This is a wonderfully useful and interesting little book edited by Gill Paul that I came across one day when I was reading Words Without Borders and surfed over to the Dalkey Archive Press site to find out more about it. I ordered a copy right away and it arrived the next week.
Based on a one day meeting held in March of 2008, between translators, editors and publishers, it looks at the practicalities of literary translation from both sides of what can often seem like a gaping chasm more than a divide. Because it is written from a European/British perspective, I was particularly interested to see how things differ between their reality and ours here in North America.
There were definitely a few points that caught my attention. Royalties were one: “According to the 1976 UNESCO Nairobi Recommendation Concerning the International Exchange of Cultural Property, translators are considered to be authors and should be treated as such, which means they have a right to royalties on copies of the book sold.” Music to my ears! However, we’re talking about a declaration from 1976… and some thirty years later, we’re still arguing about this point and fighting for our rights. I am currently on my sixth book translation, all of which have been published in the US. I have only ever been given royalties – a measly but greatly appreciated 1% – and only after a hard won fight.
Another instance where the UK differs vastly is with respect to the sale of rights: “Contracts should contain full details of the fee payment stages, the royalties and the split between author and translator for the subsequent sale of rights and for any serialization. In most cases, 80 percent of the gross proceeds go to the author, and 20 percent go to the translator, or there may be a 75/25 split. This is, of course, a matter for negotiation.” I have a huge exclamation point penciled in next to this paragraph. In every contract I have ever signed there is a clause where I grant those rights to the publisher. Thus, for example, if a book I have translated makes it to the big screen, those negotiations are handled through the publisher and I get, well… nothing. I started to wonder whether I’ve been duped all these years, so I posed the question on the American Literary Translators Association (ALTA) listserv. Not one person said they have ever seen such a sale of rights clause in North America; as a matter of course they are always granted back to the publisher. Perhaps it’s time for that to change…
It was extremely welcome to read a book on literary translation that includes the editor/publisher’s perspective. There are wonderful guides published by ALTA, and books like Cliff Landers’ Literary Translation: A Practical Guide (which I read when I was starting out and found incredibly helpful), but they are written solely from the translator’s perspective. Knowing what the other side thinks or wants has only ever been available through personal experience, as I find these are topics we’re even reticent to talk about among ourselves. Translation in Practice should therefore be promoted by professional associations and required reading for first-time translation editors, in my opinion. “Both translator and editor are seeking the same goal – a high-quality novel that does justice to the original text while being accessible and compelling for readers in the new market.” We are not, in fact, adversaries but are on the same side and much would change if we kept this in mind.
There’s a lot more to say about this little book, but I’ll leave that for a second post very soon. In the meantime, if you’ve read it and/or have your own thoughts on the topics I’ve raised do let me know in a comment.
