I know a lot of readers won't bother to re-read a novel after it's been released so I was wondering where does one set the bar as to how long to allow oneself to alter the chapter after it's "finished" but before being "published". I reckon this is a very recurring subject and all. I just wanted to hear some feedback from active translators.
I edit a chapter 3-7 times before I actually publish it because I have such a difficult time switching from Chinese brain to English brain lol. Usually it takes course over a week, but even after combing through it so much my dumb brain decides it doesn't want to catch mistakes until after it's on the website so I edit it even after publishing sometimes Luckily, it's just minor mistakes and not syntax!
I stick to a publishing schedule of 1 chapter every 5 days. I have about a 4 to 6 chapter buffer, and it's usually 20 to 30 days that the chapter is sitting before it gets published. I edit the chapter the week before it's scheduled to publish, so I get some fairly fresh eyes on it, and I go through it 2 to 3 times. But yeah, I sometimes find small mistakes after publishing too, so I just edit when I find them. I'm pretty okay with this arrangement. I'm still moving on with my chapters, and it reads decently enough.
I still edit chapters that I published years ago, because I don't have any editors, I learn as I translate chapters. If I learned something new, and I know which chapters I made those mistakes, I'll go back to edit those chapters. If I can't remember I'll search using blogger's search function to locate the mistakes.
Usually, I edit and proofread as I translate to save me some time. This is before publishing. After publishing, I’ll re-read and edit multiple times until I feel it’s good enough. There are some though that I’ll come back to months later, just for the sake of re-reading the story/looking up past events, and then I’ll catch things and will still edit.
I imagine it's different if you have an editor team but since I work on my own, I would first translate a chapter and leave it for stockpile editing then when time comes for publish (usually a week later of translation), I usually take an hour and a half to edit each chapter. I do this because it's hard for me to switch my brain from chinese -> english and I usually have to reread the sentences if they flow smoothly or not. Nowadays, I'm pressed for time so I edit my words while I translate so when I proofread it before publishing, it would take less time. Do I go back to edit previous chapters? I wish I could but I don't really have the time to. Fingers crossed some kind reader will point it out in the comments.
Thanks everyone for the feedback! I've also been editing back and forth while I'm translating but I figured out I get really confused sometimes @ .@ I decided to stockpile as much as I can and go back to edit after a few days or a week (as a lot of you described in your workflow) so I can have a fresh read (and possibly end up with a better text). I have someone helping with proofread/edit so If I just stick to my own translation speed and go publishing slow and steady, I might set a good pace. Thank you very much for your insight! I really appreciate it!
Oh wow I didn’t even know there was such a thing as English-Chinese brain lag lmao. I thought my English sentence structure was just deteriorating and was never gonna get back to normal