English Fiction Translated Into Thai

[Keithandkanya]

First of all may we say hello to all members of this very busy forum. My wife recommended we subscribed since we will be moving to Thailand in a few years time.

Our first of what we hope will be many posts is a request for some honest and constructive help.....My wife is from South Thailand although graduated from University in Bangkok tho I myself am from Manchester.

We are keen to publish English Fiction Novels in the THAI Language. If you are resident in Thailand or indeed you are Thai yourself....would you say that there is a demand for such translated novels? All comments gratefully received.

Thank you

Keith & Kanya

[Moonrakers]

The other thread was closed, I'll repeat my statement here.

Thai's don't seem to enjoy reading for pleasure much.

Almost as though reading is a chore rather than a past-time. Visit a Thai bookstore and you'll find only a very limited section of novels, there's very little business in it.

[Beetlejuice]

I would say that English Fiction Novels translated into Thai Language would not be successful in Thailand.

If the stories were centred on events emanating around Western cities based on Western culture and characters and not completely Thai, I doubt whether the majority of Thais would show much interest or would be able to relate to the novels.

And as our moonraker said; Visit a Thai bookstore and you'll find only a very limited section of novels, there's very little business in it.

[Keithandkanya]

The other thread was closed, I'll repeat my statement here.

Thai's don't seem to enjoy reading for pleasure much.

Almost as though reading is a chore rather than a past-time. Visit a Thai bookstore and you'll find only a very limited section of novels, there's very little business in it.

thanks for the feedback

[Keithandkanya]

I would say that English Fiction Novels translated into Thai Language would not be successful in Thailand.

If the stories were centred on events emanating around Western cities based on Western culture and characters and not completely Thai, I doubt whether the majority of Thais would show much interest or would be able to relate to the novels.

And as our moonraker said; Visit a Thai bookstore and you'll find only a very limited section of novels, there's very little business in it.

[Keithandkanya]

thank you for both valuable comments

[endure]

If you can knock out a few comic books with lots of lost loves, a bit of sex and a smattering of ghosts you might be onto a winner

[noise]

Thai's don't seem to enjoy reading for pleasure much.

I know a lot of Thais that would object to that ascertion. And the number of foreign books translated into Thai (which only happens because the Thais want to and do read them) also seems to contradict that statement.

[rak sa_ngop]

I am now reading 'Dissolution' by C.J.Sansom in Thai. This is the first of the Mathew Shardlake mystery series set in the time of Henry VIII and the dissolution of the monastries.

I have read most of the series in English before and am now enjoying the Thai version. I still have my English copy and can work out what the Thai version is saying. Although the translation is very good there are some glaring errors that would really perplex a Thai reader,

For example in the description of the scolding wife being placed in the stocks and having rotten fruit thrown at her, the word 'stocks' is translated as 'market' thus making the whole episode totally incomprehensible. These type of errors must detract from the enjoyment value of the book and would put Thai readers off reading.

Certainly better proof reading by people who understood western culture and colloquial English would help make these books more attractive and understandable to Thai readers.

[nidge]

My wife read the thai translation of Brother Grimm, (Craig Russell), and she really enjoyed it. Even though it was Thai she said the language was richer than Thai novels. I think this was the reason it took her so long to read. IMO, Most Thais would not have the patience to struggle through the language and go back to the comic "quick fix".

There are plenty of translated books for sale so there must be people reading them somewhere.

[H2oDunc]

Watch any Thai soap opera on TV and that is what they are into. They all seem to follow the same type of story line. I don't know if their novels are the same ?

All in all I think it would be of limited success unless you can get your books into university libraries etc where they might be appreciated.

Good luck

[Rikker]

Many Thai translations of English fiction are already widely available. It's true that there is not a particularly huge reading culture nationwide, with the exception of manga and the like, but in Bangkok the book culture is healthier. Twice a year in Bangkok there is a large book fair (in fact, one starts tomorrow), with attendance between 1.5 and 2 million people over the course of two weeks. Virtually every publisher and used bookseller in the country buys booth space at this fair, and it is at this fair that publishers launch countless new titles.

