Tips For Self-Publishing In Translation: Adventures With AI and German
Once you have a book in the world, translation is one of the ways that you can expand your readership, and potentially your income, through licensing foreign rights.
Of course, as indie authors, we can reach a global audience through self-publishing our books and many indie authors are moving into publishing in different languages. Some are successful, others not so much.
In this episode, I explain my first experiences with translation in 2014, why I withdrew my books in 2017 and why I have now published 3 books in German in the hope it will help you make some decisions about your own creative work.
My first attempt at translation in 2014 … and why I pulled out of the market
As ever, I am often early with my independent author experiments!
Back in 2014, I got excited about the possibility of translations. I did two novels in German, Spanish, and Italian. I did royalty share deals with translators and did a digital-only deal with Ullstein-Midnight in Germany. I put the books out on Amazon in ebook and print with much excitement …
I did some Facebook ads and tried some email blasts with early services in those markets but … tumbleweed. Very few sales, even for the book with a traditional publisher.
Several things were wrong with this approach:
* You really need at least 3 books in a niche or series to make investment worthwhile and so that you can make more money per customer. It's very hard to market anything without at least 3 books — which is what I would say to any author in English as well.
* Readers in those language markets are still primarily physical bookstore based, and online sales had not taken off in 2014. They still aren't mainstream even now!
* I spread myself too thin and was not able to market effectively in any language, plus there were no easy options for reaching readers in those markets.
In 2017, I gave up and pulled my books out of the market. I paid off the translators, so I lost money, plus I was disappointed and burned from spending too much time on a project that ultimately failed. After 3 years, I asked for my rights back from the German publisher as they also weren't selling enough to make it worthwhile.
Click here for interviews with my translators and thoughts on my original translation experiences.
Why I decided to try again with German translations in 2019
Every year, I do a report on my book sales and this year, I was surprised to find at 7% of my book sales income came from Germany — for non-fiction books in English!
So I decided there was clearly a market I could serve.
Self-publishing in Germany has started to really take off in the last couple of years, and readers have also begun to buy more books online. At Frankfurt Book Fair, I saw booths of empowered indie authors in the romance and fantasy niches talking to excited fans — and those genre writers are usually the forefront of things to come.
I looked at my top-selling non-fiction books in Germany and then picked the three shortest ones since that would give me marketing ability and cost the least in terms of translation. Basically, this is the lowest risk option for me at this time given my experience last time around.
This addresses the 3 main issues I had last time as this time around:
* I published 3 books in a niche giving me more potential for cross-selling and more income per customer
* Online sales have taken off in the country and I have proven sales in the English language ...