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D&D No Longer In Portugese
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<blockquote data-quote="JLowder" data-source="post: 9273819" data-attributes="member: 28003"><p>Unless the original publisher is working with a language expert on staff or a localization expert, and those are not common in TTRPG circles, in-house review of translated projects often consists of checking for required legal language and proper trademark use, then reviewing a PDF for obvious graphic design problems and content red flags in original artwork (if any). If the content varies in presentation from the original enough, someone might try to look at what appears to be new text, to be sure it's not a problem--if they have even a working understanding of the translation language. But detailed review of the entire text is at least uncommon, likely quite rare.</p><p></p><p>Any translated product takes up staff time at the original publisher, often for multiple people. Someone needs to negotiate and contract the license. Someone needs to track payments. Someone needs to provide project files and other content support for the translating partner. And each product needs to be reviewed after translation, possibly with associated advertising or crowdfunding material. (For a couple years, each Call of Cthulhu licensed translation required review and sign-off from three staffers--the line creative director, the exec editor, and the VP of licensing. Chaosium may have it down to two people now that they have a licensing director.) It's also common for translated works to require more than one review, as trademark use and legal language frequently have to be revised or corrected. The larger the company, the more this staff time costs, especially if a legal department gets involved. Those are sunk costs that need to be covered by money coming in from the translation.</p><p></p><p>The higher the in-house costs for the original publisher, the more the translating partner will have to offer as an advance against the typical royalty payments. Even a modest advance can price a lot of small publishers out of the translation license. But the higher the advance and the licensing fee, the more incentive the partner publisher has to use less experienced or even fan community translators, so they can balance their own ledgers. They have their own versions of all the original publisher staff costs cited above, in addition to those associated with print buying and the other standard publisher tasks. </p><p></p><p>Translations are hard to make profitable for the original publisher and especially the translating publisher, particularly in markets where a sizable portion of the potential audience will settle for the book in the original langauge.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="JLowder, post: 9273819, member: 28003"] Unless the original publisher is working with a language expert on staff or a localization expert, and those are not common in TTRPG circles, in-house review of translated projects often consists of checking for required legal language and proper trademark use, then reviewing a PDF for obvious graphic design problems and content red flags in original artwork (if any). If the content varies in presentation from the original enough, someone might try to look at what appears to be new text, to be sure it's not a problem--if they have even a working understanding of the translation language. But detailed review of the entire text is at least uncommon, likely quite rare. Any translated product takes up staff time at the original publisher, often for multiple people. Someone needs to negotiate and contract the license. Someone needs to track payments. Someone needs to provide project files and other content support for the translating partner. And each product needs to be reviewed after translation, possibly with associated advertising or crowdfunding material. (For a couple years, each Call of Cthulhu licensed translation required review and sign-off from three staffers--the line creative director, the exec editor, and the VP of licensing. Chaosium may have it down to two people now that they have a licensing director.) It's also common for translated works to require more than one review, as trademark use and legal language frequently have to be revised or corrected. The larger the company, the more this staff time costs, especially if a legal department gets involved. Those are sunk costs that need to be covered by money coming in from the translation. The higher the in-house costs for the original publisher, the more the translating partner will have to offer as an advance against the typical royalty payments. Even a modest advance can price a lot of small publishers out of the translation license. But the higher the advance and the licensing fee, the more incentive the partner publisher has to use less experienced or even fan community translators, so they can balance their own ledgers. They have their own versions of all the original publisher staff costs cited above, in addition to those associated with print buying and the other standard publisher tasks. Translations are hard to make profitable for the original publisher and especially the translating publisher, particularly in markets where a sizable portion of the potential audience will settle for the book in the original langauge. [/QUOTE]
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