Translations by "Amazon.com"
Autor de la hebra: Muriel Vasconcellos (X)
Muriel Vasconcellos (X)
Muriel Vasconcellos (X)  Identity Verified
Estados Unidos
Local time: 05:50
español al inglés
+ ...
Jun 23, 2012

Yesterday I was asked to translate the Spanish classic "Zalacaín el Aventurero," which I remembered from Spanish class decades ago. I found an existing translation on the Internet and told the client the book could be purchased at Amazon.com, giving him the link. This is the answer I got back:

"My client does not want this so called Amazon.com translations. He required the text being done by a pro."


 
Marina Steinbach
Marina Steinbach
Estados Unidos
Local time: 08:50
Miembro 2011
inglés al alemán
Interesting... Jun 23, 2012

Muriel Vasconcellos wrote:

"My client does not want this so called Amazon.com translations. He required the text being done by a pro."


Did you get the job?


 
Sylvie Chartier
Sylvie Chartier  Identity Verified
Canadá
inglés al francés
+ ...
Curious Jun 24, 2012

I'm as curious as Marina, did you get the mandate to translate the book ???

 
Juan Pablo Sans
Juan Pablo Sans  Identity Verified
México
Local time: 08:50
inglés al español
+ ...
Take it Jun 24, 2012

If he wants it like that, take it, I suggest

[Editado a las 2012-06-24 04:20 GMT]


 
ATIL KAYHAN
ATIL KAYHAN  Identity Verified
Turquía
Local time: 16:50
Miembro 2007
turco al inglés
+ ...
Translations by Amazon? Jun 24, 2012

To my knowledge, Amazon does not make any translations. The book suggested by Muriel was probably translated by a pro. As far as the client is concerned, there is no guarantee that this translation will be better than the existing book. Of course, the client is not even aware of these facts.

 
Tomás Cano Binder, BA, CT
Tomás Cano Binder, BA, CT  Identity Verified
España
Local time: 14:50
Miembro 2005
inglés al español
+ ...
Not necessarily Jun 24, 2012

My wife uses an e-book and the translations you get out there for many books are atrocious. What I think the customer wants to say is that they don't want one of those e-book translations done by... who knows!! (I am talking about English-Spanish.)

 
nuvo
nuvo
Indonesia
Local time: 20:50
inglés al indonesio
+ ...
Amazon does not translate Jun 24, 2012

I had a few experiences translating e-books to be sold at Amazon. However, it was not Amazon who gave me the job. It was the author. So, we may have the assumption for your case

 
Noni Gilbert Riley
Noni Gilbert Riley
España
Local time: 14:50
español al inglés
+ ...
I have had exactly the same correspondence Jun 24, 2012

Very dodgy translation request, to which I replied that I would give a quote if, amongst other things, he ("Lawrence") gave me company details. No company mentioned of course, but he sent the text, and I too suggested he look on Amazon where he could find a translation.

The reply was that
"We needed something a bit different from this translated work."

If this was a translation of a literary work, why didn't he present it as such?

Strange....


 
Henry Hinds
Henry Hinds  Identity Verified
Estados Unidos
Local time: 06:50
inglés al español
+ ...
In Memoriam
Scam Jun 24, 2012

This looks like just another scam attempt.

 
LilianNekipelov
LilianNekipelov  Identity Verified
Estados Unidos
Local time: 08:50
ruso al inglés
+ ...
The author's permission Jun 24, 2012

The person who approached you with the request to translate the book for him needs the author's permission to do that if the author is alive,otherwise from the person who holds the copyrights. Otherwise you may both end up in jail. Maybe I am exaggerating, but you may get in a lot of trouble.

 
Muriel Vasconcellos (X)
Muriel Vasconcellos (X)  Identity Verified
Estados Unidos
Local time: 05:50
español al inglés
+ ...
PERSONA QUE INICIÓ LA HEBRA
Follow-up Jun 24, 2012

Interesting that Noni had the same experience! I assumed he thought that Amazon.com was machine translation. I didn't think it was a scam--just a case of colossal ignorance.

I sent him the translator's credentials and repeated that the book was available for purchase (giving him the Amazon link once again).

I had already refused to do the job, and I refused again.


 
Alvin Ang
Alvin Ang

Local time: 21:50
inglés al chino
+ ...
ethical Jun 25, 2012

I think you are pretty ethical in that sense, at least not going to duplicate the effort in the translation which is already done by a professional.

 
Evans (X)
Evans (X)
Local time: 13:50
español al inglés
+ ...
Amazon.com is going into translation Jun 25, 2012

Whether or not this is the case here, Amazon.com has in fact introduced its own imprint called AmazonCrossing for publishing translated books. You can read about it here:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/05/19/amazon-to-publish-foreign_n_581595.html

I'm not sure what conditions they are offering and who they are approaching as tr
... See more
Whether or not this is the case here, Amazon.com has in fact introduced its own imprint called AmazonCrossing for publishing translated books. You can read about it here:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/05/19/amazon-to-publish-foreign_n_581595.html

I'm not sure what conditions they are offering and who they are approaching as translators. There has been some debate about this in the UK Translators Association of the Society of Authors.
Collapse


 
Amazon sells books, not translations Jul 10, 2012

As an editor I'm using Amazon.com and here especially their createspace feature. There is nothing about translations there. I'm working with independent translators (German-English) and then bring books to the market via createspace.

 
Muriel Vasconcellos (X)
Muriel Vasconcellos (X)  Identity Verified
Estados Unidos
Local time: 05:50
español al inglés
+ ...
PERSONA QUE INICIÓ LA HEBRA
I posted this as a joke Jul 12, 2012

When I received the e-mail, I thought it was terribly funny that the person requesting translation services didn't realize I was referring to a published book and assumed that I was sending them to machine translation. I wanted to share the experience as a joke, but the site managers chose to post it under scams. I never intended to start a serious discussion.

[Edited at 2012-07-12 06:01 GMT]


 


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Translations by "Amazon.com"







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