Apropos (isn’t that a great word, by the way?!) of the most recent royalty statement that came in the mail, I realized I’ve only ever touched on the topic of royalties here. I think that’s because it’s a complex one with very little outside data or information. All I can really tell you is based entirely on my own experience, but should be helpful nonetheless.
Here, then, are my 10 truths regarding royalties and literary translation:
1. Every translator deserves to earn royalties on her published work.
As creators and copyright holders of a new text, literary translators should be granted royalties as a matter of course. I am absolutely adamant about this and ask for royalties on every book published. Note: I am not always successful, but I do bring up the topic and argue the point. If a work sells well in translation, that is due in no small measure to the translator and he should be compensated appropriately.
The provision for royalties is a standard clause in the PEN American Center’s Model Contract.
2. Translators are rarely offered royalties but publishers sometimes capitulate if you press hard enough.
Even though it is our right to earn royalties, not one standard contract from a publisher has included a royalty clause. Except for the very first book I translated, I have negotiated — hard — for royalties every time. Out of my seven titles (six published and one forthcoming), I have been granted royalties only three times.
As I say, though, in every negotiation I have pressed hard for royalties.
3. There are no established percentages for translators, but 1-3% can usually be won.
When I started negotiating royalties with publishers, I had no concrete information about what percentage to even ask for. After long hours of research and conversations with colleagues, it seemed to me that in North America a translator can earn approximately 1-3% royalties. This therefore was the range I have always put forward to editors.
Royalty rates vary around the world. In some countries, like Germany, they are legislated if a book sells over 5000 copies, but the amount earned is less than 1%.
4. A common argument for not granting royalties to the translator is that the percentage will then have to be taken from the author.
It is my understanding that an author who publishes with a major publishing house will earn anywhere from 5-15% royalties on the original work. He will then earn royalties when foreign language rights are optioned, but the percentage will be even lower. (It’s not a lot when you think about it, and a pretty good argument for self-publishing where the author can earn substantially more.)
However, that question aside, when I have asked for royalties, one answer often given by the editor is that they will therefore have to take my percentage away from the author. This can be difficult because the author and publisher will already have an established contract, which would then have to be amended. Plus, as I just pointed out, the author doesn’t actually earn all that much and may be unwilling to grant a portion to the translator.
The logic in the publisher’s argument is flawed, however, and can be used to make a point. If you, as the translator, are asking for 1% royalties and the author is earning 5% royalties, that means the publisher still gets the lion’s share of 94% and can surely afford to grant you this pittance.
5. When royalties are granted, the fee earned is most often an advance on those royalties.
What this mean is that you receive a fee for translating the work and must earn in excess of that amount to see any additional monies. In other words, if you are paid an initial fee of $10000 to translate a novel and earn 1% royalties on a book that is sold for $20 a copy, the publisher will have to sell 50,000 copies before you earn any money beyond the initial fee.
6. A translator is unlikely to ever see an actual penny from his royalties.
This follows from point number 5 above. Considering that a good print run is 6000-8000 copies, it’s unlikely that a book will sell enough copies to pay back and exceed the advance you earned — unless it is a runaway bestseller like The Millenium Trilogy by Stieg Larsson.
As an example, taken directly from the royalty statement I mentioned at the start of this post, for The Book of Destiny, which was published in June 2009, I have to date earned a whopping $1934.74 in royalties and therefore have about 15 years or more to go with sales remaining steady before I will see anything beyond the advance I received initially. 😉
7. Every now and then you might find a publishing house that calculates royalties on top of your fee.
To be quite honest, I didn’t think a publisher would *ever* consider calculating royalties *on top of* the fee paid, so I never asked for any such wording in my contracts. On a recent contract, however, this was standard in the publisher’s contract, which means I will earn additional money as of the first copy sold for as long as the book is in print.
If I extrapolate based on the royalty statement for my current published works, it is not unreasonable to assume that the book might sell 5000 copies per year for several years, earning me an additional $1000 per year. I’ll take that.
8. How royalties will be reported to you is determined in your contract.
If you manage to negotiate royalties with your publisher, the schedule and manner of reporting will be outlined in the contract you sign. In my case, with one particular publisher, statements are calculated in June and December of every year, with reports issued within three months.
The statements are very interesting beyond the total amount earned. They let you see how the book has done, for example, in the U.S. versus in Canada or for export, and how many returned units there are for each market. I love poring over my royalty statements, even if there’s no cheque attached!
