So I’m a JP translator and I translate series off of Syosetu. Before I do translate any series, I always contact the author to ask for permission. The thing is, I’m curious as to what would be a good way to contact them. Some authors leave links to their personal blog or their Twitter account on their home page. There are authors who don’t do that but prefer to post activity posts so their readers can comment on them. So let’s say an author doesn’t have an activity post or a link to some sort of way to contact them (such as a link to a blog or their Twitter), how would I be able to contact them? Another thing is how some authors give their readers multiple of ways to contact them but out of all of those ways, which one is the most effective? Let’s say they have activity posts, a link to their personal blog, and a link to their twitter account. Which method would you use to contact them that would make them reply more faster? I don’t want to go all over their social media and contact them numerous times because then I’d come off a bit too persistent. For those of you are curious about my situation, I contacted around several different authors this past Monday on Twitter and so far, only two of them have responded back to me. That kind of makes me worried because I check their timeline occasionally and the authors who haven’t responded back tweet stuff on Twitter almost everyday. As for the authors who never reply back, does it mean they don’t care? Or do they just never check their notifications?
You can look at my response here and see the responses of others https://forum.novelupdates.com/thre...anslate-their-novel.81950/page-2#post-4709119
Call me old fashion but the better way to first contact someone is through home delivery. Nothing gets the message across better than a severed horse head in the bed
Aren't novels on Syosetu free though? Someone potentially making money of of one's own (free) work might leave a bad taste though.
Syosetu is worse than Qidian in my opinion The website makes money from ads It is just a content farm for Japanese publishers to groom authors Instead of mentoring authors the traditional which is expensive. So authors are trying to get published by sites like Yen Press's parent company Kadokawa You know from experience that Kadokawa does not want translations of their novels
I’m not making money off of their work in any way. But yes, works on Syosetu are free. Some authors on Syosetu do make money off of their work though.
Just curious, but what’s the son reference about in your message? I get the whole publisher thing but not the son thing. The authors that I contact don’t care much about publisher contracts, just as long as whoever translates it gives them credit.
Translators and authors to me are like family. Authors are putting their novels on Syosetu so they get published. Saying they don't care is not true and if they violate publisher terms they can get in trouble. Look at Baka Tsuki. You don't have to believe me. You might say that it is just light novel but Power In The Shadow is a web novel and was dropped by the last translator. I also dropped novels because J- novel requested
I see your point and what you’re saying is true, as I’ve seen it happen. The authors who I contact want international exposure so they’re fine with it to an extent. The authors and I have made an agreement that if they don’t feel safe with me translating it, they’ll contact me again to tell me to delete it. If they do want to sign to a big publishing company in the future, then one day they’ll contact me. I guess the authors that have said yes to me so far want international exposure for future purposes. But seriously, what’s the son reference thing you were talking about.
If they have a twitter, I'll try to contact them using that first and if not I'll try message them throught syosetu. If there's no reply within a week I assume they're dead.