Can you recommend a German translator?

[TimFrost]

Since the introduction of the magical KDP Select, I'm starting to sell some useful quantities in Germany. Can anyone recommend a German translator for my Author Central .de bio and blurbs? It's a tiny job, only a few hundred words. Or perhaps there is a native speaker on the board here, and we could do a private deal? Modest fee offered.

[Courtney Milan]

For small translation jobs, I use onehourtranslation.com. They charge 7 cents a word, and you can submit tiny quantities to them.

[TimFrost]

Many thanks, Courtney.

[Feenix]

Hey there!

I've asked a local HS German teacher if she would consider translating Betrovia into German; since she's read the novel, she's agreed to do it. But she hasn't let me know what she would be charging for her services   

Dave King

[JRHenderson]

I once read that when looking for a translator, it's preferable to find someone who will translate to their mother-tongue rather than from it. So in this case, it would supposedly be better to employ a native German speaker who has learned English, than a native English speaker who's learned German.

My $0.02.

[DevonMark]

I once read that when looking for a translator, it's preferable to find someone who will translate to their mother-tongue rather than from it. So in this case, it would supposedly be better to employ a native German speaker who has learned English, than a native English speaker who's learned German.

My $0.02.

Correct. A non-native is not the best person to translate into a language which is not their mother tongue (presupposing they are not truly bilingual from a very early age). For short pieces or technical writing it might not matter, but for longer pieces of fiction it does. My wife is Danish and has translated various pieces into Danish (some John Banville, amongst others). She can also edit proficiently in English (is highly fluent - very few people guess she is not English, even after knowing her well), but she would not presume to be able to translate Danish back to English.

[RuthNestvold]

Yes. Do not hire a non-native speaker to translate into another language. My husband and I are both translators, he's German, I'm American. He does the English to German translating, I do the German to English. Neither of us is obviously a non-native speaker when speaking with strangers. Yet both of us have the other look over each others' correspondence (or whatever) when writing in the non-native language, at least if it's important (not every little email *g*).

Translating a complete novel by a competent translator would cost several thousand euros. Make sure it's worth the investment before you do it, and don't waste money on a translation that will only make you lose fans rather than gain them. I'm not even a native German speaker, and I get p*ssed off at shoddy German *phrases* embedded in a novel or short story in English. That was actually the original inspiration for my novella "Looking Through Lace" even though it has nothing to do with bad German translations. Just cultural assumptions and linguistic misunderstandings.

And a caveat in advance - I can't volunteer my husband for translations. He's a technical translator, very well paid and swamped with work. Sorry!

[Dallas Haley]

Use the built in Google translator and don't worry about the results, you can't read it anyway. 

[Decon]

monika@redcappublishing.co.uk  

She did all mine . I was satisfied. Also, if you want fiction translation doing, she has the experience. Monika translated two of my shorts. She is also a Native German living in the UK, so it has the same laws as America as work for hire regarding copyright. She sends all her work to a proof reader for a final check. Whatever you do if it's for fiction, avoid anyone who lives in Germany as it can cause all sorts of problems with their copyright laws. They don't have work for hire laws in Germany.

[CoraBuhlert]

Echoing what the others have said, for fiction translations you need a native speaker of the target language and one who has experience translating fiction, preferably in your genre (a technical or legal translator is not necessarily a good fit). For an author bio or a blurb, you're probably fine with a random person of the internet (though I'd let a native speaker check it just in case), but for a whole book you need a professional. And yes, it's pricey.

A good place to start would be the website of the association of German literary translators, which has a database organized according to language, genre, etc... Unfortunately, the site is only in German.

As for non-fiction, if it's a memoir or narrative non-fiction, a literary translator might be a good fit. For other non-fiction, I'd try to find a technical translator specializing in the subject of the book. For example, I specialize in shipbuilding and translated a book on steering systems for sailboats and yachts once. A colleague specializes in medicine and has translated popular medical books.      

[TimFrost]

I used onehourtranslation.com as recommended by Courtney. Boy, is that a fast, easy and cheap service! 377 words for £16 ($25). All in an hour or so.

If there's a German speaker reading this, I'd love to know how good the translation is. Here it is:

Timothy Frost lebt in Norfolk, England und in Grenada, Westindische Inseln. Er hat als Student mit dem Schreiben begonnen, doch kam eine Karriere als Werbetexter dazwischen, und es vergingen einige Jahre, bevor er sein Lebensziel erreichte und einen vollständigen Thriller abschloss.

