Hi,
I've written a historic novel in Dutch and at some point (in a year or more) would like to get an English version made. There are two routes I can take:
1) Pay a Dutch to English translator to do it all. This would be easiest, but there aren't many available as very few works get translated from Dutch to English, so I'm worried about finding one I can work well with, who has affinity with the genre and who produces a quality result.
2) Translate it myself and pay an English speaking editor to 'upgrade' the prose. While my English is good and I could probably write English non-fiction with few readers noticing that I'm not a native English speaker, I've found that writing prose is a very different beast. While my prose would be gramatically correct it would feel somewhat stilted, be rather limited in vocabulary and use idioms that seem a little off.
So my questions are about option 2:
* Does anyone know if this is something other foreign authors have done?
* Do you think this would produce a satisfying result or should I just forget about it and go with option 1 even if I don't find a great translator?
* Would I easily find a good editor willing to take on this job or does this seem like a shitty job than an editor would only take on because they can't find a regular gig?
* Is there a specific kind of editor I should be looking for? This isn't content editing and it isn't exactly line editing either; is there a name for an editor who touches up prose?
* What kind of a rate would I be looking at?
Tia!
I've written a historic novel in Dutch and at some point (in a year or more) would like to get an English version made. There are two routes I can take:
1) Pay a Dutch to English translator to do it all. This would be easiest, but there aren't many available as very few works get translated from Dutch to English, so I'm worried about finding one I can work well with, who has affinity with the genre and who produces a quality result.
2) Translate it myself and pay an English speaking editor to 'upgrade' the prose. While my English is good and I could probably write English non-fiction with few readers noticing that I'm not a native English speaker, I've found that writing prose is a very different beast. While my prose would be gramatically correct it would feel somewhat stilted, be rather limited in vocabulary and use idioms that seem a little off.
So my questions are about option 2:
* Does anyone know if this is something other foreign authors have done?
* Do you think this would produce a satisfying result or should I just forget about it and go with option 1 even if I don't find a great translator?
* Would I easily find a good editor willing to take on this job or does this seem like a shitty job than an editor would only take on because they can't find a regular gig?
* Is there a specific kind of editor I should be looking for? This isn't content editing and it isn't exactly line editing either; is there a name for an editor who touches up prose?
* What kind of a rate would I be looking at?
Tia!
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