Joe Konrath had an interesting post last week about the growing global marketplace for ebooks, where he suggested that it’s time for serious self-publishers to consider translations:

Find translators. They’re expensive, but it’s a sunk cost, and ebooks will sell forever.

Or…

Let your estributor handle the translations. I have enough work on my plate just deal with English-speaking countries. If my agent, who is assuming some estributor responsibilities for me, can handle the translations and uploading to foreign territories, I’d offer more than 15% for that service.

Although translation doesn’t come cheap, Konrath calls foreign markets—like Kindle and Kobo in Germany, and the forthcoming Kindle launch in India—”low hanging fruit” that “no one is taking advantage of”:

…the only writer I know of who has capitalized on it is Scott Nicholson, whose German translation of his thriller The Skull Ring (Der Schädelring) is now the #246 bestseller on the German Amazon website.

Read the full post here, and be sure to check out the comments for information on translators, foreign markets, and counterarguments.

(Photo: fsse8info)

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