Question Why some japanese transltors pick more than one novel?

Discussion in 'Novel General' started by EnuoFH, Sep 15, 2019.

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  1. EnuoFH

    EnuoFH Well-Known Member

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    I don't see it happening with korean and chinese novels but i see it with japense novels of a single translator picking up more than 1 novel and translating both at same time or decides to focus on one and the other pretty much is dead with some single chapter at some point, but why? if you focus on a single novel you delive chapters much faster and you dont stop other translators from picking the others novel that you decided to pick up with the one you are focusing....

    Sure if they want them can do it, but if completely make me not support them since chapters are much slower since he also does other works and i can't bother myself with helping a translation that will take years and years to even develop the feeling to being rewarded for the support let alone getting close to the raws
     
  2. wrightl

    wrightl Wizards are better than warriors

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    Japanese novels tend to be very niche, in that they pick a certain plot that is interesting to a small subsection of people and run with it. From a translators standpoint, this can become boring or unfulfilling, and it also limits the number of readers for the translator, so they try to pick more novels to broaden their audience.
    There might be more reasons but those are the ones I know of
     
  3. Wujigege

    Wujigege *Christian*SIMP*Comedian

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    Humans are greedy.
    You don't have to believe me just answer this question:
    Why don't readers only read one novel?

    [​IMG]
     
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  4. Teadragon

    Teadragon Book Wyrm

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    Do you only read one novel to completion before you start any others? While I am not a translator, if I was I know I would get bored with just translating one story for years.

    While I agree some translators bite off more than they can chew, I think you are misunderstanding some of them. It is far more common for Japanese translators to translate just one chapter of a new novel they like in order to get others interested in translating it. They consider it a service to the community, and usually say somewhere that anyone can now pick that novel up.
     
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  5. justmehere

    justmehere Well-Known Member

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    Dunno man,

    Translators greed are generally misplaced man... Takes wuxiaworld as an example, their main translators mostly work on 1 novel on blazing speed. That enables the said novel to propel to the top 20 here in nuf.

    We would read 1 novel to the end, but translators are just not consistent enough Mos of the time.
     
  6. TamaSaga

    TamaSaga Well-Known Member

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    ...actually, it's because there aren't enough Japanese translators.

    Chinese = You can practically get something readable using MTL so low barrier of entry
    Korean = Few but very good translators that keep pounding out releases
    Japanese = just as many good Japanese Translators as Korean translators. Many amateur hobbyist translators. But many many more interesting works to translate.

    As for why Japanese has so much available material:
    Korean webnovel RAWs are locked behind paywalls. And many Chinese webnovels have a certain DMCA-happy titan behind them. But Japanese novels are far easier to obtain so translators are free to jump around as they wish instead of being locked into their choice due to having skin in the game.
     
    Last edited: Sep 15, 2019
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  7. Snowbun

    Snowbun

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    Wujigege... your nose will bleed if you keep poking it this often... I'm worried...

    Anyway, I agree. Why don't diversify and try to translate different works for a change of pace? I never tried it myself but I do have a lot of different interests and if it's not something you're profiting from... then it's even more likely that you will do whatever is to your tastes and timing.
     
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  8. Beer_Kitty

    Beer_Kitty Just a very very drunk kitty that likes beer

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    If they pick a jp novel and rush to catch up to the author, will the readers read it as they release it? Most will eventually shelf that novel to binge read it for later when the translator catches up on the author.
    Theres no revenue for that.

    Its like i work for a whole year only to get my salary at the end of the year. Translators work for view counts and ads, what will happen if view counts doesnt rise up for months? They will find other novels to translate rather than waste more time to a novel that no one reads and eventually dropping the novel.
     
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  9. Nai waa

    Nai waa Well-Known Member

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    Short answer is "because they feel like it."

    Long answer is there are many reason, some of which others had stated, like being bored with one so they translate others for a change of pace. Another is the money. Most chinese translator get paid for translating while japanese translotor don't. They might get some donation but not enough to be a full time translator so they work other jobs.
     