9. Royalties will often vary, with different percentages for hardcovers, paperbacks and ebooks.
When I first started negotiating royalties I was naive enough to assume that the percentage I earned was on every book sold, whatever the format. It was only when the contract came for me to sign that I saw it could vary for hardcovers, paperbacks and ebooks.
There are those who make a case that royalties for ebooks should be much higher for authors. I would agree and include translators, too.
The reality, however, is different — at least in my experience. Even when I do earn royalties on physical books, I earn none on ebooks.
This can — and will — change, but it will be up to us as translators to be aware and to fight for our rights.
10. Despite the above, royalties are a form of recognition in your work and should be fought for.
After reading all of the above, you might say there is nothing straightforward or simple about the whole issue of royalties and literary translation. I couldn’t agree more. But knowledge is power. The more we know about the facts and the issues, the better enabled we are to at least negotiate and eventually receive our due.
Whether or not I receive a single dime on royalties, I think they are essential as an indication that all parties involved recognize that the literary translator is a creator and proportionately responsible for the success of a given work.
Any thoughts on royalties you’d care to share? I’d sure love to hear from you.
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This is a great piece. One thing translators into English should also bear in mind is that their contract must include if at all possible royalties on sales outside the United States. A publisher may have bought US rights only, or World English rights, or UK rights only. Canadian, Australian, and other English-speaking-country rights may fall into one or another of those categories or be procured separately.
However, once an English translation exists it’s very rare for new translations to be prepared for different English markets. Instead, the translation is simply licensed to foreign publishers. The translator should get a royalty either on the net proceeds from such licensing or a royalty on all English sales globally. Translations typically sell better in the UK than they do in the US, for instance, so an American translator should be getting a royalty on sales in the UK one way or another.
Esther — This is an excellent, excellent point! Thank you for bringing it up as I completely overlooked it. I must admit that, after negotiating hard for royalties in the first place, this is something I have capitulated on out of fear of pushing too hard and losing the work. As it stands now, I have accepted the common clause in standard publishing contracts to license my rights to the publisher. But I am, indeed, therefore losing earning potential. This is an area where I need to stand my ground, and plan to! Again, thanks for pointing out this important aspect.
The issue about UK (and other) royalties for a US-published book is one I recently learned the hard way, and it’s definitely an important point.
This is a very good post, and for the most parts corresponds with my own experience. I do think the question you raised in No. 4 is worth considering from a slightly different angle. I was fortunate enough to translate, early on, for an author who always insists that his translators (into many languages) get a share of the royalties. When I translated his first book (which was my second), I was too timid to even consider asking for royalties, but the contract I was sent included them because the author made that happen. Ever since, I have used that as a precedent to basically say to the publisher, “I receive royalties,” and not even pose it as a question. But my point here is that, although not all authors may be voluntarily so generous, I would not want to work with an author who refused to share his/her royalties with the translator, and in fact I have turned down a couple of projects (initiated by the author) for that reason. It’s true that most publishers will want your percentage to come out of the author’s cut, and it’s also true that often that contract has already been signed, but it’s much harder to sway a big, faceless publisher than it is to convince an author, with whom you hopefully have a good relationship, that s/he should be willing to grant you a small share of his/her royalties, since, after all, without you s/he would not be earning those royalties to begin with.
Jessica — I can’t thank you enough for reading, commenting, and — most importantly — confirming that my experience with royalties is similar to your own. 🙂 I often feel I work in such a bubble that it’s wonderful to compare notes.
You make two crucial points. The first one I will adopt immediately, i.e. starting negotiations from a position of strength: telling publishers from this point forward that “I receive royalties”. Love it!
The second one, about not wanting to work with authors who do not want to share royalties is very true. The one difficulty in my own experience thus far is that I am often approached by the publisher and do not have any contact with the author until after the translation contract has been settled with the editor. And in two instances, any contact with the author after that point was essentially non-existent. One author is a bit of a recluse and stated outright that there would be no contact with me; in fact, the US editor rarely ever dealt with the author, but only with the author’s agent and Spanish editor. In another instance, the US editor insisted on being the gatekeeper between the author and I, only “allowing” communication through him. Since he was rather bad at maintaining any flow of communication, I essentially had no contact with the author. Until, that is, I was so frustrated I decided to go around him and write the author directly, but that was toward the end of the project.
