Discussion Could translating web novels/ light novels ever become a full-time/ part-time job?

So this may be a little controversial topic, but I do think it's a good one to discuss. Let me start off with saying that I have no problem what so ever with translators making money off of what they do (and I don't know why other people would, but some people do).
"translator" is already a job title, which could be your full-time job. But those translators translate different materials. What I am asking whether the average person who translates, ever consider it as their job and not their hobby? Will translated works ever become popular enough to make good enough money off from?

I personally think that the community is growing at a fast enough rate, that in the future these translators could consider translating novels as a job (based on my 1 year experience of being reading translated works).

 

... You do realize that there are translators charging 80 dollars a chapter and doing ~48 sponsored chapters a month. Doing the math on that it ends up at 3840 dollars a month. In what way is that not viable as a job.

 

well..yeah,,it might be considered a job..if people are willing to sponsor's that particular LN or they can sponsor multiple LN,...so yeah..

 

the translator isn't translating for 8 hours. most expierenced tlr takes about 2-4hrs tops depending on the number of words that averages out to be $20 per hr (if 4hr per chapter) that's excluding free chapters (all paid translation). If they're fast $40 per hr.

If we can standardize the cost of translation based on the series (the proclivity of the author using hard to or impossible to translate phrases and the number of words per chapter) it might make it a more worthwhile for translator to pick up the harder series.

This argument is based on the fact each chapter cost $80 per chapter. However I don't think that's a sustainable price of course it's a free market system if someone comes in with faster translation at a lower cost people might flock to him instead. There has to be a backup system where if the translator quits in the middle of the series they will be find for breaking the readers trust. this would prevent most of those that would join to make a quick buck. Contracts can be made for say 200 chapters. And if other translators join they can start right away at the point the previous translator would stop provided the funds are there.

 

Wouldn't this be a legal mess? Surely they're all called 'donations' for a reason.

 

I'm arguing with the assumption this will becone a business hence the title of this thread

 

If you're talking about wuxiaworld's RWX then you might be mistaken and did the math wrong. First of all, those 3840 dollars per month won't end up in a single person's pocket. The money is donated to the various novels on WW, and are afterwards split between the various translators/editors etc. of each group. Secondly, this also depends on the translators skills and on the novel's popularity. Also, RWX, at the moment doesn't charge anything for his chapters, the queue is currently made up of the amounts donated to the other novels only. What I said is assuming you're talking about WW.
I don't know any other translator that charges 80 bucks per chapter and makes so much money that you could be talking about. Not to even mention doing ~48 sponsored chapters per month. Even if there aren't any non-sponsored chapters, there aren't many who translate that much.
Though, in the past it might indeed have been as you said.
And to answer @Mousa4, I think it is possible to be a money making business but you need to be professional about it and handle it properly, unlike some untrustworthy no name translators out there that haven't even started translating but they already expect donations and they are still hypocritical enough to say that they're doing it as a hobby or to share it with other people etc. Some translators probably already consider it as a job, but of course, they wouldn't say that.
Though, there are some factors that you need to take in consideration, first being that this isn't a stable source of income as the people aren't forced to donate. If the novel is popular and the people are curious about the future events, there will be donations, otherwise, there's nothing you can do.

 

I don't think the donations and all that can ever become a full time / part time job, you have too many variables and all that. For instance, you finish your first novel, and it was a hit everyone loved it, then you start your second one and no one likes it at all, except maybe a few people. (Point in case look at the flak Close Combat Mage got). While it can become a legal mess for Light novels, web novels on the other hand are a grey zone. Light novels already have their own publishers and translators for when they get moved across the world~. I think the only people who I find don't really care are the CN web novelists. but even then being a web novelist is a job over there so usually asking for permission is a great idea.. lmao.

 

I would really love for a company to be able to establish a proper ecosystem for this sort of thing. Like maybe amazon with their mechanical turk, except with translators, writers and publishers. Also throw in a system of editors to improve writing quality. Honestly, I feel the major hurtle is legal more than technical.

