Russian Translation Published

Available in the iBooks Store

It's a good thing to have a native speaker look over a book that you've recently translated. In this case, my Facebook friend Anna Marine took a look at the Russian language version of I Love You, Teddy and spotted a number of errors. Chief among them was one that I'd made on the cover: one of the words had been cut off. Oops!
As for the rest, I can only say that I'm surprised. The Russian translator who worked on Alphabet All-Stars: Be Safe This Halloween did a perfect job; so much so that Anna didn't find a single thing she'd change. I'm not going to speculate as to why this happened, but without Anna I wouldn't have known that there was anything wrong with the original translation.

Get your work independently reviewed, folks. I can't stress this enough!

In the end, I have what I set out for--a solid translation of a solid children's picture book. I also gained a translator in the process. From now on, Anna Marine will be handling all of my Russian translations and has already finished up My Little Pet Dragon, which contains Russian and English text, side-by-side.

Is there a Russian market for children's picture books? That I do not know. I went out on a limb when I had my books translated into Italian, French, Dutch and Norwegian--all with good results. Now I find myself doing it again, and if nothing comes of it, at least I tried. Certainly a few kids can benefit from the effort, particularly those in bilingual households.

Why did I have my children's books translated into Russian in the first place? Good question. When I was translating Alphabet All-Stars: Be Safe This Halloween into multiple languages, I identified all the countries that celebrate Halloween in one form or another. I was surprised to read that Vladimir Putin wants to get rid of the holiday, and since many Russian families already live in the United States, I was determined to do it.

As it turns out, I was lucky the first time around with getting the book translated. And the second book has led me to an even better translator.

And that's the thing--it isn't always easy finding good translators, and when you do, you've got to keep them busy. Even if it's a book that you really don't need translated, I feel that it's important to keep translators engaged and the line of communication open, that way when a really important job comes up, you know what their availability is.

I'll translate a few more picture books and see what happens. Translations of My Crazy Pet Frog, Pigtastic and A Little Book About You will happen. Beyond that, who knows? There's also the time factor involved. Every hour spent on a translation is an hour that could be spent writing a brand new English language book. And when it comes down to that, I'd rather be producing new content than translating old content.

If you'd like to see what I've done, you can download a free copy of Alphabet All-Stars: Be Safe This Halloween here:

Apple: http://itunes.apple.com/us/book/id1271133575
Google: https://play.google.com/store/books/details?id=6ZswDwAAQBAJ
Inktera:http://www.inktera.com/store/title/d1f2cbb7-d9d9-418d-b2ea-c8cfa9c3ebfe
Kobo:https://www.kobo.com/us/en/ebook/9o7-gtA7uzaPeAuh-N8xYw
Smashwords: https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/741967

You can also purchase the bilingual English/Russian version of I Love You, Teddy for a nominal fee here:

Apple: http://itunes.apple.com/us/book/id1269890995
Google: https://play.google.com/store/books/details?id=okcwDwAAQBAJ
Smashwords: https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/741401

(Sorry, neither Amazon nor Barnes and Noble want Russian books. I do have MOBI/Kindle versions available upon request. Just contact me.)