New method, is it worth it? (Babelcube + Amazon Affiliate + Blog)

[Jedah85]

Some time ago, I found this website called Babelcube. Basically is a platform for book writers to meet translators. You have to translate the entire book and then earn a por cent of the translated book. Link to how the revenues are shared: (can't post link as I don't have 15 posts yet, but it's easy to find in their website)

I accepted a job there but never finished it, as the book was too long and after investigating more, I decided it was not worth it for such a little profit, but now I have new idea using this platform. What if you create a translator profile choosing a lot of different languages in the "from" list, and both English and Spanish as the target language, apply to a ton of different books in a specific category, and outsource the translation with a third party?

Then, you become an Amazon affiliate and create a blog writing about the genre you choose and use it to promote the same books you translated while also using ads?

It looks like you would get three different income sources at the same time:

1. The ads in the blog
2. The Amazon Affiliate program
3. The revenues from Babelcube

Do you think is it worth trying it?

 

[Starblazer]

I used to think like that when I was a kid

 

[JackFruit]

Nice idea, it may work.

 

[monkey2000]

Why not instead just hire a freelance translator, then you don't have to give royalties to the translator?

 

[Jedah85]

I used to think like that when I was a kid

Youth is not a time of life; it is a state of mind my friend, I surely consider myself a kid in some aspects

Nice idea, it may work.

The beauty of this method is that even if it doesn't work, if the books are a complete failure and sell very badly, you still have a portfolio of translated books by you, and then can follow a freelancer translator career

Why not instead just hire a freelance translator, then you don't have to give royalties to the translator?

I don't have money to invest right now, which means that if I were to follow this method, I had to translate them myself (Spanish is my first language, and I know enough English to understand a written text perfectly). But surely having some money to invest would make the method much more profitable this way :

* when creating the Babelcube profile, instead of your name you write a catchy company name
* you choose projects from any language that has lots of books, like French, German, etc
* when accepted, you hire a cheap translator in fiverr, Upwork or other website IMPORTANT: they should give you full rights of the translation
* you submit the translation to Babelcube

It is also important to make some kind of investigation about the books you are willing to translate, check reviews of the original ones to know if they were well received and sold well to make sure that the translation will have at least some kind of success. I don't think you could find the next Harry Potter nor Twilight in that platform, but imagine the earnings if it becomes a reasonably successful book.

 

[mindmaster]

So you didn't see it profitable to do the work yourself, but you think you will find someone to do it for less?
If so, it may work.
You won't know until you test it.

 

[Jedah85]

So you didn't see it profitable to do the work yourself, but you think you will find someone to do it for less?
If so, it may work.
You won't know until you test it.

That's not it, sorry for the confusion caused for not telling the full story, but now I see that it was a mistake not to.
As I said, Spanish is my first language, and I have a good understanding of English, as I took a B2 test with 19 years old and have been improving since then, thanks to the fact that I listen to music, watch movies, play games, surf the web, etcetc but I have never took a professional course in translation. My studies are more oriented to the IT technologies and education.

Last year, I found that website and tried it, but found that translating a full novel is easier said than done. I struggled with the tools and got too stressed. Plus, finding that even if I were to finish the project, my earnings would depend on how well the book sold, was what influenced me to quit.

Nowadays, thanks for this forum where I'd been lurking for months I learned a bit about marketing, affiliate methods, blogging etc and felt that it would be a good idea to share and receive comments from the community, since you are much more experienced than I am in this topics.

Since I had this idea, I have also been learning more about CAT (computer-assisted translation) and even tested how fast I could translate some short texts and am fairly satisfied with them, and learning more everyday.

The idea of using third parties for the translations is for those that may not know two languages or want to make it in a big scale or faster.

I will definetly try this method, but since I don't have money to invest, it will take me a long time to translate 5 or 10 books, enough to start creating the blog

 

[Thalapathy]

Nice idea