 

No, In the past it would have been an even higher amount. Orignally Ren was doing 2 sponsored chapters a week and up to three chapters a day at the same rate. Obviously, I don't have information on his expenditures so I don't know his pure profit and as you said at a certain point he stopped taking donations for CD, which more than anything else says he's not doing it as a job. The fact remains though that if a translator could reach that level it would be a viable job, at least in my part of the world it would, even if the expenditures reached one quarter to a half of the net income.

 

also if you do get this "translator" job.. the IRS is gonna bite you in the butt later bc trying to explain how you can gather an extra $40000 income un-taxed may lead to an audit

 

Don't you think it's a little risky to pin your job on something which is relatively unstable? Because:

I think this would be my main concern.

As well, all the translators out there are translating right now what they think is the 'best' or more appropriate to translate. Do you think there will be enough new material coming out fast enough to 'replace' these heavy hitters as they finish?

 

In some of the poorer asian countries, $20 a day is already ABOVE THE AVERAGE DAILY WAGE!

So, yes. Definitely, you can live on translating if you live in one of these countries.

BUT! The sad truth is not all webnovels are "marketable" to the "donating" crowd. What's more is one needs to establish himself/herself first in the WN/LN community... AKA, advertise your series and yourself, before you offer "chapters for donations".

I, for one, will not frequent a series or a translator, who without having established a good reputation on chapter accuracy and release schedules, would just goes up and asks for "donations" from the get-go.



Notice that I always put "donations" in quotation marks (" ")? That's because I've got an issue with calling chapter commissioning as anything other than that. Even in court, proving that "donations count towards the queue" isn't anything other than a commissioning... a contractual engagement, wherein contributions up to a certain level will result in "service being rendered" (i.e. "Sponsored Chapters")... >_<

IMO, donations should go to actual worthwhile causes (disaster relief, humanitarian aid, charities], and not towards an "entertainment industry" (Yes, WNs are ENTERTAINMENT!). I don't mind calling "donations" donations if you are really just "showing your appreciation to the translator with a small gesture of a monetary nature" without obligating the receiving party to "render more service", which would legally make the "donation" a "transaction" which would automatically then be liable to taxation... which would make many "donation" receiving translators liable for tax evation if they don't declare this added income to their tax returns... >_>

Ughs...

I'm very much interested in actually studying the phenomenon of the burgeoning of the WN translation industry and how it might shape up as the next big thing. Probably be a Masteral Dissertation for Marketing Majors...

 

If you use usd as standard, you should consider where the translators live.
I don't know about others, but I can live several months if I have 3000 usd.
just for that reason, I can say translator is a job.

 

I would agree with you except entertainers get insane wages. So do politicians. In terms of what offends me more it's going to be actors and athletes wages and politicians retirement packages. At 80 dollars a chapter to compare to someone who gets paid 1 million you would need to translate 34+ chapters a day for a year for a total of 12500 chapters. I don't know the figures on the average salary right now but an old article form 2014 I found put the lowest as soccer at 0.16 million with basketball, football, hockey, and baseball all above 1.9 million. So you'll have to forgive me for not being too harsh towards a translator who might get 80000 extra a year if he charges 80 a chapter and does 82 sponsored chapters a month.

Figures were from athletes in the NHL, NBA, MLS, NFL, and MLB.

 

just declared it as a gift from people across the world

 

In a nutshell, is it possible? Yes. Is it likely to be consistent and profitable to the point you can consider it a proper job? The answer is unfortunately no. There are many reasonings people put out, everything from time put into translating(not to mention editing, learning the language/writing and anything else you may put in, to the fickle nature of readers, to just the fact that donations are never a guarantee. After reading this I would also like to add to the list, that just like with manga editors, not everything that is being translated was found free or cheap. Many require donations to be able to pay the fees and charges to acquire the next chapter. Not to mention, basic utility charges and such to keep the internet and power running to be able to mangage. Unless you truly put in effort towrads a popular series, youll end up spending every cent you earn, or in the case of many youll end up in debt. Because of this youll see quite often these days random translators that pop up, saying there translating as a hobby or such, yet ask for donations when they arent translating anything yet, or have yet to develop their own base. Although I hate to bring manga into it to much, many* may have experienced similar with mngacow, taking hundreds in donations, then dropping series, swapping them, missing deadlines and ect. All of which slowly kills your followers, and your support.