Still, I hear your point and it only emphasizes how important it is to develop a good relationship with the author from the outset.
This a great article, I wish I had read it before I accepted my first book translation!
As a novice in translation, I could not help but delight in #4 and #5.
I am as clueless as possible in this matter. Lately I was approached by a friend of mine asking my input in translating a 50 pages Novel (strange if you ask me!).
I did not know that some authors do actually share their royalties with translators until Jessica (thanks!) pointed that out.
In your opinion, do I need to worry? Having never met the author? There seems to be so many middle men in this dealing. What would be your take in this?
I am looking forward to hearing from you. Thamks!
Kankonde,
Thanks so much for your visit and for leaving a comment! I hope by now you’ve worked out an arrangement for the novella translation you were offered. Quite often we have to take a chance, not knowing the client ahead of time. But there are things you can do to protect yourself, like make sure the terms are in writing (even an email) and both being very clear about what is needed and what is being offered. Hope this helps!
Lisa
I just wanted to say thank you for this post. I have been approached by someone I have known all my life who changed their career and has just self-published her first book. She said she’d like me to translate her book into English and that she was quite flexible in terms of the payment arrangements between us. My initial idea was that I’d ask her for a small royalty but I posted a question on a Polish translators’ forum and was basically told that royalties are a quantity unknown and it was a silly idea. I wasn’t convinced and searched the Internet for more information and there came up your article explaining the basics of this trade. So, thank you, thank you, thank you!
I’d also like to cheekily ask you the following question: in your post you talk mainly about printed works. In my case the work is an e-book and has been self-published. I’m guessing that the author gets a much higher share of the sales as a result. Would you ask for more than 1-3% in this case?
Best regards,
Anna
Anna,
Glad you found some content of use here! I’m personally always wary of people who say that certain things can’t be done or shouldn’t be done. There are different options for all of us, as long as we go into them aware of the pros and cons.
Your Polish colleagues have a point that in any royalty-only situation, you have to be fully aware that there is no way to predict sales and a book will sell only as well as the marketing campaign you design and implement for it. There is risk involved, but as long as you are aware of it and choose to proceed that way based on other reasons, all the power to you!
There are a number of other posts on this site about royalty rates. They do vary depending on the type of publication (hard cover, paperback, ebook). Check out the following:
Are 3% royalties what literary translators earn?
How do I ask for royalties?
Rights, Contracts, and Electronic Books: Part 1 and Part 2
Lisa, thank you so much – you’re an absolute star! Have a great week!
Hey,
Thanks for this, it was interesting to read. For the last couple of years, I’ve been translating for AmazonCrossing, Amazon’s translation arm, and they’ve been offering a decent flat fee plus royalties right off the bat. Perhaps times are changing in favor of translators? That would be nice.
Thanks for posting this!
Best
Ed
Hi, Ed! Thanks for stopping by, and especially for leaving a comment. I’d love to hear more about your experiences with AmazonCrossing. Perhaps you’d like to be part of the Spotlight series? Do get in touch with me by email to discuss!
Hi there,
Hello there,
Fantastic read, thank you ! I was interested in getting a clearer idea whether the translator in named in the Anazoncrossing publication, what the general translator copyright agreements are and what in what ballpark the Amazoncrossing royalties fall . I would also really appreciate if you could share your experience in relation to cost effectiveness of translation by Amazon vs translation by external translators for publishers before publication through amazon.
Many thanks for your response.
Petra, I’m very glad to hear you found some of this info helpful! I have never worked with AmazonCrossing, so I’m unable to say what their usual practice is. If you belong to a professional association (like the ATA, or ALTA, or whatever the association is wherever you live), perhaps you can ask on one of their lists, to see if anyone who does know can offer some information. My understanding from colleagues is that AmazonCrossing’s terms and conditions are quite favorable and respect translators’ rights, so that’s good news! Best of luck and let us know how it goes.
Hello, Lisa. I found this article, precisely when I was searching the net for the reason why would a translator get any rights to an author’s literary work.
I understand that translating something requires creativity and skills in writing. I understand that, and I think that a good translator should be well paid for his/her work. But only once.
