The Translator’s Invisibility

Contracts that require translators to assign the copyright, or that define translations as works made for hire, are obviously exploitative in the division of earnings. Such translations are compensated by a flat fee per thousand English words, regardless of the potential income from the sale of books and subsidiary rights (e.g., a periodical publication, a license to a paperback publisher, an option by a film production company). An actual case will make {11} clear how this arrangement exploits translators. On 12 May 1965, the American translator Paul Blackburn entered into a work-forhire arrangement with Pantheon in which he received “$15.00 per thousand words” for his translation of End of the Game, a collection of short stories by the Argentine writer Julio Cortázar.[6] Blackburn received a total of $1200 for producing an English-language translation that filled 277 pages as a printed book; Cortázar received a $2000 advance against royalties, 7.5 percent of the list price for the first 5000 copies. The “poverty level” set by the Federal government in 1965 was an annual income of $1894 (for a male). Blackburn’s income as an editor was usually $8000, but to complete the translation he was forced to reduce his editorial work and seek a grant from arts agencies and private foundations— which he failed to receive. Ultimately, he requested an extension of the delivery date for the translation from roughly a year to sixteen months (the contracted date of 1 June 1966 was later changed to 1 October 1966).

Blackburn’s difficult situation has been faced by most freelance English-language translators throughout the postwar period: below-subsistence fees force them either to translate sporadically, while working at other jobs (typically editing, writing, teaching), or to undertake multiple translation projects simultaneously, the number of which is determined by the book market and sheer physical limitations. By 1969, the fee for work-for-hire translations increased to $20 per thousand words, making Blackburn’s Cortázar project worth $1600, while the poverty level was set at $1974; by 1979, the going rate was $30 and Blackburn would have made $2400, while the poverty level was $3689.[7] According to a 1990 survey conducted by the PEN American Center and limited to the responses of nineteen publishers, 75 percent of the translations surveyed were contracted on a work-for-hire basis, with fees ranging from $40 to $90 per thousand words (Keeley 1990:10–12; A Handbook for Literary Translators 1991:5–6). A recent estimate puts the translation cost of a 300-page novel between $3000 and $6000 (Marcus 1990:13–14; cf. Gardam 1990). The poverty level in 1989 was set at $5936 for a person under 65 years. Because this economic situation drives freelance translators to turn out several translations each year, it inevitably limits the literary invention and critical reflection applied to a project, while pitting translators against each other—often unwittingly—in the competition for projects and the negotiation of fees.

{12} Contracts since the 1980s show an increasing recognition of the translator’s crucial role in the production of the translation by referring to him or her as the “author” or “translator” and by copyrighting the text in the translator’s name. This redefinition has been accompanied by an improvement in financial terms, with experienced translators receiving an advance against royalties, usually a percentage of the list price or the net proceeds, as well as a portion of subsidiary rights sales. The 1990 PEN survey indicated that translators’ royalties were “in the area of 2 to 5 percent for hardcover and 1.5 to 2.5 percent for paperback” (Handbook 1991:5). But these are clearly small increments. While they signal a growing awareness of the translator’s authorship, they do not constitute a significant change in the economics of translation, and it remains difficult for a freelance translator to make a living solely from translating. A typical first printing for a literary translation published by a trade press is approximately 5000 copies (less for a university press), so that even with the trend toward contracts offering royalties, the translator is unlikely to see any income beyond the advance. Very few translations become bestsellers; very few are likely to be reprinted, whether in hardcover or paperback. And, perhaps most importantly, very few translations are published in English.