Monday, January 15, 2007

Tatiana goes to Spain

A while back I mentioned that Trading Tatiana was going to be translated into Spanish and was due to be published in January.

Well here she is! Buscando a Tatiana.

The image “http://www.eltercernombre.es/code/getimgs.php?id=58” cannot be displayed, because it contains errors.

I can't quite work out the significance of the cover photo.
And according to the publicity, I still work as a charity finance officer and wedding photographer ...
But that's not surprising since I've had no direct communication with the Spanish Publisher, El Tercer Nombre, and the info held by Orion, the UK publisher, is several years out of date.

I hope it's a good translation ... I'm going to ask a Spanish-speaking friend to check the online extract.

I certainly hope they've done a better job than Google's auto-translation of the blurb on the website.

Looking for Tatiana

Jo Cooper, a young person of 28 years, takes a life calmed after surpassing the addiction that tied to him to the heroin. He lives in a social house of a London suburb and works like jewel salesman in a position of the market. It is the person class who knows to take care of better of the others than of itself.
The life of Jo gives to an unexpected turn the day that knows Tatiana, one prostituta ucraniana of 17 years that flees from the Russian Mafia. The irruption of Tatiana in its life submerges in the squalid world of illegal immigration and the prostitution to it, in which the violence and the sexual operation are the prevailing routine. It decides to help it and it requests aid, as well, to Mags, his old social worker during the chemical decontamination, that lives in a commune of antiglobalización activists and knows the form well to operate of the Mafias. The life of Jo no longer will return to be the same one.

Debi Alper lives in the south of London with its family. It works like financial adviser in a consulting company. In his free short whiles she is photographer of weddings. Until the moment it has published two novels Nirvana Bites and TRADING Tatiana (Looking for Tatiana).



Eh???

It feels very strange to have so little connection with what's happening to my baby - no input, no feedback ... You may remember I only found out about the translation by accident.

It's still exciting though ...

25 comments:

Anonymous said...

Congratulations Debi!

Unknown said...

I see you is written a book, Ms Alper, and is being published in Novapulsian. I are delight I can now read urbak kraak in my language.

It must feel decidedly odd - but congratulations nonetheless! ;-)

Unknown said...

Debi, felicitaciones. Soy seguro que Tatiana que negocia hará realmente bien en España.

Caroline said...

Pienso que nosotros si todo sigue Minx y escribe comentarios en español. Tiene sentido. Felicitaciones enormes a usted y a su novela traducida. Es tan emocionante. Muy emocionante.

Caroline said...

Do you have a copy?
Cx

Anonymous said...

That translation gave me a much needed laugh, Debi. Thank you.

Anonymous said...

This is a must-read, too:

http://booksmk.blogspot.com

Ask Rebecca of west, and harry of Potter.

Meloney Lemon said...

So, we can expect some gigs in, ooh, Barcelona, Madrid, Seville....What about sales in Latin America? How exciting...(just updating passport). Congratulations, love Melon y Lemon and the rest of the fruitbowl!

Unknown said...

Ooh! Very nice news indeed. I'll bet the Spanish translation fo your bio is better than that.

Elizabeth Baines said...

Exciting!

Unknown said...

Accordng to Babel Fish translation, I apparently said....

Debi, congratulations. I am safe that Tatiana that negotiates will do really well in Spain.


And Caroline said....
I think that we if everything follows Minx and writes commentaries in Spanish. It has sense. Enormous congratulations to you and his translated novel. He is so exciting. Very exciting.

Doncha love Babel Fish?
Anyway, enormous congrats to his novel!

S. Kearney said...

Wow, Debi, great! I will get some of my Spanish friends to check out the extract. I love the name of the translator by the way! Sounds like an old rocker!

Caroline said...

Oh babelfish babelfish you've let me down again! So I guess that I can't convince you that I speak fluent Spanish?????

Cx

Unknown said...

About as much as I can, Caroline. How's yer Korean?

Saaleha said...

Well done Debi! 2007 starting with a bang. And that was one serious bung up of a translation. But never mind. It can only ever get better ;-) especially after that!

nmj said...

That is great news, Debi!

Debi said...

Thanks everyone. I'm all of a jitter now ... But DISAPPOINTED! I was convinced you lot spoke Spanish ...

According to my contract I will get a copy (yes, just the one) though I suspect I'll have to chase it up.

After a bumpy start, 2007 is shaping up well ... great to be with you all on the road.

Marie said...

Congratulations Debi! It's a great book and should do really well. I wish you all the best.

Unknown said...

Hey Debi, I'm sure the blurb on the back is alright. All these web translators are notoriously bad and in Spanish because the conjugations name the subject there are few definite articles or unneccesary pronouns. Considering it's a straight translation the Spanish looks fine to me. But the title is most definitely Looking for Tatiana as opposed to Trading Tatiana.
Not sure about the cover though.

ISLAND MONKEY said...

Congrats, that's well cool..Maybe Pedro will read it and want to make it into a film with Penelope??

Suzan Abrams, email: suzanabrams@live.co.uk said...

Congratulations, Debi.
I think it's very exciting.

I find the cover wholly absorbing & something I would definitely pick up, to study further, had I seen it in the shops. It suggests mystery & intrigue though I don't know the plot.

I don't know if this helps - and I hope it will help you with info & such -
but my friend had her novels that were published by Sceptre, London translated into foreign languages.
Some of the covers were way out - depending on the countries.
She had no say with any of that.

The people who sold the translation rights were the 'foreign rights' staff in the literary agent's office - not the publisher but I think that's always independent, depending on who you're published with. Her agent is Darley Anderson - I've enclosed the link.

The thing is, she was kept informed by the staff through email of every development, even if a foreign publisher had just voiced interest & were thinking about it.

The moment, a translation was confirmed, she was informed once more. She was also informed on how it was doing in the shops.
One of her books sold well in one particular country in Europe - and & she was subsequently paid royalties for this.
She also received several complimentary copies of each translation.

Debi, could you contact Orion about these possibilities? I believe you earned & deserved them and is your every right as an author. :-)

with love

Debi said...

Verilion - thanks for the voice of authority! Shame about the title - I can see that it fits but has none of the power - or implications - of the original. Ah well ...

IM - howdy, stranger. Welcome back. Pedro will do fine but not sure what part Penelope would go for ...

Susan - you KNOW how delighted I am to see you here. Thanks for this info. Unfortunately I didn't have an agent for the deal with my first 2 books. Once Orion decided not to take the subsequent ones, they lost all interest in me. Now that I do have an agent, I'm sure I can expect better communication for the future. I think I just have to accept the situation with Orion and move on as there literally isn't anyone there now who would take responsibility for doing any more than the minimum according to contract. Sad, but that's just the way it goes. I'm cool with it.

Suzan Abrams, email: suzanabrams@live.co.uk said...

Debi, I really feel for you.
Indeed, the blessing is you have an agent now so no publisher will try anything amiss.

In any case, DELIGHTED to be here. :-)

Anonymous said...

Debi Alper
Hi, my name is Ana and I`m Brazilian. A friend of mine gave me Buscando Tatiana and now I`m reading it.
I can assure you: it is a very good translation!

Debi said...

Hello and welcome, Ana. How amazing to get a comment here 2 years after the original post! Did you buy the book in Brazil? Or in Spain?

Thanks for making the effort to come here and get in touch.