I’m portuguese and I wrote a novel. I created the story, wrote it down, put it on paper. I invented the story, the caracters, the action, everything. I and only I. It’s my work, it belongs to me, and nobody else. When I published it, anyone who bought it was actually being licensed to read my work. The only thing they bought was the paper and the ink. The paper and the ink belongs to them. The story is still mine. If a publisher was interested in publishing my novel and put it on sale in bookstores and other markets, I would not sell my story, I would only license it. Because, gess what? It’s my story. Nobody else’s. The publisher’s job would be simply to get the paper and the ink, so readers can read my story.
So please, help me understand: why should a translator (from portuguese to english, for example) get royalties from a work that belongs to me? I understand translations are not easy, but all they are doing is translating words into another language. Telling my story in another language. MY story. Not theirs.
As for the creativity necessary to make he story appeal to english readers, isn’t it part of the job? I mean, if you don’t like doing that, look for another job. But having a share on a story, in whatever language, a story that you did not have a part in creating, I think it is very unfair.
Thanks.
What an interesting point of view. Ages ago I wrote about why translation is creative. While it doesn’t answer your question directly, it might give you an idea of an answer.
Hint: there is not one “correct” way to translate anything, especially in literature. So the translator creates something based on an original idea that is not his or hers. It is a heavily creative process. So the reader of the translation is given the licence to read the translation, just like the reader of the original is being licensed to read the original.
http://keychecktranslation.com/blog/is-translation-creative/
Translating literature is a process that takes just as much creativity and skill as writing the original does in the first place. As the author, the idea of the story is obviously yours. But once it has been translated, every word of the translation is the result of my hard work. So the translation is my baby just as the story is yours.
Having a novel translated is an opportunity that opens up a market and audience that the author could not previously reach. This would not have much of an impact on sales of the original text, which is entirely the author’s. A 1-3% royalty is not much, especially as the amount of effort and creativity this kind of translation requires is comparable to that required for creative writing in the first place. The author would still get much more, on top of the sales they already get from sales in the original language.
If anything, I would argue that a translator should receive equal royalties to the author on the translated version. Sadly the world is not ready for that idea yet, though. People still seem to think that because translators make everything look simple and pretty, they’re not having breakdowns behind the scenes going “Argh this word equivalent is not really equivalent at all! How can I express this without destroying everything!?”. Just as authors have breakdowns over things like “Argh this character is supposed to _____, but no matter how I write this it doesn’t work!”. Just because you love the work doesn’t mean you don’t pull your hair out over it…
Another thought on this Interesting post.
So in the same vein should retouchers and printers get royalties on photographs they retouch. They often “change” the original photo – shadow and light and intensity of color makes an enormous difference. Not unlike vocabulary, sentence structure and rhythm used in a translation.
In works of art whether visual or literary many people are involved to finesse and fine-tune and each adds his own unique signature to the original.
Should they all get royalties.
Often the editor is the one that pulls it together and finesses it to its final perfection, should they get royalties too?
It’s a thorny issue.
Would be interested to know what people think.
Alexandra — Thank you so much for your comment. I apologize for the delay in responding, but I wanted to offer a response that was more complete than just an answer here. I’ve now published a post and I would love your feedback in a further comment there if you have anything to add. Kind regards, Lisa
Please, Alexandra, don’t take your work (or anyone’s) so serious. In the end of the day, it is only commodity, as everything in the capitalist society. Art is only an illusion to make you not realize that you’re being as exploited as any other worker.
Very simple answer to your question: if the translator didn’t translate your story, it would not exist beyond your language. If an English translation didn’t exist, it would not be read by English-only speakers and you would not get any extra money from it. The translator helps you deliver your book beyond your country and language and helps you earn more money, and make you known beyond your country – you get the fame, the translator gets none of that. So at the very least they deserve to be paid. Greed is a trecherous thing, my friend.
Thanks for sharing these points and your point of view, Kristina!
Thank you (belatedly) for this post.
I wonder what you’d think of a translation job being offered on the basis of a royalty-sharing agreement. Is it common? Not worth the trouble? Or does it depend on the amount and the duration of the royalties offered? If so, what percentage/duration would be interesting enough to undertake such a job?
Thanks in advance.
I am all for people receiving their due.
But, what if a translation needs to have some parts re-translated by another translator, edited, proofed, fine-tuned. Very rarely have I received a translation that does not require extra work.
Vey rarely is a translators work used as is without the above.
What is your opinion on the above regarding who gets the Royalties and what percentage?
Coming a bit late to this discussion, but it’s better late than never.
