Hi Chaps,
I recieved an email from this comapny www.editions-icare.com asking about whether they could publish a french translation of Summerland. I must admit it's an intriging idea. Has anybody else done/considered this? How did you go about it in terms of an agreement? Obviously, assuming it's kosher, I'd want to retain creative rights and revenues for the deal, but I must admit I'm not sure how such an agreement would work. For that matter, how big is the frebch language market?
Any ideas/comments/experiences?
Cheers,
Greg
Thread of Wisdom, I summon thee
Submitted by Gregor Hutton on Thu, 21/05/2009 - 09:22.
Hi Greg, there was an excellent thread on this topic on Story Games last year.
I think you have to strike a balance between getting return on your creative investment and work, and allowing the translator to make money from it. If there is nothing in it for them then they won't do it or push it as much as you would.
I have contemplated allowing translations in return for a fee up front and/or the translated PDF to sell for myself.
I had someone offering to do a translation of 3:16 last year and publishing it small-press style himself -- the numbers were tight for the guy doing the translation/publishing to be honest. I need to go back to that one as I have other people interested in helping out now and there is a possible solution (including me being overseas in October which we might be able to factor in...).
Cheers!
Submitted by Greg Saunders on Thu, 21/05/2009 - 10:10.
Good stuff! Food for thought....
Greg
http://stores.lulu.com/store.php?fStoreID=756346
I know Barbarians of Lemuria
Submitted by Jez Gray on Thu, 21/05/2009 - 16:06.
I know Barbarians of Lemuria has a French edition - they also redid the artwork which was pretty awful before. It's now been redone over here with the new artwork.
I think I saw a French edition of Pelgrane's Shadows over Filmland as well, again with new artwork.
As for how big the French market is, it's big enough to support large hardback, lavishly illustrated books such as Qin.
The Italian version of Covenant went pretty well
Submitted by Matt on Thu, 21/05/2009 - 18:17.
I talked about it a bit over on Story Games. The guys over there did a good job, nice layout and included extra material from the codex/website. It's got some good reviews.
My logic when they contacted me went along the lines of, how much might I make in that market myself (looking at sales data I had)? Oh, maybe one to five copies over a year go to non-US/UK. So a translation, in language, promoted by locals, is probably a good bet if there's a scene. If you make sure they're aware of Indie promotion methods and likely sales. i.e. don't print 1000, for the love of Pete.
Anyway, first quarter sales were pretty good, about what I'd expect any Indie title to do. With a fair royalty and a good Euro to Pound ratio, it's a nice bit of extra sales for not much work on my part.
-Matt
Realms Publishing