Do I keep the rights when someone translates my book?

@quietpages OP

2mo ago

A small foreign publisher wants to translate my novel, and a freelance translator separately offered to do a sample. Now I'm panicking about who ends up owning what. If someone translates my book, do I still own it, and what am I actually signing away? Plain-English explanations very welcome.

11 comments

@the_oxford_comma2mo ago

Standard, non-scary version: you keep the copyright in your original work. What you do is LICENSE the translation rights for one specific language and territory. The translator or publisher doesn't buy your book, they buy permission to make and sell a translation under agreed terms. You remain the author of the underlying work the whole time.

@the_oxford_comma1mo ago

The piece that surprises people: the translator holds copyright in their actual translated TEXT, because a good translation is itself a creative work. That's normal and fine. It just means nobody can reuse that specific translation without the translator's say-so, while you still control the underlying novel and who's allowed to translate it at all.

@quietpagesOP1mo ago

So there are two copyrights sitting side by side: mine in the original, theirs in the translated text, and the license is the bridge between them. That's the mental model I was missing. Thank you.

@the_oxford_comma1mo ago

Exactly that. And because the translator owns their text, you want the contract to spell out what happens to that translation if your license to the publisher ends. You don't want the edition orphaned because the rights to the translated text and the right to publish it got separated.

@first_draft_dani1mo ago

Put a term limit and a reversion clause on the LANGUAGE license, not just the publishing deal. License German rights for a set number of years, with rights reverting to you if the book goes out of print or sales stall. Granting translation rights in perpetuity is one of the most common and most regretted mistakes authors make.

@kovac_ink1mo ago

From the translator's side, please get everything in writing for our sake too. A clean contract states the fee structure, whether it's a flat fee or includes a royalty on the translated edition, that I retain copyright in my translation text, and that I get a translator credit. A vague handshake hurts both of us when the book unexpectedly does well.

@the_understudy1mo ago

On flat fee versus royalty: a flat fee means you pay once and the translator has no ongoing claim on sales, which keeps your downstream rights simple. A royalty for the translator is common in some markets and perfectly fair, but then their percentage must be defined in the same contract so it doesn't tangle with your author royalties later.

@foggy_chapters1mo ago

Watch the difference between selling translation rights to a PUBLISHER versus hiring a translator directly. If a foreign publisher licenses the rights, they usually commission and pay the translator, and you negotiate with the publisher. If you hire the translator yourself and stay self-published, you hold all the strings but you also carry all the responsibility and cost. Two very different deals.

@quietpagesOP1mo ago

That split is exactly my situation, a publisher on one side and a freelance translator on the other, and I'd been blurring them into one decision. Pulling them apart in my head now. Going to get a contract for whichever path I choose rather than relying on email goodwill.

@verse_and_vice1mo ago

If a real publisher is involved, this is the moment to talk to an agent or a rights-savvy lawyer, even for one contract. Foreign rights deals have territory, sublicensing, and audio and ebook sub-rights tucked inside them, and a one-time review fee is trivial against signing away a sub-right you didn't notice for the life of copyright.

@plotholes_anon1mo ago

Keep approval rights over the translation if you possibly can. Even with two clean copyrights, a bad or careless translation gets published under YOUR name and your reputation in that market, not the translator's. A clause letting you review the finished translation, or appoint someone who reads the language to vet it, is cheap protection for the thing you can't easily undo.