- Have you written a non-fiction book
and been asked if you can or will be putting it
into other languages?
Living in Los Angeles, this question comes up a lot
because there's a huge Spanish-speaking community here.
My process for helping my clients think this through
might be exactly what you need.
So if you're wondering
if you should get your book translated,
this video is for you.
(energetic music)
Hey there, I'm Julie the Book Broad
from Book Launchers.
We're your professional self-publishing team
helping you write, publish and promote
a non-fiction book that grows your brand,
builds your business, and makes you money.
Our superpower is caring more about you and your book
than any other company as we support you to succeed.
And the best part, you keep all the rights and royalties
and have full control.
Have you written a business book, a memoir,
a self-help, or some other book that will help folks
and could do so in any language?
Maybe someone has even said
they think there could be a great market
for your book in another country.
Before you go down the road
of getting your book translated,
I think there are some really important considerations
and potentially, a much more desirable route
for you to go with your book.
(light bulb dinging) Consideration one,
do you speak the language
you want to translate your book into?
If you're fluent in the language
your book is gonna get translated into,
the whole process is much easier.
If you don't speak the language,
it's going to be quite difficult.
So think about the process.
I mean, first your book is actually gonna get translated
from English to whatever language it is,
whether that's done by artificial intelligence or human
doesn't actually matter.
So that happens, and then it needs
to be read and edited (laughing).
Things don't always translate perfectly.
A perfect example, my husband and I were in Guatemala,
and we passed by a Chinese food restaurant.
And the sign out front said,
"Welcome, good luck." (laughing)
Whenever we go into a restaurant that doesn't look clean
or it's empty with every other restaurant
on the street jam packed,
we always look at each other and go, whew,
"Welcome, good luck"
because we're hoping we don't get sick
from eating there (laughing).
So something got lost in translation there,
and that was only three words.
So imagine what's gonna happen
when it's your book with 50,000 words.
So somebody's going to need to read it
and edit that translation.
If you don't understand the language,
you're not even going to be able
to do the word choices with the editor.
You have to rely on someone's decisions completely
to get your message across in that other language.
(light bulb dinging) Consideration two,
you can already see
how this is getting a little ugly (laughing).
You're gonna have to trust other people a lot,
and because you will need true professionals,
you're gonna have to pay a lot for this to happen.
You thought your book editing
was pricey the first time, whew (laughing).
You're not just paying for translation and editing.
You're also going to need a proofreader.
Your book cover will need adjustments
either to change the language,
or if it's gonna be in another country,
you have to change the book cover.
If you look at the same books across different countries,
they have different covers.
Oh, and by the way, the layout has to be redone, too,
with this new language,
and again, you won't understand the language
to check for errors, eek! (laughing)
(light bulb dinging) Consideration three,
you can overcome all these hurdles
with effort, patience, and money.
But there's one more biggie, marketing.
If you don't speak the language,
how are you going to sell the book?
Sure, on Amazon, but that is only
if you have book sales currently,
and people are already demanding your book
and it's topping the charts in English,
there could be momentum that could translate
into another language.
We had a client who had massive sales in India,
and he was interested in translating his book into Hindi.
That made sense 'cause he already had
a huge market in English in India,
so it made sense to pursue that for him.
To me, the only other scenario
where all of this makes sense to do it
is if you have a connection to a group or a company
that's going to buy in bulk,
and by bulk, I mean thousands of books.
So you can see, I'm not a big fan
of getting your book translated
unless you speak the language,
have strong demand that demonstrates
a market for other languages,
or you have a connection that makes it worthwhile
to spend the time, effort, and money
that's going to have to go in to make this happen.
That doesn't mean all is lost
and your book will never be in another language.
This is just my opinion,
but I think the best option for authors
not in the situation above
is to pursue a selective licensing agreement
giving a publishing company in another country
the right to translate the book
and market that translated version in select markets.
Selective rights licensing is really cool for authors.
When you're independent and you own your rights
and you're the CEO of your book,
you can license those rights out if you want.
A contract that's called selective licensing
limits the term and territory and time
you give out those rights,
so your precious intellectual property,
which I really think you should own,
to any trade publisher or any rights buyer.
So if you wanna learn more about selective rights licenses
or how to find publishers abroad,
I highly recommend you do a Google search
for selective rights licenses
and find advice from Orna Ross, Joanna Penn,
Alli, which is the Alliance
of Independent Authors, or IBPA.
These authors and organizations have really great advice
and guidance for this.
That's just my opinion.
So let's chat about it.
Have you had your book translated, how did it go?
Share that in the comments below,
and when you comment the day a video is released,
you'll be entered to win some sweet Book Launcher swag,
like this fantastic #noboringbooks mug.
Coffee, tea, and hot chocolate tastes better in it.
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Hang on, I've really enjoyed our time together.
You're pretty cool.
So if you have a few more minutes,
let's hang out for a while longer, okay?
YouTube really thinks you're going to enjoy this video.
This one right here is a cool video
that will save you from boring a reader
before your book even begins.
It's about book introductions.
Nobody else out there gives the advice I give
in this video right here, so check it out.
Click on one of them.
I'm gonna get the coffee ready for you, see you there.
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