From what I read online, it can cost around $20,000 to get a high-quality translation of a novel from English into a foreign language. Which I totally understand; if I were a translator and someone wanted me to convert a 400-page novel into another language, I’d want to be paid quite a few thousand dollars for it as well. But from the paying side, $20,000 is utterly unaffordable for me.
Any ideas on (fair, legal, and ethical) ways to have a 400+ page novel translated from English into Chinese? (the specific language I’m seeking the translation for, at the moment)
$20,000 sounds about right for 400 pages of quality translation, that’s $50 a page, pretty good price since a quality translation should take about an hour a page. You may be able to find a student who could do good enough work on the cheap but then you don’t really know how good of a job they are doing.
I suppose you could find someone to do a rough translation first for much less money, possibly someone overseas, and then pay a quality translator to do some rewrite.
What are the circumstances here? Is this hypothetical? Why does this need to be translated into Chinese without someone willing to cover that cost besides you?
As a professional translator, I can tell you there’s no such thing as a translation that’s “a little wrong.” Paying someone to produce a crappy translation and then someone else to do a rewrite is a tremendous waste of money. Find a native Chinese speaker who is fluent in English AND CAN WRITE WELL IN CHINESE and offer him or her a percentage of your royalties if you can’t afford a $20,000 cash outlay.
The best place I can suggest you search for someone like this is colleges and universities with advanced language programs, like Middlebury.
That is excellent advice for several reasons, but the main being that you get what you pay for, at best. When you try to skimp on the costs you usually end up overpaying anyway.
Only half-hypothetical. I’m writing a novel and although it’s not finished yet, I anticipate that it will be around 400 pages or over by the time it’s done.
I’m willing to cover the cost, but $20,000 is far beyond my budgeting means. In the worst-case scenario, I’d even be willing to translate the novel myself into Chinese to save money, but my Chinese is very lousy and American-ish and I’d have to hire a professional editor to edit the whole thing anyway, which might cost a big sum too anyway as **terentii **just pointed out.
I can’t stress strongly enough how important it is that the translator translates into his or her own language, and that he or she can write well in that language. You should also find a good proofreader or editor who is fluent in both languages to review (not rewrite) the translator’s work.
Such people do exist. My daughter has been perfectly bilingual (Russian and English) since she was 2 1/2, and she’s won academic awards for her English skills here in Canada. Her mother (Russian) is, like me, a certified EFL teacher and edits educational material in English. She and I regularly consult each other regarding the texts we’re working on.
Maybe you can find a Chinese family with similar language skills.
