Should Independent Authors Have Their Books Translated into Foreign Languages?

I’ve had a couple of folks email me because they were looking for work, translating English books into their native tongues (I think I’ve heard from French and Spanish-speaking/writing folks so far). I have a number of balls in the air right now, so I simply kept the people’s contact information in case I wanted to get in touch later, but I have been curious about this. As an independent ebook author, it’s pretty easy to get your books into other countries (Apple, Kobo, and Amazon all have stores overseas), but at the end of the day, the books are still in English, and I’m sure you’d appeal to a different audience if you had offerings in people’s native tongues.

When I saw fellow indie Susanne O’Leary mention that she was having some luck with the German-language version of her ebook, I decided to ask her if she’d answer some questions for us. She said yes, so here are the details:

Getting Your Book Translating into a Foreign Language with Susanne O’Leary

What made you decide to pursue a German translation of your ebook?

I wanted to get into the German market and had heard it was about to take off. But I also heard that German language books are more popular over there and that womens’ contemporary romantic fiction is in great demand there.

How did you go about uploading the book into the Kindle, Apple, B&N stores, etc.? Do you just go through the regular self-publishing dashboards, or do you need to make an account in the other country?

I only published this book on Amazon (because I wanted to put it into the Select programme) and KDP will get it out into all Amazon outlets worldwide.

How did you go about finding someone to do the translation?

I asked an author friend who had just had her own books translated into German and she put me in touch with the translator.

And how do you know if he/she did a good job?

First of all, I knew that the translator’s husband is a German teacher and would be proof reading the book. And I also have some German friends who were willing to beta read the translation for me. They gave me the thumbs up.

Can you give us an idea about the costs and whether you’ve made your money back through sales in other countries?

What I paid is confidential but I can tell you that it wasn’t cheap. I haven’t made the money back yet but the way the sales increased after my three day free run makes me confident that I will in a couple of months. That said, I might mention that sales of some of my English titles are also beginning to increase in Germany. I have to date 9 reviews on this book and they are all positive.

Does your German book only sell in Germany or is there a market for German-speaking readers in other countries?

I have seen sales in Italy and France with this book and I know that Amazon.de also covers Austria and Switzerland.

Do you think you’ll have the book translated into other languages as well?

I might have it translated into French if I can find a good translator. And in this instance, I can check the book myself, as I speak French fluently.

Susanne’s bio:

Susanne O’Leary is Swedish and lives in Ireland. She married an Irish diplomat at a very young age and travelled the world with her family for many years. She started writing about 12 years ago and her books reflect her globetrotting life, drawing on her experiences as an expat. She started her novelist career with a romantic comedy called ‘Diplomatic Incidents’, which was published in Ireland in 2001 (it was re-written and published on Amazon Kindle as ‘Duty Free’ in 2011).

She published Virtual Suspects (a sequel to Virtual Strangers) in December 2012 and ‘Frischer Schnee‘, the German translation of Fresh Powder, also in December 2012. She is currently working on her 11th novel, a romantic comedy set in the west of Ireland, which she hopes will be published later this year.

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