    Last edited: Sep 17, 2019
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  10. Ai chan

    Ai chan Queen of Yuri, Devourer of Traps, Thrusted Witch

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    I don't know what you mean. Korean and Chinese translators do the same thing! How can you not see it? They even release multiple titles at the same time! Unless of course, you block Korean and Chinese translators from showing their feeds.

    As of this post being written, Chrysanthemum Garden (Chinese) has 5 different titles on the front page. Creative Novels (Chinese) have 3 separate titles). Volare Novels (Chinese) have 3 titles being released. Flying Lines (Chinese) have 4 title releases. senseitranslation (Chinese) have two titles. These are all in the front page, not even looking at the second page.

    As for stopping other translators, other translators can pick up any titles they wish. It's not a big deal. In many cases, the translators that you find slow are the actual people who found the titles that you end up loving in the first place. They're doing this for free, for you to enjoy. If they didn't give this to you, you wouldn't even know about it.

    Unless you actually pay them, you're a beggar. Beggars can't be choosers. You are not entitled to anything whatsoever unless you actually pay them money. You don't want to wait years for the translation to complete? That alright, it's totally fair. Start learning the language, then. You can read to the end long before the translation is complete.

    In the old days, we translate one chapter a month. Sometimes we'd translate one chapter after 2 or 3 months. And once we were done, you thanked us for it. Because you couldn't read Japanese and we were the ones who fed your needs. Nowadays, readers think they're entitled to free stuff every week.
     
    Last edited: Sep 15, 2019
  11. kobatochandaisuki

    kobatochandaisuki Well-Known Member

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    I think the EnuoFH talks about one single translator as a person translating multiple titles on his own alone. Not about a group having multiple titles. Well, there's also korean or chinese translators doing multiple novels at the same time but it also seem true to me that I've seen many more japanese translators who tend to translate more titles at once than the other languages. Probably just a coincidence
     
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  12. Wujigege

    Wujigege *Christian*SIMP*Comedian

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    Every week?
    MADNESS!!
    We are entitled to free stuff every day
    twice a day preferably.
    This young master has spoken!
    [​IMG]
     
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  13. AliceShiki

    AliceShiki 『Ms. Tree』『Magical Girl of Love and Justice』

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    I wanted to highlight a part of your post that is honestly misinformed.

    "you dont stop other translators from picking the others novel that you decided to pick up"

    This kind of statement assumes someone will pick up the novel if the current translator dropped it... 95% of the time that is not what happens. What generally happens is that the novel ends up in the limbo of novels that were dropped by the translator and will never have a complete translation available unless it is licensed to have an official english release.

    I don't know why many people (I should highlight this point. I'm not doing a personal attack, you're not the first nor will you be the last to have this kind of misunderstanding) believe that there are tons of translators just waiting until your favorite novel gets dropped so that they can pick it up and happily deliver high quality high speed translation that you have been waiting for... It just won't happen, 95% of the time the novel will just be dropped forever.

    Most translators have tons of novels they love and that they want to translate, so they will rarely look at dropped stuff to pick up when they would much rather start a new novel that they wanted to translate for years now.

    So uhn... I don't know if you do that (I hope you don't!), but please don't badmouth translators that are working on multiple novels because you want them to drop it so that someone else that is faster can pick it up... More often than not, it won't be picked up if the translator does drop it, so you will just have one less series to read.
     
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  14. EnuoFH

    EnuoFH Well-Known Member

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    Since this will be a bit big before this i just want to say that i do have problems related to dyslexia so writing things that are long like this usually makes me write it in a very confusing way so i will try what i can if you dont understand something just ask(what i will say isnt just for the one i quouted btw)

    Please do not misunderstand me, i was not saying that thinking that i'm well aware that there isn't a lot of translators for the novels and that its not because someone dropped one that someone will come and pick it up, thats honestly just a fantasy wish that i could have, my point is i don't want to even bother supporting a translation of a novel that has a big number of raw chapters but a slow chapter release, i doubt any of those chinese novels would actually have so much people willing to give money to read them to if the release of chapters was slow as the japanese novels it would had never get popular if it had transltions done at same pace,and yes i'm well aware that most japanese novels have far less chapters than a chinese one, but that doesnt mean all of them have few chapters

    Take for example a novel with 600 chapters if a translator drops a single chapter per week how much time would take for it to get to it?

