Is there a rule about the novel summary?

Specifically, do translators have to use the original author's summary always? Because some of them are crazy.

I mean if it's like this:

The phoenix dances; the dragon flies. One woman must find the answer to the riddle. The divine world is thrown into chaos. What is in store for the phoenix child?​

Or can the translator just make a better summary that actually says what the story is about?

Many people have said that they don't understand the novel summary of The Reader and Protagonist Definitely Have to Be in True Love. Would it be okay if I just put in a real summary? I put a "translator's synopsis" there one time but it just got deleted.

https://www.novelupdates.com/series/the-reader-and-protagonist-definitely-have-to-be-in-true-love/

 

Just stick to the original summary. Its the authors work, not yours.

 

AFAIK no rule enforce this , just be reasonable.

 

Just put it like:

Author Summary:
The phoenix dances; the dragon flies. One woman must find the answer to the riddle. The divine world is thrown into chaos. What is in store for the phoenix child?

Translator's Summary:
Female MC do stuffs.

 

You can ignore 90% of CN summaries since they seem to be just random shit.
Read reviews instead where you can get better grasp on what the story is about.

That said i have seen couple of novels where the translator has added their summary along with the author's

 

It's strange it got deleted, I think there's been a few novels where I've seen translator's synopsis there as well. And if I remember correctly, World of Cultivation doesn't use the original synopsis from the author at all, it's actually from a fan comment on their site?

 

i agree, when the summary isnt total shit or misleading or vague af. Now sometimes the original summary can be fine even if its misleading or vague but still i would like to know what im getting myself into before spending time reading a novel. And if a TLer wants to explain the story a bit in like a note below the original summary, at the very least, then i see nothing wrong with it.

 

Though some are weird and a turn off to some, there's no rules on synopsis. Just translate whatever the author's synopsis and if you're really a good guy, just create a good summary of a few chapters and post it in NU, no onne going to complain about it.

 

It's better to put a translators summary below the author's original one. Like, most of the Chinese novels out there have summaries which tell nothing. So it will better RTO have another summary which actually tries to tell something.

 

It seems to be a trend among CN WNs to have complete garbage as a summary. It's impossible to know if I'd like a novel or not based on three sentences of vague crap.

I wonder why CN authors don't write something even remotely representative of their novel for their summary? Is it because even they don't know what the novel will become after the first arc is complete?

In any case, I've seen some novels with multiple summaries, so I think it's ok. Or, at least there's not very strict enforcement if it's not.

 

Even if JP Novel don't put out their summaries, reading their title is at times enough to guess the genre and story.
Unlike the flowery CN ones...

 

I think that's partially because many JP Novels have titles that are as long as most CN summaries.

 

It might be just like hype of movie trailers or the recent trend with some commercials where you don't know on w what is even being advertised till the last few seconds of the commercial.

 

Most of the original CN summary is the author attempt to look clever lol.

 

Ha

Have you ever read some of the summaries? They make no f*cken sense at all and have 0 helpfulness.
For summaries like that I like the ones that also have an extra summary by translator that is actually a summary.

 

Author summaries are welcome.
Literally everyone is free to give a summary and title it as a TL summary.
Just know that there are some lurkers out there who read through and edit these summaries.

 

if the translator's synopsisis better, just overwrite the author's synopsis. we are fine with that. no need to make it redundant by putting A's synopsis, B's synopsis and so on. One synopsis is enough

however, more often than not, tl's synopsis is more of a review, rather than being a proper synopsis, hence it got deleted (not necessarily by mods). there's a place for review, which is at lower section of the page. misusing the description section for opinion (aka review) is a big NO. keep in mind, the translator might change, but the author won;t, hence most of the time, we tend to prefer author's.

again, no need to state TL synopsis, author synopsis, userXXX synopsis whatever. just the description/synopsis. also, please keep it spoiler-free as much as possible.**

** unless the 'spoiler' actually exist in author's original synopsis.

 

Add your summary as long as it's not filled with spoilers. I remember a translator summary that spoilt the end...

 

I think the first translator of Beast Piercing the Heavens did that before, furthermore it's from comment of a different novel (ISSTH). I could be wrong about which novel but I'm pretty sure it was from xianxiaworld.

 

I like the summary example you dispute here, I prefer these to ones where they explain everything to the point where it's not worth reading anymore.

I have seen quite a few summaries/blurbs where there is the author's AND the translator's summary, clearly marked so that the reader can decide. I think that should be the best practice in this instance.