International Translation Day seems like an auspicious time for new translation-related ventures; here are a few to check out:
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- Congratulations to Chris Durban on the launch of her book The Prosperous Translator: Advice from Fire Ant & Worker Bee. If, like me, you eagerly await Chris and Eugene Seidel’s monthly advice column “The Bottom Line” in Translation Journal, you won’t want to miss this compilation of over a decade of stingingly good advice in question and answer form. As the book’s website says, you should take FA&WB’s advice because “…the downward spiral in prices and stressful working conditions decried by Chicken Littles on many continents are not inevitable — far from it! If you are an excellent (or even good) translator, you shouldn’t be there. And if you apply the business advice in this book, you won’t.” And did I mention that many of these questions and answers are downright hilarious? For example, here’s one of The Prosperous Translator’s promotional postcards:
You can purchase your copy now from Lulu, or wait until the ATA conference and purchase a signed copy (or pick up some of those cool postcards!) at the InTrans Books booth. Disclaimer: I provided an advance review of The Prosperous Translator, but I was not paid for the review nor do I have any financial connection to the book. - And more publishing congratulations, this time to English>French translator Marianne Reiner on the publication of her translation of David Grann’s Trial by Fire: Did Texas execute an innocent man. That’s a link to the original article, and here is the listing for Marianne’s translation, also entitled Trial by Fire. Kudos to Amazon France for including Marianne’s name alongside the author’s; maybe Amazon US could follow suit? Trial by Fire started out as a New Yorker article about Cameron Todd Willingham, who was executed in 2004 for allegedly murdering his three young children by burning down his family’s home. This case has sparked a great deal of discussion in the U.S. because Willingham went to the death chamber insisting upon his innocence, to the point of refusing to plead guilty in exchange for life in prison. Editions Allia has published the French version of Trial by Fire as a small book; it’s 128 pages, fits in the palm of your hand and will set you back all of 3 euros so I highly recommend it. Even as a non-native French speaker I was riveted by Marianne’s translation, and the book has already gotten some nice press in France. Here’s the cover image:
- And finally, although it’s a much smaller publishing achievement than the previous two mentioned here, I launched my newly redesigned professional website. After using the same homegrown website since 2002 I decided it was time to take my own oft-repeated advice and call on a team of professionals, and I’m thrilled with the results. Huge thanks to Brandon Kellogg of Denver-based Superfluent Design for the banner, Michelle Panulla and Beth Hayden of Blogging With Beth for the site design and WordPress theme customization and Cameron Weise of Colorado Photo for my new photograph. It took a village to get this website up but I think it was worth the wait!
- Congratulations to Chris Durban on the launch of her book The Prosperous Translator: Advice from Fire Ant & Worker Bee. If, like me, you eagerly await Chris and Eugene Seidel’s monthly advice column “The Bottom Line” in Translation Journal, you won’t want to miss this compilation of over a decade of stingingly good advice in question and answer form. As the book’s website says, you should take FA&WB’s advice because “…the downward spiral in prices and stressful working conditions decried by Chicken Littles on many continents are not inevitable — far from it! If you are an excellent (or even good) translator, you shouldn’t be there. And if you apply the business advice in this book, you won’t.” And did I mention that many of these questions and answers are downright hilarious? For example, here’s one of The Prosperous Translator’s promotional postcards:
And with that, Thoughts on Translation wishes you a happy International Translation Day and another year of good health and prosperity!
Thank you so much Corinne.
Your review encourages me to take on more projects like this one.
Your new website is sleek, beautiful and so informative. Bravo!
And I can’t wait to get my signed copy of Chris’s book.
Marianne
You’re welcome Marianne! You deserve it, your book is beautiful! See you in Denver!
Corinne, the upgrade to your professional website is outstanding. I’m very impressed! I’m going to call Superfluent right now about the possibility of doing some graphic design work for me.
And congratulations to Chris and Marianne on the publication of their book and translation, respectively.
Until Denver,
Eric
Thanks Eric! Yes, I was really happy with Superfluent’s work, Brandon was really easy to work with and I was very pleased with the design he came up with. And yes, huge congratulations to Chris and Marianne on those awesome accomplishments.
I love your new website and thanks for sharing the information.
Thanks Tess!
The new website looks great, Corinne! I recently relaunched my own site – a project I’d had in the works for many months.
Thanks for the heads-up about Chris’s book. I was going to wait until Denver to get my copy, but impatience got the better of me and I just ordered it from Lulu!
Congratulations to Marianne, too!
Thanks Tom! Looking forward to seeing you in Denver! And your new site looks *great*, I really like it!
Congratulations on the new website design! It looks fabulous. (I probably spend far too much time tweaking my own site, which makes me think I should just hand it over to professional designer and stop worrying about it. Then again, it’s fun!)
I also need to remember to budget for a splurge at the InTrans Books booth…
Thanks Rachel! I agree, the nice thing about hiring professionals is that instead of being hypercritical, you get to just say “it looks great!” And yes, thanks for the reminder that it’s always good to bring some money for the InTrans booth!
The new website looks amazing! Love the copy too, a great showcase. Very inspiring!
Thanks Sarah! It was waaaaay overdue but I’m really happy with the results too! Hope all is well with you!
Excellent job on the website, but I already told you that. Looks fab!
Thanks for letting me know about Chris Durban’s book; can’t wait to get it. Judging by your fantastic review, I just *have* to have it.
And I was a lucky recipient of Marianne’s gorgeous book, too! It’s fantastic, congratulations again!
Thanks for the news, Corinne. The Prosperous Translator’s postcard did make me laugh, but don’t worry, not everybody thinks translation is a lousy job! Actually, it’s even considered a very manly trade, as I discovered recently: http://artofmanliness.com/2009/05/06/so-you-want-my-job-interpretertranslator/
And congrats on your new Website – looks beautiful.