Novel Translator... Man?

I have decided that my future career will involve Japanese language in any way possible. I just need to research on all the options. I've covered the obvious: english teacher or translator, but I think that translating whole novels would be a nice, quiet (and hopefully well-paid) job. I'm just wondering what the job title atually is. Unless it's just translator. Then I'd look stupid :(

Also, if anyone knows how I could go about getting into translating novels as a career, please tell me. Even if it's just the name of a publisher (if that's even who you go to :/) it would be a big help.

DOOMO :)

As far as translation goes you are probably setting your sights a bit high at this point I am afraid. To translate novels you would need to have publications (articles, short stories, novels etc.) in your own language which show your proficiency at writing good prose- an author won't entrust their novel to just anyone to translate.

You are kind of looking at this from the wrong end, as translating novels is really only for very experienced translators. You would first need to find an entry level job, and those mostly consist of translating more boring stuff like technical manuals, legal and financial documents, promotional materials etc.

"Translator" is a job title, incidentally ;-)

Even this kind of work can be hard to find without good connections- it can be a hard industry to get into because without prior experience, jobs are hard to come by.

To get an entry level job as an English teacher on the other hand just requires that you can fulfill the conditions needed to get a visa, and that you come across as reasonably well-spoken and personable in an interview.

The job you are seeking is called "translator". You can either express it by saying you hope to "be a novel translator" or "be translating novels".

The hardest part, actually, is that novels are thick. Publishments consist of hundreds of pages. Even the short stories are collected into one before they ever get popular enough to be financed for foreign language translation.

I can't think of a professional who really does a whole book all by him/herself. You need helpers, and to have reliable helpers you need enough experience to find these talented people and manage them, which is extremely harder than others may imagine.

Nothing pays worse than E to J translation. People do it because they like it. I hear that J to E translation pays better, probably because there are less translators therefore less competetors.

But I would go ahead and say that, strangely, these very few J to E translators are much more skilled then many of the E to J translators, which might make it harder for J to E wannabes. But at the same time, I think J to E novel translation is a frontier field since J novels are just starting to become popular worldwide.

Typically, translators start by something related. For example by translating business material and advertising your skill for more poetic terms, or by working as a novel publisher and advertising your skill to translate. Something like that.

Another option is fan-sub. There will be no payment, but you will be quite free to make illegal translations of your favorite novels, and this is quite tolerated by publishers since it's different from piracy.

Also note that long-hour desk work such as being a translator or a novelist is really bad for your health. You need to consciously do excercise and try to talk to real people under the sun.

All this may sound negative, but the industry is always seeking talented people. Plus it's great to always have a goal and a dream in your mind. It's just that there are very few who don't give up.

The following "Getting Started as a Translator" article may also be helpful.
http://www.gally.net/translation/gettingstarted.htm

I can't grab how you know of language- business, so this's a typical opinion.
Novel translators need to have skills of both languages and writing.
It means you need sense of words, phrases, paragraphs composition.
Generally, translating is not only change the languages. You'd better go to school of professional translator.
And novel translators earn less money than you imagine. In case of original book's success, you'll get huge money. That's all.
In that point, technical one's a down-to-earth job.
Many of IT companies want staffs for localization. In Japan, translation business wants "native" staffs.
Either way, you should study more to know what translator is.
The teacher's work's already a saturated condition.

Casual Passerby wrote;
"In case of original book's success, you'll get huge money. That's all."

And this is not necessarily true, because quite often (or as far as I know, most of the time) translators are paid by fixed guarantees. You are paid a bulk of money when the translation is published and that's it. Authors may make a fortune out of royalty, but translators usually don't.

If you have a favorite translator, perhaps you'd like to write a fan letter and see if any of your questions can be answered. If you're very lucky, they might be accepting pupils.