Kay-Viktor Stegemann (translator)

(5)

I am a natural born Kieler.

I am a software developer and professional translator in the technical and business area. In literary translations, my favorite area is fantasy and the games (boardgames and computer games) sector, but I am not limited to those areas. When I translate your book, expect me to put all my skill, knowledge, and love into this work and to produce a high-quality translation. But do not expect me to sell your book. I am not a networker and not a salesman. I don't have accounts with social networks and I don't have followers of any kind, with the exception of my cat, and even she follows me only if she is hungry ... I will gladly help with translating marketing texts and similar things, of course.

That being said, I have started a website/blog with the books I translated, and I will include a link page to it in all my translations, so maybe this can generate a little traffic. Here it is: http://buchfantasie.de/ (German language) - suggestions welcome.

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Addendum October 2016:

I have started doing book translations with Babelcube at the beginning of this year and have translated six novels so far. I like this work, and it is a good thing for my work portfolio as a professional translator, but the monetary outcome has been negligible. In this aspect, the whole Babelcube concept is flawed, since no one is doing any marketing for the translations.
 
I will continue to do book translations, but there has to be something in it for me. I have identified three or four options that would convince me to do a translation:
 
First, I will do it for fun and for the love of a particular book. If you have a book that is so overwhelmingly good and entertaining that it sweeps me off my feet, I am prepared to translate it to German without doing strict businesslike calculations, just because I might want to see my name on it. The best chance for this is with a tremendously funny fantasy satire with Terry-Pratchett- or Douglas-Adams-like qualities. If you think you have such a book, let me read it and then we'll talk.
 
Second, I'll do it if you simply pay me. My going rate for literary (!) translations is six eurocents per word, which is a bargain. So if you have a book of 100k words, simply put €6,000 on my table and you will receive a perfect German translation whenever my schedule allows it. (To all my professional translation clients, if you happen to read this: This cheap rate does only apply to literary translations; for the usual technical or software translation/localisation work I have to charge higher rates, sorry.)
 
Third, we still can do it royalty-based. But please be aware that I expect to be paid a similar amount in royalties in the end. And since there is much more risk involved, I also expect much higher chances. Going by the Babelcube royalty model, the translator receives a meager $2,900 for the first $8,000 in net sales, and 10% of net sales after that. For doing it by royalties, I would want a realistic chance to get about $15,000 out of it (in the above sample with 100k words), since there is also the risk that I receive nothing or just the usual pittance. $15,000 for me would mean total net sales of about $130,000 in the German speaking market, going by the Babelcube royalty model. Please check if you have a book that could do that. Hint: If your book has net sales of about one million dollars in the English language market, this target in the German market could be realistic.
 
And finally, as a fourth alternative, some sort of mixed agreement could be made, with part of my work being paid up front and the rest by royalties.
 
Please note that the number of five-star ratings and Amazon rankings in some categories are rather irrelevant. This is about hard sales. In other words: Show me the money.

Native language: German
Translates from: English
Translates into: German


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