In this thread I am interested in knowing about the logistics-- not the craft-- of translating literary works (most specifically prose, but poetry too, I suppose). Does an author approach a publisher to have his/her work translated? Approach a translation agency? Seek out freelancers? Or do no translations happen until a translator (or an agency? or a publisher?) contacts an author? Sorry the questions are so vague and open-ended-- I have no clue about this topic and would love to hear anything you know.
It was nonfiction in my case, but the process was simply that the rights to foreign editions of the book in various language territories were purchased by publishers in those territories. Those publishers then assigned the book to a translator, who, BTW, earned a separate copyright for his translation.
I had nothing to do with any of this, no say in picking a translator, no consultation in the translation, and no knowledge of what the end result would be until they shipped me published copies. I have translations in French, Spanish, Polish and Slovakian, none of which I read so I don’t have a clue whether they are good, bad, or jabberwocky. I never did receive a copy of the Taiwanese edition I was paid for, sadly. I would greatly love to see that, if it ever appeared.
A more literary work may have a process in which the translators work with, or least consult, the author to get the subtleties included.
However, publishing is a business rather than an art. You have to assume that translations as commercial transactions by publishers far outnumber translations as artistic endeavors by creators.
I know of at least one editorial house in Spain which is very careful to always give the same authors to the same translators; that company’s owner gets the chills when he thinks of some of the “translation differences” he’s seen for authors, and even series, that were done by several people neither of whom had bothered read the previous ones’ work.
Some editorial houses have in-house translators; most (again, in Spain) work on a freelance basis but not usually through an agency.
Some authors put in their contracts conditions like being able to veto the translator for those languages they are themselves able to read, but this is rare. The only one I know who’s done this has enough cachet to make editors dance Lake of the Swans on their hands. And well, some of his earliest works got the kind of translator that makes Babelfish sound good.
In my case, the legal translations of my stories were done without consulting me. When I sold them, I granted the magazine the right to have the story published in foreign language editions of their magazine as part of the boilerplate. I never heard of any of these until I searched the Internet for them.
Thanks for the answers! Very interesting. Sorry that I didn’t make it clear, but I’m particularly interested in hearing about the process with focus on the translator more than the author, but anything’s fine.