I think a lot of the big-selling literature in translation, like Haruki Murakami's, is done by professors and linguists. Translating literature as art seems somewhat different to me than business translation, although there's definitely crossover. I'd think literature might require someone more well versed in rhythm and pacing and subtleties of meaning, as well as subtextual sorts of things.
I'm actually working on a translation now, which is why I was asking. We're working in my foreign language class (3 of us total, including the professor) on the translation of a short story collection. We did it, with the approval of the author, for the initial purpose of using the text as a learning tool. But now, my professor and the author are both in talks with a couple of publishers, and we're wondering how to get some sort of retro-compensation for the many hours of translation work we've done.
I don't care to even count how many hours it has taken so far, so yeah, I can imagine it's tough for a translator to do this work full-time and have it be lucrative. That's why I thought maybe they got a small fraction of royalties.