Tim ist passionierter Segler und segelte mit seiner Frau vom Vereinigten Königreich aus nach St. Lucia. Seine Erfahrungen auf und um die Gewässer der Karibik haben ihn bei der Wahl des Schauplatzes seines Thrillers sehr inspiriert.

Tims erster Roman über zeitgenössische nautische Hinterlist „Final Passage" wurde 2009 veröffentlicht, gefolgt von „The Abigail Affair" in 2010 und „The Shoot" in 2011.

Die Webseite des Autors: www.timothyfrost.com

Der rasante, urkomische Thriller des britischen Autors Timothy Frost, der sich über 30.000 Mal weltweit als Kindle-Version verkauft hat. Sprache: Englisch.

„Ein fesselndes Buch mit tollem Preis-Leistungsverhältnis"
„Spaßiges, nicht ganz ernst gemeintes, rasantes Abenteuer mit tollem Humor"
„Ich konnte das Buch nicht weglegen"
„Ein übermutig-gutes Buch"
„Eine Prise Humor, die es zum Lesevergnügen werden lässt"
„Eines der besten Bücher, die ich seit langer Zeit gelesen habe"
„Die Hauptfigur Toby ist genial"
„Total fesselnd - vom Anfang bis zum Ende"
„Ein glaublich unterhaltsamer Schmöker"
„Ich könnte mir das Buch gut als Film vorstellen"
„Ein wirklich unterhaltsames Buch"
„Ausdrücklich lesenswert und ein tolles Schnäppchen"

(Auszug aus Amazon-Bewertungen in UK und den USA)

Toby Robinson, 22 Jahre alt und pleite, kommt an einen Job als Deckhelfer auf der Jacht eines russischen Milliardärs heran. In der ersten Nacht wird ihm der Mord an einem Gast angehängt. Und das ist nur der Beginn seiner Probleme. Seine attraktive Crewkollegin Julia scheint die einzige zu sein, die auf seiner Seite steht - doch kann er ihr vertrauen? Wird Toby die düstere internationale Verschwörung, die ihn bedroht, vereiteln können - und das, obwohl sein Handy konfisziert wurde und er nur noch sein gewinnendes Lächeln und eine Leidenschaft fürs Cocktailmixen übrig hat? Es ist Silvester und etwas Schreckliches wird an Mitternacht passieren. Die Zeit läuft ab und ebenso Tobys Möglichkeiten...

[RuthNestvold]

That's mostly pretty good, especially for the price. There were a couple of word choices that made me stumble, though, and this isn't a complete sentence:

"Der rasante, urkomische Thriller des britischen Autors Timothy Frost, der sich über 30.000 Mal weltweit als Kindle-Version verkauft hat."

But maybe that's the way it was in English? I will bow to the native speaker in the realm of word choice, assuming she shows up again. Normally "Die Zeit läuft" is used instead of "Die Zeit läuft ab," but then the second half of the sentence would also have to be changed. Cora? What do you think? Will it pass?
 

[aeutarax]

It looks pretty good to me. Some comments...

1 ."Seine Erfahrungen auf und um die Gewässer der Karibik haben ihn bei der Wahl des Schauplatzes seines Thrillers sehr inspiriert. "
vs
"His experiences on and around the ocean in the Caribbean provided much of the inspiration and background for his thrillers."

In the german translation, "your" experiences on and around the ocean provided inspiration for choosing the "setting" for your thrillers, not that they provided the inspiration "for your thrillers AND their backround."


2. „Ein glaublich unterhaltsamer Schmöker" - "A thrillingly entertaining page turner"
glaublich doesn't really fit in there.  It means "believable" not "thrillingly".
„Ein packend unterhaltsamer Schmöker"  or "Ein aufregend unterhaltsamer Schmöker" would be better.

3.The uncomplete-sentence "Der rasante, urkomische Thriller des britischen Autors Timothy Frost, der sich über 30.000 Mal weltweit als Kindle-Version verkauft hat."  is the same in English, but in German it sounds "weirder".

[CoraBuhlert]

I used onehourtranslation.com as recommended by Courtney. Boy, is that a fast, easy and cheap service! 377 words for £16 ($25). All in an hour or so.