Virtually any well-known foreign author you can imagine has already been translated into Thai. Often multiple times. For very well known authors, their whole catalog--including works obscure even in English--has often been translated. There probably isn't a lot of money in it, though. Print runs tend to be small (a few thousand copies) with frequent reprints if successful, and foreign translations tend to go out of print quickly. The online used book market can help locate rarer titles, though.

Over the years I've collected I think hundreds of translations of English (and other language) literature into Thai. You'd be surprised at the variety. Everything from Choose Your Own Adventure to Stephen King and from Dan Brown to Hemingway.

I think you'd need to plan very carefully about how to make money from this if you hope to get into this business. Thailand has hundreds of small publishers, so if you brought something new to the table you might be able to find people to do business with.

To give you an idea, here is some translated foreign literature from my personal collection. I stopped updating this online catalog a few years ago, so this is only a selection.

[tim armstrong]

I have some Thai friends who are teachers. The whole family is involved in the writing illustrating and layout of short childrens' books for the primary school system. They seem to do everything except the printing and they work 24/7 at it. The runs are in the hundreds rather than 000's But they are very happy if they get 10-20,000 baht for several small books per month!

Having said, that Harry Potter has done well here.I even thought about writing a children's fantasy about Thailand. Maybe it depends on the genre.

I was talking to a daughter of the above family recently about mentoring, and reading biographies of inspiring people. She is definitely in the top 1% of the population academically, beautiful, outgoing and has been No.1 of every class at school /or university she has been to. I asked her if she knew much about Nelson Mandela ? Who ? she said. But at age 20 she has never left Thailand, and is cocooned into a life of study and work without much fun or relaxation.

So, maybe the time is right in Thailand for the 5% of Thais who do read, travel and are well educated especially in their 20's to be introduced to some western style inspirational writers both serious and alternative, who might expand their horizons and be inspired.

The problem is, that even well educated Thais, have such a narrow world view, and 'western' concepts of thinking for oneself, self respect, individuality, personal choice and independence are not common. Putting aside the politics, its interesting to watch all the debate around Abhisit and whether or not he is still Thai!!? Given his background he probably doesn't think like many of his colleagues, that must worry them.

So if I were importing books I would go for the well educated 18-35 year age group and try some more recent variations on The Prophet-Gibran, or Jonathan Livingston Seagull-Bach, especially some feminist fiction writers like Isabel Allende. Maybe a promotion about Chez Guavara (dont know spelling)or Mandela, or Gandhi, would work - after all Chez T shirts are everywhere, and I doubt if many people know much about him. Regards.

Really anything to inspire the younger generation !

[Moonrakers]

OP

A few conflicting comments here. Even although some people might know a few readers, it does not make a viable business IMO.

Some more opinions are here: http://www.thaivisa.com/forum/topic/453860-bangkok-to-become-world-book-capital-in-2013/

[Keithandkanya]

Well, thank you everyone, we hear you, and of course we will evaluate all peoples comments....we remain positive that we can in fact produce a viable business but we are very encouraged by the posts in this forum..even the what would on the surface appear to be negative,

[rak sa_ngop]

Well, thank you everyone, we hear you, and of course we will evaluate all peoples comments....we remain positive that we can in fact produce a viable business but we are very encouraged by the posts in this forum..even the what would on the surface appear to be negative,

One area that seems to me to be under represented are bi-lingual books. Having spent 5 years in Vietnam and learning Vietnamese I have collected quite a range of books (mainly compilations of short stories) published with both English and Vietnamese texts. Essentially designed for learners of English, but equally useful for learners of Vietnamese.

