• Translating stuff to spanish and such

    From Arelor@21:2/138 to All on Mon Nov 16 20:56:38 2020
    Hi there!

    So I thought I could get my web store translated to Spanish and serve it in both English and my language, so that I just did. Well, translation to Spanish is not complete but so far a Spaniard can use it to buy stories.

    I have also translated High Tech Necromancy to Spanish since there seems to be some demand. Now I have a bad dilemma.

    See, I had promised in my website and on the store that pre-orders for High Tech Necromancy would be served on 28th this month. However, now that story exists both in Spanish and English, I'd like to send it over to a magazine that purchases stories in both languages as a package. Doing that would prevent me from delivering on my promise.

    On the other hand, nobody has placed a pre-order yet.

    So what am I gonna do? Break a promise nobody cares for and soil my honor for the chance of getting the story published in the magazine, or go through with the original plan?

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  • From Adept@21:2/108 to Arelor on Tue Nov 17 04:06:58 2020
    Doing that would prevent me from delivering on my promise.

    On the other hand, nobody has placed a pre-order yet.

    So what am I gonna do? Break a promise nobody cares for and soil my
    honor for the chance of getting the story published in the magazine, or
    go through with the original plan?

    I'd just pull the promise now. You can then fulfill the promise for everyone who bought under those terms and conditions (which is no one), and maybe next time people will know to jump on pre-order deals.

    If you had preorders, yeah, that's a dicey question.

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  • From Ogg@21:4/106.21 to Arelor on Tue Nov 24 03:45:00 2020
    Hello Arelor!

    ** On Monday 16.11.20 - 15:56, Arelor wrote to All:

    ..Now I have a bad dilemma.

    See, I had promised in my website and on the store that
    pre-orders for High Tech Necromancy would be served on
    28th this month. However, now that story exists both in
    Spanish and English, I'd like to send it over to a
    magazine that purchases stories in both languages as a
    package. Doing that would prevent me from delivering on my
    promise.

    On the other hand, nobody has placed a pre-order yet.

    I'd say the mag takes a higher seat. If there are no pre-
    orders, then there is no break of promise.


    So what am I gonna do? Break a promise nobody cares for
    and soil my honor for the chance of getting the story
    published in the magazine, or go through with the original
    plan?

    Get the mag involved. They have hooks into the market that you
    are only beginning to establish. The mag is kinda like your
    "big break" to reach a market.




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  • From Arelor@21:2/138 to Ogg on Tue Nov 24 09:36:18 2020
    Re: Translating stuff to spanish and such
    By: Ogg to Arelor on Mon Nov 23 2020 10:45 pm

    Hello Arelor!

    ** On Monday 16.11.20 - 15:56, Arelor wrote to All:

    ..Now I have a bad dilemma.

    See, I had promised in my website and on the store that
    pre-orders for High Tech Necromancy would be served on
    28th this month. However, now that story exists both in
    Spanish and English, I'd like to send it over to a
    magazine that purchases stories in both languages as a
    package. Doing that would prevent me from delivering on my
    promise.

    On the other hand, nobody has placed a pre-order yet.

    I'd say the mag takes a higher seat. If there are no pre-
    orders, then there is no break of promise.


    So what am I gonna do? Break a promise nobody cares for
    and soil my honor for the chance of getting the story
    published in the magazine, or go through with the original
    plan?

    Get the mag involved. They have hooks into the market that you
    are only beginning to establish. The mag is kinda like your
    "big break" to reach a market.

    Well, in the end I have decided to leave the preorders open but with no attached deadline.

    Plan is, if the magazine picks the story, the preorder gets fullfilled 6 months after publication. If the magazine does not take it, the story gets published as soon as possible.

    I am considering to apply a heavier discount on the preorder due to the uncertainity attached.
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  • From Adept@21:2/108 to Arelor on Wed Nov 25 02:14:29 2020
    Well, in the end I have decided to leave the preorders open but with no attached deadline.

    Plan is, if the magazine picks the story, the preorder gets fullfilled 6 months after publication. If the magazine does not take it, the story
    gets published as soon as possible.

    Okay, you now have at least one preorder, and I'm still hoping your story
    gets published and I have to wait longer to receive it.