If there's a German speaker reading this, I'd love to know how good the translation is. Here it is:

Overall it's pretty good, but there are a few points that made me stumble:

Timothy Frost lebt in Norfolk, England und in Grenada, Westindische Inseln. Er hat als Student mit dem Schreiben begonnen, doch kam eine Karriere als Werbetexter dazwischen, und es vergingen einige Jahre, bevor er sein Lebensziel erreichte und einen vollständigen Thriller abschloss.

A native speaker would probably use "Grenada in der Karibik". Westindia is not commonly used in Germany, but it's no biggie.

The last subordinary clause does sound weird, because it basically says "completed a complete thriller" (as opposed to completed half a thriller?). I'd probably replace it with "bevor er seinen Lebenstraum verwirklichte und einen Thriller schrieb." Same meaning, but sounds more like something an actual German would say.   

Tim ist passionierter Segler und segelte mit seiner Frau vom Vereinigten Königreich aus nach St. Lucia. Seine Erfahrungen auf und um die Gewässer der Karibik haben ihn bei der Wahl des Schauplatzes seines Thrillers sehr inspiriert.

Germans usually say "Großbritannien" (Great Britain) rather than United Kingdom, so it would be "von Großbritannien aus". Again, it's no biggie.

The final sentence is not wrong, just clunky. I'd probably have written something like "Seine Erfahrungen auf und um die Gewässer der Karibik dienten als Inspiration und Hintergrund für seine Thriller." This is also closer to the original text. 

Tims erster Roman über zeitgenössische nautische Hinterlist „Final Passage" wurde 2009 veröffentlicht, gefolgt von „The Abigail Affair" in 2010 und „The Shoot" in 2011.

I'd get rid of "zeitgenössisch", because it's clunky in German and IMO not necessary, since the covers make it obvious that this is not a historical novel.

Der rasante, urkomische Thriller des britischen Autors Timothy Frost, der sich über 30.000 Mal weltweit als Kindle-Version verkauft hat. Sprache: Englisch.

This sounds okay to me. The review excerpts are okay as well, so I snipped them.

Toby Robinson, 22 Jahre alt und pleite, kommt an einen Job als Deckhelfer auf der Jacht eines russischen Milliardärs heran. In der ersten Nacht wird ihm der Mord an einem Gast angehängt. Und das ist nur der Beginn seiner Probleme. Seine attraktive Crewkollegin Julia scheint die einzige zu sein, die auf seiner Seite steht - doch kann er ihr vertrauen? Wird Toby die düstere internationale Verschwörung, die ihn bedroht, vereiteln können - und das, obwohl sein Handy konfisziert wurde und er nur noch sein gewinnendes Lächeln und eine Leidenschaft fürs Cocktailmixen übrig hat? Es ist Silvester und etwas Schreckliches wird an Mitternacht passieren. Die Zeit läuft ab und ebenso Tobys Möglichkeiten...

"deckhand" is translated as "Decksmann" or "Deckmatrose" (nautical texts are one of my specialties). Besides, it's "um Mitternacht" not "an Mitternacht". Finally, I'd replace "Tobys Möglichkeiten" with "Tobys Chancen".

Anyway, I hope this helps.

 


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[peggytrentini]

I have had a great experience with Renate Voltz renatevolz@gmail.com  Not only did she do a great job but she was very affordable.  The book is doing very well on Amazon .de.  I can't sing her praises enough.  Highly recommended!

[TimFrost]

Ruth, Cora, Aeutarax* - many thanks for sharing your expertise in such detail. I'm grateful for all your help. I'll get editing. I enjoyed German at school but haven't practised or used it for forty years, so it's mostly gone.

One final request: how would a German speaker put a verb in the opening fragment:

Der rasante, urkomische Thriller des britischen Autors Timothy Frost, der sich über 30.000 Mal weltweit als Kindle-Version verkauft hat.

Dieser ist der rasante ...?

Vielen dank!
 
*P.S. If you would like a Kindle copy of the book in question (in English), just DM me and I will happily gift you one.

Also thanks to others who recommended a translator.

[CoraBuhlert]

One final request: how would a German speaker put a verb in the opening fragment:

Der rasante, urkomische Thriller des britischen Autors Timothy Frost, der sich über 30.000 Mal weltweit als Kindle-Version verkauft hat.

Dieser ist der rasante ...?

"Dies ist der..." oder "Hier ist der..."

Always pleased to help out.