Having been over 5 years in Thailand my collection of bi-lingual Thai - English books seems mainly to consist of Scooby-doo books. I would certainly appreciate a better range of bi-lingual books to choose from.

Food for thought??

[RickBradford]

I have just bought Stephen Clarke's 'Merde Happens' in Thai (for learning purposes as I already have it in English).

This was put out by a company called Freeform Books (http://www.freeformbooks.com) who appear to have acquired the Thai-language rights to the 'Merde' series and have quite an extensive portfolio of other books.

One niche that seems to be popular in Bangkok is the self-help/personal development genre -- you know, stuff like 'Getting To Be the Better Me That You Always Wanted To Be' or '100 Things for Alzheimer's Sufferers To Remember'', aerobics, weight-loss, stress, the usual concerns of the middle classes.

And it would also be worth thinking about publishing e-books rather than hard-copy books -- it's cheaper, easier, less hassle legally, cuts out bookshops entirely and a host of other benefits.

Hard-copy publishing is a tough game anywhere in the world, these days.

Also, have a look at Nok Hook Publishing (http://www.nokhook.co.th/); they published the Thai version of 'Gorky Park' which I bought (for the same reasons as 'Merde', but a much tougher read).

แมร์ด!

[Rikker]

One niche that seems to be popular in Bangkok is the self-help/personal development genre -- you know, stuff like 'Getting To Be the Better Me That You Always Wanted To Be' or '100 Things for Alzheimer's Sufferers To Remember'', aerobics, weight-loss, stress, the usual concerns of the middle classes.

Very true. The Secret was a big seller translated in Thai, as I recall, and numerous Thai public figures have written books about their success that seem to have sold well. There are endless books about business strategies, self-improvement techniques, all that stuff.

I also think the bilingual book idea is also a good one. Something like getting permission to republish out-of-print Thai translations in a bilingual format with the original English might be a more promising road to go down.

[anchan42]

Well, thank you everyone, we hear you, and of course we will evaluate all peoples comments....we remain positive that we can in fact produce a viable business but we are very encouraged by the posts in this forum..even the what would on the surface appear to be negative,

One area that seems to me to be under represented are bi-lingual books. Having spent 5 years in Vietnam and learning Vietnamese I have collected quite a range of books (mainly compilations of short stories) published with both English and Vietnamese texts. Essentially designed for learners of English, but equally useful for learners of Vietnamese.

Having been over 5 years in Thailand my collection of bi-lingual Thai - English books seems mainly to consist of Scooby-doo books. I would certainly appreciate a better range of bi-lingual books to choose from.

Food for thought??

There are many of that kind of books these days. Big Se-ed shop usually have a small section dedicated to this. Many of them are simplified and shorter version of classics like Dicken's, Roald Dahl's, James Herriot's etc. Some are more recent like Ghisham's, Tom Clancy's etc. I've got a set of eng-thai Usbourne Farmyard Tales for my 2 years old daughter and also a few of them in Chinese-Thai.

Many of the famous fictions got translated to Thai in full. God father, lord of the ring, harry potter, countless of Ghisham's, Tom Clancy's, Stephen King's and the like. I've just read Into Thin Air and my friend pointed out that we do have translated version. I got Life of Pi when it first came out. The Thai version were published even before I could finish reading English version. Mind you, it took me almost 5 years to finish that one.

What the heck,we even have History of Time by Stephen Hawking translated. I know its not fiction but nonetheless.

There is definitely a market for translated fiction but I am not sure how big it is. I am thinking about going to translation business myself but it would be engineering text books or technical manual rather then fiction. I was amazed when I went to a book shop Taiwan and found a big section for translated technical books. Almost every technical books I'd ever read(not very many, admitted ) or wanted to read were in there. Better yet many of them have English counterpart in the same shop.I kept thinking why can't we have the same in Thailand.

Are there anyways we can check if a English book has already been translated to Thai, fiction, non-fiction included?