    And please i really dislike the thought "because i was able to learn japense,because the other learned it so you should just learn it" Its not because others have this option avaible that it means that everyone does if i could i would have already learned it i'm already adult i'm well aware that since i like to read this kind of novel the best would be to learn japanese but i can't so completely dependent on translations if i like it or not

    Also while i'm at it i also dont mind translators that pick a single novel but doesnt have the chance to focus on it but instead are just doing it as a hobby,trying it,using it to develop japanese/etc, i'm more focusing on those that pick more than one novel even more those that pick like 3 novels and say that they cant release more chapters for a novel despite the person release a chapter for each novel in the week and if he decided to pick novels with a big amount of raws it just become silly to do that to me

    It feels its unproductive and actually really greedy from the person to just do that,i rather have someone not translating a novel i want that have a lot chapters than someone that has multiple projects picking it up and slowing the possibility of new chapters because he has to work on other novels i get less chapters and most of time i will just forget the novel several months will pass i might remember it and the number of chapters might not even build anything on the story or even do something in the story at all

    Now like i said i wont say anything but "too bad..." for translators that pick a single novel but they can't translate it fast i rather support those even if release is slower but they at least are focusing on the time they have on a single novel

    I don't feel like supporting a translation of someone that decides to have multiple projects for himself instead of focusing their time in a single one i want to actually read the novel not see someone that takes multiple projects have a slow speed and in the end i will just read the novel and 1 year after that when i get to the novel again the number of chapters might not even advance the story a lot it would just give me a feeling of wasting that 1 year waiting for more chapters

    And i'm more strictly speaking for those that do show that they release chapter for multiple novels with a schedule that would be able to have a faster release speed for a single novel

    And do not take this as me truly offending translators this is more something i wanted to see what others have to say since i'm one of those that are pretty much always reading and drops the support but dont really speak, i barely even get to forums and only started doing that this year so i obviously can have some misunderstooding regarding this kind of stuff or just having the wrong idea/seeing it wrong
     
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  15. AliceShiki

    AliceShiki 『Ms. Tree』『Magical Girl of Love and Justice』

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    Ooooooooooh, that clarifies it, my bad, I totally misunderstood your intent~

    Your point makes sense then, I'm personally fine with reading stuff with slow release rate, but I can see where you're coming from~
     
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  16. Refulgent

    Refulgent Member

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    One DMCA and poof all your work on that SINGLE NOVEL that you focused on is gone. :blob_pout: It's especially painful if you're not being paid to translate.
     
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  17. Wujigege

    Wujigege *Christian*SIMP*Comedian

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    You are making Apple to oranges comparison and obviously did not do your research
    Qidian and Chinese webnovels are built for fast consumption.
    Same with munpia and Korean novels although to a lesser extent.
    Syosetu novels are a whole other kettle of fish
    I have caught up with the author in a novel who releases once every few months.
    No matter how fast the translator, you wont get daily releases, it is not commercialized and not the model.
    Educate yourself.
    This thread is good for laughs but it shows your ignorance.
     
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  18. Sabruness

    Sabruness Cultured Yuri Connoisseur

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    That's a good, major point.

    Structurally, JP novels are done differently to CN novels (cant speak on KR though). Part of it roots in the fact that there's a good chance a JP novel on Syosetsu could get picked up for LN publication so the author may decide to stop the web novel to focus on the LN or to keep going with both, perhaps at a reduced release pace for the WN. CN novels, as far as i'm aware, dont have that same publishing step. As Wuji said, they're structured for fast consumption and word/chapter counts so the authors can milk for money. That's how you have so many novels with 1000's of chapters.

    It also varies if the TL is translating from the WN or the LN version (if applicable). If it's the LN, well they're usually only released every few months or so (sometimes longer). TLs gotta fill the gaps somehow. Even with WNs, as i mentioned before the release pace of WN chapters might slow or stop if an LN gets published.

    Also, it's been mentioned before that JP TL'ers tend to be more hobby TL'ers as opposed to the more commercialized CN translations.
     
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