I would say, Watch out, Eric's been putting his name on legally binding documents, but it's good news! Last week, PR signed a pair of contracts with People's Literature Publishing House (人民文学出版社) in which we agreed to provide translation, marketing and representation services for the People's Literature booklist. We'll be reviewing both their new and old titles, creating English introductions and samples and selling the really good ones. We've actually been doing this with them for a few months now already, this just makes it official!
For translators, this means we are going to have an abundance of high-quality work to do in just the next couple of months. While most pieces will be fairly short (5,000 words or so), we do have one large-scale translation in the pipeline that will require samples for their review. All payment will be done by us, which means the money will be GOOD. We promise. That's why we're in this business. So send an email either to me (Canaan) or Eric at (our first name@paper-republic.org), preferably with a resume, and let us know you're interested!
Comments
I'm just curious as to whether this is in any way a result of the new government money being put up for cultural activities for 文化体制改革, and whether the government policies will benefit translators/writers? Also, congrats!
Jeff, October 20, 2011, 1:32p.m.
Hi Jeff,
I suppose indirectly this is a part of that government push. Various government bodies have had funds available for promoting Chinese literature abroad for quite some time now, but they've been used to varying degrees of efficiency. Many are simply used to print English translations of questionable quality that never go anywhere outside the storerooms of the publishing houses themselves. We're working with People's Literature because they're genuinely interested in getting their books read in foreign countries, and they have a very realistic sense of what they can manage themselves, and what they need outside help with. Plus they've got great books!
Eric Abrahamsen, October 21, 2011, 3:11a.m.
any news on this?
Brian Holton, November 6, 2011, 4:53p.m.
It's ongoing! Translators are scribbling away in their garrets as I type this. We've only assigned some of the 10 books, since the others are waiting on the untangling of copyright questions, so there will be continuing action probably until the end of the year.
Eric Abrahamsen, November 8, 2011, 9:29a.m.