A novel i'm currently reading hasnt been translated since 2020. However the last 30 chapters or so were very badly translated by the 2nd last person that picked it up. They just filled in fluff for areas they didn't understand and several chapters have a translation accuracy of less than 50%. Since it hasn't been updated in a year, I can obviously pick this up for translation, but can I start by publishing retanslations of the poorly translated chapters or can I only translate and publish the newest untranslated chapters?
you can choose any point you want (from currently listed numbers) and it will be listed, but not if you skip several dozen chapters from the existing ones. (which we don't usually accept, unless there's a special reason to)
if you want you can even start translating from 0, the only who could told you anything is the owner of the copyright and I don't think they will say anything unless Q or a ln.
i know i can start from the beginning but i dont see why I should. the first 50 or so chapters were well translated, then the original translator handed it over to someone else who didn't have good consistency. some chapters were okay, and others absolute rubbish. I just want to start by fixing the 2nd translator's rubbish, then will continue with the translation from where it was dropped
it is better not to fix other translator's mistakes unless the translator agrees. you can however retranslate the entire chapter from the beginning you can start from where the first group dropped.
im talking about retranslating anyway. To fix the mistakes involves basically rewriting the whole chapter.
Yes, you can choose to retranslate from any point you want. And if they haven't been active since 2020, I don't think you'll be having to deal with many issues. It's a different story when the translator's still active - someone's working on a favorite book of mine, and the quality is ended up turning away a lot of possible readers. I'm planning to apply to be an editor or co-translator after my current school year ends to try and give the book the treatment it deserves. Good luck on the retranslation, by the way! I'm sure a lot of readers will be happy