Translating a novel English to Mandarin

[Wings of Desire]

How much would a novel in English cost to translate to Mandarin? I might need two separate workers and test them?

[Lu]

Automatic translation will be free or close to free.

A cheap translator will cost perhaps 1 cent per word; results will be bad. Any experienced translator is not going to work for peanuts.

A good translator will cost more, I'm not sure of the current going rate. Even if the price per word is not high (say, 5 cent per word), the full cost of the translation of an entire novel tends to add up.

 

You can test several translators and see which one you like best. Make sure you pay them for the test. If you can read Mandarin, you can judge for yourself which one you prefer. If not, a good measure is whether they ask good questions to ensure the best possible translation.

 

What is your plan with the translated novel? Do you want to have it published through a Chinese publishing house? If so, you need to inform yourself on how Chinese publishing works and how to get a Chinese publisher interested in your work. To my knowledge, self-publishing is not an option in China, you are only allowed to publish through an official publishing house. Or are you planning to publish it online? In that case, you need to find out how the online novel industry works.