Jul 19, 2019
In this episode Mark interviews Annette
Spratte a bilingual author living in
Germany who has published books in various genres and languages,
including a contemporary romance series self-published in English,
a children‘s book series in German with three traditionally
published books and two more scheduled for 2020. A historical
romance will also be traditionally published in German in 2020. In
addition to writing, Annette loves to support Indie authors with
affordable translation services.
Prior to the interview, Mark shares a word from this episodes
sponsor...
You can learn more about how
you can get your work distributed to retailers and library systems
around the world at starkreflections.ca/Findaway.
Mark then goes on to thank Patrons of the show as well as those
who left comments on episode 84, and who were entered in a chance
to win a copy of Patrick O'Donnell's book COPS AND WRITERS.
Thanks to Amy Tasukada, Chad Boyer, MZ Lowe, and Vale Nagle for
leaving comments. Also, thanks to Patrick O'Donnell for answering
the police related questions.
In their conversation Mark and Annette talk about:
- Annette's history as a translator since 1995 before she moved
over into book translation, which she enjoys far more
- The importance of getting the emotion and the tension right in
a literary translation (as opposed to legal document
translation)
- Annette's own writing experience with contemporary romance
fiction (English) which was self-published and the children's
adventure fiction (in German) that has been picked up by a
publisher
- How Annette initially started with a self-publishing services
company that she later on found out charged almost $50 for the
print book in the US - she managed to get out of that deal and
published the book directly herself
- The size of the German book industry and the fact that eBooks
might be as little as 5% of overall book sales
- Those magic words from a publisher who said to Anette: "I read
your book and I couldn't put it down!"
- How a lot of the romance books on the market in Germany are
translations from English
- A bit of a perspective on the size and reach of Tolino, a major
eBook retailer in Germany
- What it's like for an author from Europe using an American
platform for eBook publishing
- Why authors shouldn't use something like Google translate for
translating their novel
- Subtle differences in the form of address in the German
language (formal VS familiar)
- The genres that Annette works with and prefers to work with in
her translation business
- Why she prefers to avoid horror and erotica translations as
well as a preference for fiction over non-fiction
- The research that can be involved in doing a literary
translation, particularly for historical fiction
- Examples of terms or services that aren't used or known in
Germany - such as "Uber" - for example
- The importance of using the same translator when working
through a book series in order to have a consistent
style/voice
- How word of mouth is the most common way that authors and
translators connect with one another
- Typical costs of translations, and Annettes current and lower
fees of 3 cents per word
- How an English speaking/reading author would be able to
determine if the translation is a quality one
- Some of the legal aspects associated with copyright on
translations in Germany
- The fixed price laws for books in Germany and how that has
allowed for the continued existence of both chain and independent
bookstores in that country
- The continued popularity of thrillers and romance in the German
book market
- How German readers are perfectly content with books that aren't
set in Germany
- The value of the resources on the site indiesgogerman.com
Mark then reflects on the subtle differences in languages,
terms, and even different laws in different countries, provinces
and states and how this can both be something that can harm a story
(ie, an inaccurate overlooked detail), or it can be something that
brings an additional depth and realistic richness to a story if
used effectively.
Links of Interest:
The music for this podcast (“Laser Groove”) was composed and
produced by Kevin MacLeod of www.incompetech.com and is
Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0