Lingua Translations

I am a traditionally published author with Simon and Schuster. I’ve been in the business for almost twelve years and have taken most of that time to learn the ins and outs of the business. I’ve made mistakes and learned from them. During my quest to know as much about the industry as possible, I became published. Now that I am at a point in my career where things are taking off, I have become more aware of the prejudices in the industry. You may think I am speaking of the prejudices against self-published authors vs. mainstream authors but I am not. I am speaking of the prejudices that self-published authors have against the mainstream industry in general.

I often wonder what makes someone self-publish a novel. I can understand a technical book, poetry book or a diary but why self-publish a novel? Self-publishing can be the death and is the death of many wannabe novelists. While studying self-publishing, I came to the conclusion that many new writers were bamboozled into thinking that this was the way to go for their books. Yep, they are being tricked. You can’t even blame this type of trickery on sharks such as shady POD presses, vanity or subsidy presses. No I blame this on one group of people…bitter self-published authors. They spread bad advice and untruths like a disease and it’s damaging the careers of new writers.

I’ve been involved in publishing for over a decade now as an author, editor, and project manager; however, it wasn’t until just a few years ago that I decided to move into self-publishing. Indeed, my first few projects involved consulting for others and, now, I am involved in my own, personal projects. It has taken a while for me to come back around to my own works, but in the process I learned how to minimize time and expenses in producing a book and getting it to market.

This short article will not try to explain every aspect of book publishing in detail, but it will brush on a few of the important topics. I have a few other book projects in the making that will detail the book self-publishing process; however, in the mean time, this should give you a good basis of understanding.

— The Idea —

The most difficult part of creating your manuscript is deciding on the topic. We all have ideas. It’s part of our being. Ideas pop in and out of our heads all day long; however, we usually dismiss many of them as useless or too simple to be of use. You would be surprised at how many people want “simple” and easy-to-understand information! Readers want books that teach, inform, and entertain.

Equivalence in Translation Between myth and reality
This article is dedicated to express the equivalence as a theory in various points of view taken from theorists. The winter says the theorists are divided into two groups. The first group is in favor of linguists approach in translation. The second group is in favor of cultural approach toward translation and most importantly the equivalence. The writer also defines a mediocre place for scholars who do not belong to the first or second group. Scholars for the first group are Vinay, Catford, Darbelnet, Jakobson and Nida. Vinay and Darbelnet defined the equivalence as a procedure which replicates the same situation as in the original while using completely different wording. They also said that the equivalence is the ideal method in dealing with proverbs, idioms, clichés, etc. Jakobson considered three types of translation. They are inter lingual (between SL &TL), intra lingual (within one language), and inter semiotic (between sign systems). Nida`s theory was defined by the writer. Nida defined two types of equivalence. They are formal equivalence and dynamic equivalence. Writer says the formal equivalence focuses on the message itself. However, the dynamic equivalence is based on the equivalent effect. Catford is the next theorist who believed in linguistic approach toward translation and equivalence. He defined his theory based on the extent of translation, grammatical rank and the levels of language. He, later on, explained his notion of shifts. They are structure shift, class shift, unit shift, and intra system shift.
In the second part of the article, the writer introduces House`s theory as a cultural or functional approach toward the notions of translation and equivalence. House defined two types of translation namely overt and covert translation. In the overt translation the TT audience is not directly addressed. On the other hand, the covert translation is the production of a text which is functionally equivalent to the ST. in the final part of the article, Baker`s theory of equivalence was defined. The writer says Baker explores the notion of equivalence at different levels. They are word level, grammatical level, textual level, and pragmatic level. Finally, the writer concluded that equivalence is still problematic in terms of definition, theoretical aspects, and practical aspects.

I am a traditionally published author with Simon and Schuster. I’ve been in the business for almost twelve years and have taken most of that time to learn the ins and outs of the business. I’ve made mistakes and learned from them. During my quest to know as much about the industry as possible, I became published. Now that I am at a point in my career where things are taking off, I have become more aware of the prejudices in the industry. You may think I am speaking of the prejudices against self-published authors vs. mainstream authors but I am not. I am speaking of the prejudices that self-published authors have against the mainstream industry in general.

I often wonder what makes someone self-publish a novel. I can understand a technical book, poetry book or a diary but why self-publish a novel? Self-publishing can be the death and is the death of many wannabe novelists. While studying self-publishing, I came to the conclusion that many new writers were bamboozled into thinking that this was the way to go for their books. Yep, they are being tricked. You can’t even blame this type of trickery on sharks such as shady POD presses, vanity or subsidy presses. No I blame this on one group of people…bitter self-published authors. They spread bad advice and untruths like a disease and it’s damaging the careers of new writers.