    Side note on your bank information -- I assumed the name attached to the account is Richard Falken, but it'd be nice if you stated it for bank transfers.

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  • From Arelor@21:2/138 to Adept on Tue Nov 24 22:53:45 2020
    Re: Re: Translating stuff to spanish and such
    By: Adept to Arelor on Tue Nov 24 2020 09:14 pm

    Well, in the end I have decided to leave the preorders open but with no attach
    deadline.

    Plan is, if the magazine picks the story, the preorder gets fullfilled 6 month
    after publication. If the magazine does not take it, the story
    gets published as soon as possible.

    Okay, you now have at least one preorder, and I'm still hoping your story gets published and I have to wait longer to receive it.

    Side note on your bank information -- I assumed the name attached to the account is
    Richard Falken, but it'd be nice if you stated it for bank transfers.

    Thanks for endorsing my endeavor!

    I plan on keeping people up to date all throughout the publication process.

    The Flaming Wrath of Árelor is getting a quality check after some reformatting. So
    far I am 15% in aprox. I plan to make both the English version and the original (Spanish) version available by 2021. Purchasing (or pre-ordering) the book gives you
    the right to download both versions.

    High Tech Necromancy is in a more complex state. I was in talks with some magazine
    that was considering it, and suddently went under. Since I didn't want to have the
    story gathering dust on my hard drive, I set it up for preorder. Suddenly the editor
    of the deceased magazine told me they are trying to revive the publication and that
    they may be interested in The Worth of Immortality... and then another one which is
    buying stories in multi-language packs showed interest too...


    What this means in practice:

    If none of these magazines sign an agreement in about three months, I publish the
    story officially and send the mags to Árelor's hell. Same if they end up rejecting
    the story.

    If any of these magazines purchases publication rights, things get hairy. Their standard contracts seem to be that I cannot publish the piece on my own until 6 months
    after they publish it themselves. If one of them purchases the High Tech Necromancy,
    pre-order customers could have to wait up to a year to get it because of how editorial
    deadlines work.

    Mind you, my experiece with professional magazines is that when they promise to publish something on a given date, they may feel free to delay it if they think they
    need to save the piece for later.



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  • From Ogg@21:4/106.21 to Arelor on Wed Nov 25 03:14:00 2020
    Hello Arelor!

    ** On Tuesday 24.11.20 - 17:53, Arelor wrote to Adept:

    ...Suddenly the editor of the deceased magazine
    told me they are trying to revive the publication and that
    they may be interested in The Worth of Immortality... and
    then another one which is buying stories in multi-language
    packs showed interest too...

    Ahh.. so there is a connection between the old publisher and
    the new one? Maybe it is a plot to postpone release of your
    writings! That would be too cruel.


    If any of these magazines purchases publication rights,
    things get hairy. Their standard contracts seem to be that
    I cannot publish the piece on my own until 6 months after
    they publish it themselves. If one of them purchases the
    High Tech Necromancy, pre-order customers could have to
    wait up to a year to get it because of how editorial
    deadlines work.

    Can't you provide the nudge to include a clause to not
    preclude you from fulfilling self-publishing obligations (ie. direct-to-customer) that you established prior?


    Mind you, my experiece with professional magazines is that
    when they promise to publish something on a given date,
    they may feel free to delay it if they think they need to
    save the piece for later.

    It's plot to rope you in.

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  • From Arelor@21:2/138 to Ogg on Wed Nov 25 14:54:21 2020
    Re: Translating stuff to spanish and such
    By: Ogg to Arelor on Tue Nov 24 2020 10:14 pm

    Hello Arelor!

    ** On Tuesday 24.11.20 - 17:53, Arelor wrote to Adept:

    ...Suddenly the editor of the deceased magazine
    told me they are trying to revive the publication and that
    they may be interested in The Worth of Immortality... and
    then another one which is buying stories in multi-language
    packs showed interest too...

    Ahh.. so there is a connection between the old publisher and
    the new one? Maybe it is a plot to postpone release of your
    writings! That would be too cruel.