Sassy, you ask about all the other people involved in the production of the book (or editorial process) and if they should not get royalties too. I have been involved in different stages of the editorial process (translating, vetting, re-translating, etc.) and I am convinced that all the suggested changes should go back to the translator and he/she must approve them. That is something I try to negotiate with my publishers, as I have seen many times copywriters and vetters modifying things on a whim, regardless of the whole process of interpretation made by the translator. A translation for publication could be deemed a team product, but the translator is (or should be) the one to decide what stays or disappears in the text. So the royalties should go to him/her, and the others are just part of the team. If one of them is significant enough to the translation as to merit a mention, you can always ask the publisher to add the name in the credits (something like: translation by A and B or translation by A with collaboration of B).
I agree with Mercedes on this: The translator should be granted the right to make the final decision about changes made by the proofreader, reviewer, author. Only because a proofreader suggests a change doesn’t mean the translation is wrong. Just like every author has his own style of writing, every translator has his or her own style. I am sure if you asked Tad Williams to proofread a book by Suzanne Collins, he would find many things he would like to change, simply because he would express a thought differently or use another word for something.
It’s the same with translators and proofreaders. It is hard as a proofreader to forget about one’s own style for a while and just look for real objective errors. For the translator on the other hand it is hard if he has to deal with an overzealous proofreader who would rather have a heroine that looks “charming” instead of “lovely” and a hero who is “furious” and not “enraged”. You can always find arguments for this decision or that, but in the end we need to remember, that translation is not an exact science. Sometime there are no rights and wrongs.
(Of course it is possible, that the translator was in fact not a professional translator and that he did mess it up. But if you picked a professional translator with enough experience, this should really be no issue.)
Hi,
Many thanks,
I appreciate the feedback.
I do however disagree with the translator having the final say. I believe that the final decision should always rest with the author. I believe it is the author’s book, even when in translation, and he/she would know better than the translator whether their heroine was ‘furious’ or ‘enraged’, or ‘lovely’ or ‘charming’ and whether the tone, rhythm and sentence structure matched the characters they had written.
Never-the-less, a very interesting discussion and worth pondering some more.
Thank you
I am late to the party but I found this blog post and comments to be very helpful. I was researching the topic because I am currently working on proposing the translation of a book series. If I am understanding everything. Do you recommend that I ask for a flat fee payment for the translation with royalties on top of that of 1-3%? In the contract, It should include royalties from sales in foreign markets. Should the contract also require quartly reports in order to keep track of sales?
Hey, Rachel. The beauty of a blog is that you’re never too late the party! 🙂 I’m just glad you found the site and hope you found some info that was useful.
If you do a search on the site of the word “rates” you’ll see a variety of posts on the topic. As I just replied to another commenter, there’s unfortunately no one-size-fits-all solution. What you charge and how you charge it (fee, royalties, or some combination of the two) depends on various things.
That said, yes, it’s recommended that there be a fee plus royalties arrangement. This is what the industry as a whole is moving towards, but variations are possible.
Sales from foreign markets are usually dealt with in another clause of the contract. And reporting on sales is usually twice yearly.
For contract terms, do another search here to see various posts on this topic. You’ll see in them that I always suggest translators refer to the PEN model translation contract. I also highly recommend the LTAC model translation contract. Both are freely available on their respective websites.
If you’d like to discuss your specific situation in any more detail, drop me an email and I’ll see what I can offer! In the meantime, I hope this helps!
DOES ANYONE KNOW WHERE I CAN FIND A ENGLISH TO CHINESE OR RUSSIA TRANSLATOR WHO WILL DO A ROYALTY SHARE ONLY FOR A SEMI-POPULAR SERIES THAT HAS GREAT POTENTIAL AND IS GAINING READERSHIP?
Hello, Steven. I recommend that you look at professional translation associations, such as the ATA (atanet.org) or ALTA (literarytranslators.org). Both have member lists, where you can search people by language. Note, though, that a professional translator may or may not be open to a 100% royalty sharing agreement. As you’ve seen from my posts, we do take great pride in our work, which is highly-skilled. Best of luck with your books and your search!
Hi,
Your link to the model contract at PEN’s is broken, it can now be found under https://pen.org/a-model-contract-for-literary-translations/
Cheers,
Ben
Thank you, Ben! The PEN page did indeed change… I’ve updated this link. 🙂