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Does Anyone Translate Their Kindle Books For Different Languages?

by tjk1058
5 replies
I publish short stories on Kindle and have started to make some decent figures. Currently I am up to around $1800 per month and climbing. I publish on a regular basis but my U.S. figures are always way more then for the other regions I have targeted.

I was wondering if I could double or triple my current sales by just having my work translated. Has anyone tested this and seen big increases? Or is it just that the market isn't their for kindle sales / eg. not enough Kindles sold overseas?

I see around 20% sales for UK and maybe a few sales from Germany every month.

Would appreciate any feedback...

Thanks,

TedK
#books #kindle #languages #translate
  • Profile picture of the author RyanLeonard
    In the long run I could see a lot of potential, although right now, kindle is biggest in USA and Europe, it hasn't caught fire in a lot of other non-english speaking countries.

    Maybe take your best story, have it translated and see how it does.


    Originally Posted by tjk1058 View Post

    I publish short stories on Kindle and have started to make some decent figures. Currently I am up to around $1800 per month and climbing. I publish on a regular basis but my U.S. figures are always way more then for the other regions I have targeted.

    I was wondering if I could double or triple my current sales by just having my work translated. Has anyone tested this and seen big increases? Or is it just that the market isn't their for kindle sales / eg. not enough Kindles sold overseas?

    I see around 20% sales for UK and maybe a few sales from Germany every month.

    Would appreciate any feedback...

    Thanks,

    TedK
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  • Profile picture of the author Mark Singletary
    I think it certainly wouldn't hurt to try.

    By doing one and seeing how it works after doing some marketing you'll know the answer to your question too. That's really the only way to know.

    However, since it's an unknown venture you may want to keep the translation costs to the level of what you can afford to lose.

    Mark
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  • Profile picture of the author tjk1058
    Do you think that I can use an online translator that will work ok? Or should I use a native speaking person?

    Thanks,

    TedK
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    • Profile picture of the author Mark Singletary
      Originally Posted by tjk1058 View Post

      Do you think that I can use an online translator that will work ok? Or should I use a native speaking person?

      Thanks,

      TedK
      As a speaker/learner of a foreign language that has used my fair share of automated translation utilities, I do NOT believe the quality is there. I believe if you go that route you will have unhappy customers.

      Tools for other languages or tools that I don't know about may be better, but the ones I've used for Mandarin Chinese wouldn't provide a good experience for your reader without some native or at least real human help.

      Mark
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  • Profile picture of the author Britt Malka
    LOL, an online translator will lead you directly to disaster, Ted.

    I once translated an English page I made - I had written that I had beaten my husband twice in chess. The French translation said that I'd hit him for two hours.

    I haven't any experience with translating Kindle books, but we have a French book up for sale, and it has had a few sales - but that was probably to customers who already knew my husband (who wrote the book). It's NOT my impression that they have a lot of Kindles in France. Maybe in Canada etc.
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