 

Still illegal in most cases, though its technically income, so although its subject to taxation, you should get tax return based off it.

 

This would be fraud. Tax evasion is one thing, which you can probably get away with once, by feigning ignorance, (i.e. use the "but they were 'donations'!" card), since the tax body would need to provide evidence of actual measures taken to evade paying tax maliciously... and intent is very difficult to prove... Tax fraud is actually giving the government written evidence of tax evasion... IMO, better to not "declare" if you're not sure... most of the time, unless you are making an astronomical amount and have actually formally monetized a translations website, worse thing is they'll audit you and find you owe them tax then they send you an unpaid tax slip... you can then utilize the "but they're donations" card and argue no criminal intent, yadayada, and worse case scenario is you are required to pay it... if you actually declare it... o_o complicates matters as you'll actually be showing some form of knowledge on taxation procedures, so the "but donations..." card won't be as believable...

1.) According to taxation laws, "gifts" are from people you have a relationship with. (i.e. Co-workers, parents, lovers. Not "Internet Acquaintances"). If they didn't do this, money laundering would be so... so... so much easier (LOL).
2.) Most translators call it "donations" not "gifts".
3.) "Non-taxable" gifts have limits. Varies from state to state and from country to country. If most or, if you're living the dream, your ENTIRE income is from "gifts", heh... the taxman will very suspicious... will ask Paypal to freeze your account = Paypal will never unfreeze funds...
4.) Some countries define "taxable" income as [ALL INCOME (minus) Deductibles]... so... you'll still fall under the "declaration trap"...
5.) etc.

As for the comment on "pro-Athletes" as per my comment on "donations should be reserved for actual causes"... Don't know how you got to that point (maybe from the "entertainment" standpoint but you should read up on why pro-athletes are paid EXTREMELY well, especially when there are gambling opportunities involved [case study: boxing]). In a capitalist society, the reimbursement of your work is based on how "valued" your labor is to your employer. It has nothing to do "how hard" you're working... Believe me when I say I know people who work 16 hours a day in horrendous conditions that make less than $1 a day so, tough. WN translators are far from the "bottom" of the pile.

Personally, I have no qualms about receiving "support" from people. For one, I know there are server fees for sites that have very high popularity (Fun fact: Free blogs will be shutdown if you go over a certain bandwidth). Also, I am familiar with the personal cost of sinking hours into a single release (I, myself, am a retired scanlator/fansubber. So I think I can speak from experience on how tedious it is to do ACTUAL UNPAID WORK FOR MY HOBBY). The crux of my argument is that I find it in bad taste to call for "donations" in exchange for more chapters released. This detracts from what I believe donations should be: Giving something without expecting anything in return.

So, I won't have a problem if:
- They don't call it "donations". [Call it pizza money / coffee money / bribes / greasing the wheels / capitalism / etc. Nothing wrong with you expecting a friend to, at the very least, give you a cold one (beer) after helping him move.]
- They ask for donations, but don't promise additional chapters. [Removing the "queue" so there is no longer an element of "obligation", so translators are FREE FROM TAX LIABILITY].

 

it is stable actually since the market (anonymous army) creates noise whenever a competition comes out giving translators a golden ticket if they hit a jackpot to translate. The problem right now is the saturation of the translating market due to sponsored chapter allure. I assume that's what happened with the Stellar transformation too.

The old or the first ones that implemented sponsored chapters have the advantage since they already have an established reader base. While the new ones will have a hard time to scrape the bottom of the barrel.

From my experience, I don't read new ones until I finish other WN. I'm assuming it goes the same for others unless you're @Lachiel. And of course, it still depends whether or not you are a donator and a leecher.

BTW, CCM doesn't have a sponsored chapter as far as I know. They only make donation optional so it's kinda moot to make it as an example.