Foreign languages

[Michael Hopcroft]

What is the best way to get your game into a foreign-langauage market if you;'re an electronic publisher -- sell the rights to a publisher in the host country, or hire a translator, find an e-tailer and layout gurur in the country in question, and offer it for sale on the Internet yourself in that market?

I think the first option is out for me as I don't know any RPG publishers in the countries I'm looking at looking for new product.  the second option loooks better, especially if fans can be found to volunteer some time to evangelize the game. But I would still need to find an RPGNow-style operation that services the market in the host country, and I don;t have the web-browsing or langauge skills to find those e-tailers.

Which is sad because going international is especially appealing for my particular line of products. I'd go with RPGnow itself, but the site is not well-equipped to handle foreign customers or browsers. I don't think RPGnow is capable of putting up a page in Japanese, genrman or any other language besides English, although hositng and even brinting the books in the other langauge should be no problem 9although I;'d hesistate to want to charge that much shipping).

what can i realsitically expect to be able to do?

[Erick Wujcik]

What is the best way to get your game into a foreign-langauage market if you;'re an electronic publisher -- sell the rights to a publisher in the host country, or hire a translator, find an e-tailer and layout gurur in the country in question, and offer it for sale on the Internet yourself in that market?

Good question, and you present a good pair of choices.

In my experience, things vary enormously from country to country. Also, there are relatively few language groups that would justify translation.

In my opinion, your best bet is to find some native fan or fans of your work. Amber Diceless was published in France primarily because of Patrice Mermoud, a good friend (who also became the official translator). Only a native speaker can guide you to publishers, or to adequate translation services...

And, speaking of the French...

From what I've seen, this is the largest market outside of the English-speaking market. There are multiple publishers, a large, well-developed following, and quite a sophisticated attitude (France is one of the few places in the world where ordinary people tend to view RPGers with something like respect!). Both France and Quebec (Canada) are significant consumers, along with Belgium and a piece of Switzerland.

As for the rest of northern Europe (I'll lump together the speakers of Danish, Dutch, German and Swedish), there are plenty of role-players, but huge proportions of them are perfectly fluent/literate in English (in many cases, more literate than most Americans). Unless you get a significant following through your English version, there's not a lot of point in getting translated in any of those languages.

I'll be interested in seeing what others have to say about this subject, especially anyone with experience in Brazil or Japan...

Erick

[Perrina]

Maybe not the best idea, but do you have any schools nearby (I'm thinking high school, college, or language institutes) that teach the languages you are searching for translation in?  Perhaps the instructors could do it or assign it to some of the advanced students for a project (which would be checked by the instructor later, of course).  

I'd offer you my skills in Italian and Gaelic, if only I had used them more recently.  (Oddly enough, the Italian actually came in handy when I was a podiatric assistant.)

Just a thought.

Curious, what languages are you looking for?  I would think that Maori would be an interesting translation, but I'm not sure how many Maori in New Zealand play RPGs.

Kerrie

[Philippe Tromeur]

What is the best way to get your game into a foreign-language market if you're an electronic publisher -- sell the rights to a publisher in the host country, or hire a translator, find an e-tailer and layout gurur in the country in question, and offer it for sale on the Internet yourself in that market?

There is no French e-market for the moment, and no e-publisher.

Personally, I plan to sell "Wuthering Heights" as a pdf someday, and it will be the British translation, not the French original ; I'll use the biggest e-store (rpgnow), even if I lose some dollars in taxes across the atlantic. It's not to make money, anyway, it's about reaching a bigger market. I've never considered publishing that pdf in the French language (or maybe for free).
There's an old French printed version, but it is only sold by mail, and we've sold a few dozens copies. A second printed edition is planned, but next year or in 2005.

Generally speaking :
In France the market is really tiny. Besides the "big ones" (D&D, CoC, INS/MV, Nephilim, Vampire ...), game books generally sell a few hundred copies when they're correctly marketed, and when they flop, they flop very hard (IIRC, Château Falkentein was one of the most extreme flops ever).
When a publisher is taking a risk, it's generally thanks to a personal decision of someone working in it. Translators are either people in the company, or freelancers who have some other "real" job besides.
There's no "hiring" someone ; you will have to find the fan, and persuade him either to work for you, or find a company...

[hieronymous]

Michael,

i'll speak from the reverse experience. i've been playing a French RPG, Rêve de Dragon, here in the US since 87. for years i ran games for my players, having translated just a character sheet. in the end i decided to do a translation for them, then decided to try to publish it.

i finally was able to start a discussion with the game's then publisher in France, who ultimately agreed to license me (well my new little game startup) to e-publish the game. and that's where things stand.

my point is that in my experience, from the other side of the pond and from the translator's perspective, i'd echo Philippe's sentiment. it's a fan effort. and to what language are you wanting the game translated?