Edited March 26, 2011 by anchan42

[Keithandkanya]

Well, thank you everyone, we hear you, and of course we will evaluate all peoples comments....we remain positive that we can in fact produce a viable business but we are very encouraged by the posts in this forum..even the what would on the surface appear to be negative,

One area that seems to me to be under represented are bi-lingual books. Having spent 5 years in Vietnam and learning Vietnamese I have collected quite a range of books (mainly compilations of short stories) published with both English and Vietnamese texts. Essentially designed for learners of English, but equally useful for learners of Vietnamese.

Having been over 5 years in Thailand my collection of bi-lingual Thai - English books seems mainly to consist of Scooby-doo books. I would certainly appreciate a better range of bi-lingual books to choose from.

Food for thought??

Kanya is with you on this one, she is developing a number of bi-lingual book ideas.

[Anyse]

As a new student in Thai, I would love graded bilingual readers! I would even start to get them NOW as there is so little out that that is interesting to me.

[DannyS1951]

You should probably check out Nanmee Books. They have specialized in translating English and other language fiction into Thai. (They did the Harry Potter translations.) Their website is http://www.nanmeebooks.com/

[jdinasia]

My wife read the thai translation of Brother Grimm, (Craig Russell), and she really enjoyed it. Even though it was Thai she said the language was richer than Thai novels. I think this was the reason it took her so long to read. IMO, Most Thais would not have the patience to struggle through the language and go back to the comic "quick fix".

There are plenty of translated books for sale so there must be people reading them somewhere.

My partner read the DaVinci Code (in English) with the Thai version next to it, on the odd occasion he wanted to check something from the English. The issue that most Thais have that have not studied overseas is that books talk about things they think the reader should know about already. Base concepts are missing and to be enjoyed require trashing the intent of the author OR providing scads of footnotes.

There are plenty of books that are available in Thai as anyone who went ot the book fair this weekend at QSNCC would know. So, some Thais read and read a lot. Most don't bother. I think the pre-release sales of the Harry Potter books (in Thai) are the largest sellers in history in Thailand (for novels)

[mssabai]

My boyfriend translates books into English. Every book that has a viable market in Thailand is translated by one of the bigger publishing houses. Yes books are not as widely read here as they are in the west, but they are still read, and there are plenty of people who enjoy a very varied range of books.

I would say it isn't a viable business opportunity as the large publishing houses are already doing what you are suggesting. There may be work for a translator if you found a suitable book not already published in Thai, but remember that translating takes a very high level of language awareness. My boyfriend is currently doing his PHD in English and that is the kind of level of English that a publishing house would be interested in.

[Keithandkanya]

My boyfriend translates books into English. Every book that has a viable market in Thailand is translated by one of the bigger publishing houses. Yes books are not as widely read here as they are in the west, but they are still read, and there are plenty of people who enjoy a very varied range of books.

I would say it isn't a viable business opportunity as the large publishing houses are already doing what you are suggesting. There may be work for a translator if you found a suitable book not already published in Thai, but remember that translating takes a very high level of language awareness. My boyfriend is currently doing his PHD in English and that is the kind of level of English that a publishing house would be interested in.

Thank you all very much for this compelling and informative feedback. We are very grateful indeed.

keith & kanya

[NBD]

I think you would have to define "working" before assessing whether it would work.

Most importantly be realistic about your market size, because although there are 60 something million people here, it doesn't mean you have 60 million potential customers. There are many Thais who would struggle to read Thai books in Thai, even if they had a great desire to. Conversely there are some extremely well-read Thais who have probably read more classical literature than I have.

Inbetween of course there is the middle ground who might be interested, but it's a small proportion of the overall population, and you're competing with established publishers and distribution channels, quite possibly for books that are already translated here.

If your plan is to storm the market and sell 30 million copies of Wuthering Heights nationwide then I think you're onto a loser. If you're planning to sell a few hundred copies of popular novels then you might do ok.