Been approached to do translations of my books - anyone used this service?

[Jan Hurst-Nicholson]

I was contacted through my website by  www.tektime.it offering to do translations of my books. I've had my children's books translated into Chinese by https://fiberead.com/ and had a small payment (but now can't seem to Login to their site  )

It seems legit and I won't have to pay anything - but am I missing something?

Thanks in advance.

[alhawke]

Sounds too good to be true. Typically a translation for your book is gonna be $1-3k USD. That's why I haven't ventured into it. You're paying a translator just like a narrator for an audiobook. That'll be pricey.

My quick glance showed me that they don't give you full rights, they use profit sharing. But even then, if they offer it to everyone, it's not going to be worth it to their business if they take on a lot of books due to average limited sales of books in our biz. Unless they're choosy on who they're doing business with and they're choosing you.??

I'm wary but curious Jan. Please keep us posted if you pursue.

[Jan Hurst-Nicholson]

Sounds too good to be true. Typically a translation for your book is gonna be $1-3k USD. That's why I haven't ventured into it. You're paying a translator just like a narrator for an audiobook. That'll be pricey.

My quick glance showed me that they don't give you full rights, they use profit sharing. But even then, if they offer it to everyone, it's not going to be worth it to their business if they take on a lot of books due to average limited sales of books in our biz. Unless they're choosy on who they're doing business with and they're choosing you.??

I'm wary but curious Jan. Please keep us posted if you pursue.

Thanks for your reply.
I'm not prepared to pay anything towards translation. I don't mind profit sharing as any share is better than no share. My children's books are on a number of websites in China and sell a few here and there (children's books are a difficult sell anywhere  ).
I've asked tektime which of my books they want to translate (none are bestsellers by any means) . I will keep you updated with their response.

[Jan Hurst-Nicholson]

Just got a reply. They are obviously fishing for authors to pay for their revenue sharing model.
" Hello,
to evaluate the potential acquisition of the rights to your books, we first suggest that you select your best titles (bestsellers) and provide more detailed information regarding the sales reports, differentiated between digital and print. Additionally, if possible, please include the number of reviews received and their ratings. After a thorough analysis of this data, we will inform you which titles can be included in the project. Here you can find more information about the standard contract:
https://www.traduzionelibri.it/contratto_cessione_diritti.asp
If these books do not meet our minimum acceptance requirements, you can still join our "Revenue Sharing" model, through which you will have the opportunity to have your books translated and narrated in 78 different languages, without any initial investment. Here you can find more information on how this model works:
https://www.traduzionelibri.it/autori.asp
Additionally, you can find drafts of our standard contracts here:
https://www.traduzionelibri.it/contratto_traduzione.asp "

I won't be taking them up on it as my bestseller is reliant on British humour, which won't really translate anyway.

When I had my children's books translated into Chinese I don't remember them asking for sales figures etc. The books are available in China and also on Amazon.com in Chinese.