    If any of these magazines purchases publication rights,
    things get hairy. Their standard contracts seem to be that
    I cannot publish the piece on my own until 6 months after
    they publish it themselves. If one of them purchases the
    High Tech Necromancy, pre-order customers could have to
    wait up to a year to get it because of how editorial
    deadlines work.

    Can't you provide the nudge to include a clause to not
    preclude you from fulfilling self-publishing obligations (ie. direct-to-customer)
    that you established prior?


    Mind you, my experiece with professional magazines is that
    when they promise to publish something on a given date,
    they may feel free to delay it if they think they need to
    save the piece for later.

    It's plot to rope you in.

    The new publishers and the old one are not connected at all.

    Actually I did have trouble finding the old one because I needed her to remove some
    advertising that was not longer applicable from the web. I had to issue a DCMA in
    order to take it down because the publisher is totally MIA.

    I can include a clause for allowing me to continue my direct-to-customer operations,
    but that cuts the worth of the deal by 6 or seven - ie they may agree but then they
    will want the rights for dirty cheap.


    It is not a plot to rope you in (most of the times) because usually you are already
    paid and they sign deadline clauses. If they take tooooooo long they may lose the
    money, the publication rights, and have the rights sold to a competitor. Cool, huh?

    That said, I try not to press too much on people I have a good relationship with. As
    long as they are upfront about deadline problems I am more than willing to talk and
    find solutions. In my opinion, publishers are not people I want to suck dry: they are
    associates that can get my work read while we both makes some bucks in the process.
    --
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  • From Adept@21:2/108 to Arelor on Thu Nov 26 00:10:29 2020
    The Flaming Wrath of Árelor is getting a quality check after some reformatting. So
    far I am 15% in aprox. I plan to make both the English version and the original (Spanish) version available by 2021. Purchasing (or
    pre-ordering) the book gives you
    the right to download both versions.

    Nice! I was hopeful that that was the case. I figure this can be something where I can attempt to read something in Spanish, then switch to English if I get lazy and/or confused.

    If any of these magazines purchases publication rights, things get
    hairy. Their standard contracts seem to be that I cannot publish the
    piece on my own until 6 months

    Yeah, fingers crossed that it gets published in one of those places.
    Obviously, you need the publicity more than a handful of preorders. Hopefully we'll all get the opportunity to buy the story twice.

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  • From Arelor@21:2/138 to Adept on Wed Nov 25 20:56:33 2020
    Re: Re: Translating stuff to spanish and such
    By: Adept to Arelor on Wed Nov 25 2020 07:10 pm

    The Flaming Wrath of Árelor is getting a quality check after some reformatting. So
    far I am 15% in aprox. I plan to make both the English version and the original (Spanish) version available by 2021. Purchasing (or pre-ordering) the book gives you
    the right to download both versions.

    Nice! I was hopeful that that was the case. I figure this can be something where I can attempt to read something in Spanish, then switch to English if get lazy and/or confused.

    Something I have learnt is that translations are often quite different from the original. My mother uses to complain that if you take a book in German and then check the Spanish edition, you can't do a 1:1 comparison between sentences, because editors often hack whole sentences away. Or often mutate them into structures with a complete different meaning for editorial reasons.

    I try to keep a 1:1 compatibility as much as possible, but sometimes I have to break it. The main reasons are:

    * Plays on words that work in one language may not work in the other.
    * One of the languages has a simple, compact way for telling something that the other needs a complex, long structure for.

    IWhat I mean is that if you are read a sentence in the Spanish version and then look for its equivalent in the English one, it may be there, but it may also NOT be there, or exist in such a twisted form as not to be recogniseable.


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  • From Adept@21:2/108 to Arelor on Fri Nov 27 00:30:14 2020
    IWhat I mean is that if you are read a sentence in the Spanish version
    and then look for its equivalent in the English one, it may be there,
    but it may also NOT be there, or exist in such a twisted form as not to
    be recogniseable.

    Yeah, that makes sense, and is the way I'd want it done -- literal
    translations end up feeling stilted.

    And, realistically, "lost" for me would be when I feel like I read a chapter and didn't understand what was going on. I've read some side-by-side books,
    and didn't find them to be all that useful -- too much effort to figure out where a given sentence was when I got lost -- easier to just pull out a translation program.

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