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Film versions of Stieg Larsson trilogy to be released in US

admin — Fri, 26 Feb 2010 00:32:09 +0000

According to the Wall Street Journal, the Swedish film adaptations of Stieg Larsson’s “Millenium” trilogy are scheduled to be released in the US this year, beginning on March 19. This is very good news: the films have gotten good reviews in the rest of the world, and I’ve been waiting on pins and needles for a US release.

On finding translation clients — and being found

admin — Wed, 10 Feb 2010 16:14:07 +0000

A couple of resources on marketing for freelance translators have caught my eye this week. Doug Lawrence has added a subgroup for freelance translators to his Selling Translations group on LinkedIn.

I also just caught up with Corinne McKay’s excellent list of theories about direct clients. I actually wouldn’t call them theories, as the piece is a series of observations learned over time. The point that struck me and has also provoked the most discussion is “Many direct clients will find you, rather than the other way around.” This has caused me to rethink what I am doing and to make sure that I am putting my energy into the right areas.

Dan Brown’s “Lost Symbol” to be translated at record speed

admin — Thu, 03 Sep 2009 15:00:30 +0000

The Global Watchtower blog reports that Dan Brown’s new novel The Lost Symbol will be translated into Swedish at top speed by a team of translators working on 100 pages each. They will have seven days to complete the job. Although the Global Watchtower folks call this crowdsourcing, I don’t think that that particular label is entirely applicable here, as the project is being broken into six parts and sent out to professional translators.

The book is scheduled to be released in English on September 15, and the US publisher is apparently reluctant to release the manuscript before then due to fears that it could turn up on file-sharing sites. So, the Swedish publisher is enlisting a team in order to get the book onto Swedish store shelves by October 21.

Perhaps this extreme measure was necessary from a business standpoint given the unusual circumstances, but I wonder if other publishers around the world are following suit? And one can only hope that this translation process does not become the “new normal” for literature.