How to find a right translator for your book?

Good translator is not a unicorn. Surely if you know where to look, you will find plenty.

The most common way – Translation Agencies. But even though it is one of the easiest ways to find a translator for your book, it will cost you times more as well.

So if you are an Indie Author on a limited budget, what do you do? Where do you search? And the most important question: how to do you find a right translator for your book?

If you have ever asked any of those questions, you are in the right place. The answer is Freelance Translators.

Choosing between Translation Agencies and Freelance Translators, it would be unfair to say that one is better than the other, cause both have their own pros and cons. But if you are on a limited budget or not ready to pay extra money to people who will not even be involved in the very process of translation, then Freelance Translator is what you need. Another reason why Freelance Translator might be better choice for you is if you plan to translate some more of your books in future. Since every translator has their own specific style, you would not want to one day realize that some of the books in your series are translated in a slightly different manner.

Now, the question is: Where to find a Freelance Translator who will be professional, trustworthy, dedicated, and if you are lucky enough, involved in writing?

Here are 4 common ways:

1. Freelance Platforms

This is probably one of the most obvious ways. You can use: Upwork, Guru, PeoplePerHour, you name it, to post your offer and find potential freelance translators for your book.

2. Social Media 

Most of Freelance Translators can be found on social media. You can find a right translator for your book on, for example, Twitter, just as easily as an editor, book cover designer, etc..

3. Ask your fellow writers if any of them have their books translated. If so, ask for contacts of the translators they worked with.

4. Google it

Some of Freelance Translators are also bloggers, so you can find plenty of good translators by just typing key words like ‘book translation’ in google.

Now, when you have found a few candidates, what are the things you need to check before actually hiring one. Let’s not forget that Internet is a warm womb for all kinds of scammers and even though, most of them learned to hide their true faces too well, there are still a few things that might help you to secure yourself from their trickery.

1. Ask for social media contacts/website

Most, if not every, Freelance Translators who are serious about their works will more likely offer you to check their social media or website before you ask them about it. Social Media pages will tell you some about what kind of a person your potential candidate is. Definitely visit website. Scammers usually don’t bother themselves with websites or social media pages.

2. Ask about experience

Or as I call it, language history. This is logical. If you are planning to translate your book in Russian, it would be valid to ask if the language is native to your translator, or if he/she has some texts, blog posts, social media connected to the language.

In my case, I talk to my clients (mostly) in English, all my social media and website are in English, I write (fiction/poetry) in English. And whereas you can judge the level of my English by all those things, if you asked me about Russian, I would simply say, it is my native!

3. Ask your candidate why he/she chose to be a Freelance Book Translator

This is mainly a creative question. In the answer to this question you can easily find how interested and dedicated in book translation your potential candidate is. You also will be able to tell if your candidate honest with you.

        Written words, like eyes, almost never lie.

4. Ask your candidate to read your work before actually hiring him/her

Here is the thing. A right translator for your book should actually be in love with your work. Book translation is not a lifeless, automatic work that can be done by anyone who knows meaning of foreign words. Book Translation is just as a creative process as writing a book. And if your candidate is bored with your genre or finds no interest in your work, then more likely it will affect the quality of translation.

To all the things said above, I would like to add one more: take your time before making your final decision. It is absolutely okay to talk to your potential candidate, chatting back and forth for a few weeks, trying to know each other better. And if your candidate is not ready to wait then it is simply not right translator for your book.

If you are interested in translation for your works, please, follow me on my social media or subscribe to my blog to not miss the future posts about translation for Indie Books. In next article, we will talk about ‘How to Save Money on Translation for Your Book?’ Stay tuned, and don’t forget to support me by clicking the ‘like’ button below and, maybe, share the post with your friends on Twitter.