Italian Uncles are Tremendous
And other interesting translation tidbits
My first book in translation is now published!
The thought of little Italian ragazzi chuckling at my 26 bad dudes is a real boost.
‘Terribili’ in was selected as the best translation of ‘Awful’, but it can also mean ‘tremendous’. Ain’t language interesting?
Working with Mariarosaria Musco, a professional literary translator was a great experience. She offered lots of notes and explanations on her choices. She even added a few sentences to explain jokes where necessary.
A lot of humour comes from wordplay (which can’t be translated) or localized in-jokes. In both cases, the translator and author need to work together to find a solution that the local audience will understand and connect with.
For example, one of the characters is called Uncle Uncle. His name cannot be changed to Zio Zio as he represents ‘U’ in the alphabet. Thankfully, English is widespread enough, that explaining the concept of Zio Uncle is not too hard.
Brands, shops, places, and a few other things were either generalized or localized in the translations. But of course, the names of the uncles remain. One of my ideas with the book was to create a diverse set of uncles from around the world, so while Gado or Vlad might seem like a strange name in Italy, readers should still appreciate the ‘worldwide’ idea.
Speaking of worldwide, I have several more translations in the works — Spanish, Romanian, German, Polish, and Portuguese. I can wait to have a picture of all 7 books next to each other!
Learning Curves
Being honest, sales of the English version have been disappointing. Despite many positive reviews, it’s yet to break the 100 copies mark, and I wasn’t able to get it into the charts or help people find it organically.
Perhaps those two ideas were naive. This is Amazon KDP we are talking about. Organic search does not really exist, and competition is fierce. Serious indie authors spend tens of thousands on marketing and often spend their days tweaking paid ad campaigns.
After launching three books and rebuilding my writing business in a new niche, I was burned out last year. I’d love to sell more copies of my books, but I’m unable and unwilling to become a full-time marketer. I have another business to run! (check out my new site for my work in the bitcoin space).
Marketing children’s books is a great deal harder as an indie author. It seems that it’s mostly about connecting with the right institutions, reaching time-starved parents, and booking in-person events.
Perhaps when the Spanish version is out, I’ll have more ganas to book in events and readings. Anyway, life is a learning curve (and now, it’s mostly about marketing).
Wishing you well with your reading and writing.
Ci vidiamo presto.