible to get some money for a year or three, I don't think it is very sustainable. To earn that kind of money one will be working a lot and eventually people will burn out like in any other industry. Or you need more people to do that and again - you need to share your revenue. While you can gain some valuable experience as project manager trying to juggle all those priorities, however it still means that you are not translating, or doing additional translation besides project management work. And you can earn a much better money in another industry by working as PM.

Well, I think the point I was trying to say in my previous posting - I think the eastern tropes adapted by western authors don't have this huge cultural gap and they are much easier on my eyes. I have had enough, so I'm spending my money on those authors instead of translations. And I see a lot less greed among the writers if compared to translators.

 

lol nice one Ai-chan

 

Learning Chinese is just too hard to be worth the time investment