Kobo teams with Bella Andre for translations to french

[fjtorres]

From Publisher's Weekly:

http://www.publishersweekly.com/pw/b...nslations.html

In the Kobo deal, the company will get a three-month window to titles in Andre’s five volume Four Weddings and a Fiasco series written under her Lucy Kevin pen name. The titles will be published through the Kobo Writing Life self-publishing platform and the first book, The Wedding Gift (Le Cadeau) is now available. Andre said that in teaming with Kobo, the company helped with the French translations. After the three month exclusive period following the release of each title, Andre can then distribute the French language e-books on all retailer sites for all devices, make POD paperbacks of the French translations, and release French audiobooks.

Good move for Kobo, great move for Andre and yet another path of disintermediation opens up.

[EowynCarter]

That's good.

Even though i'll rather read the original version.

Too bad for the exclusivity crap (even if i'm the right side of this one as kobo user)

[fjtorres]

Originally Posted by EowynCarter

That's good.

Even though i'll rather read the original version.

Too bad for the exclusivity crap (even if i'm the right side of this one as kobo user)

It's a timed exclusive.
No biggie.
And a fair return on the translation assist.

[EowynCarter]

Make sense from kobo's point of view, but as a customer, I find that terribly annoying.

[Freeshadow]

Originally Posted by fjtorres

It's a timed exclusive.
No biggie.
And a fair return on the translation assist.

^ this. More than fair. A damn good deal for the author.

And if a reader can't wait 3 months I'd just say: spoiled whiner.
I have waited longer than that for softcover eds. to appear.
Keep in mind that a translation IS a serious chunk of work to do it isn't done for pennies. Bet it to be more expensive than editing, which is already regarded a money burner.

Would like to see such practice becoming more common:
A huge chunk of investment need lifted from the indy, with only minor limitations
less than a full advance to pay for the publisher
and a customer able to afford his service for the translator.

A (win)³ situation.

[EowynCarter]

Well, 3 months later, I might have totally forgotten about the book and not buy it at all

Most people not already kobo user will just wait or not buy the book at all. So what does kobo win there ?

[fjtorres]

Originally Posted by EowynCarter

Well, 3 months later, I might have totally forgotten about the book and not buy it at all

Most people not already kobo user will just wait or not buy the book at all. So what does kobo win there ?

I dunno, but (ahem) BAEN sells eARCs for months (exclusively at their store) before releasing the books in question to Kindle, Nook, et al. It doesn't seem to hurt them.

Many indies do a three month exclusive with KDP select before doing broad distribution and most do it repeatedly so it doesn't seem to hurt the bottom line.

The practice is common in music and console gaming, despite the fanboys that routinely raise a ruckus when XBOX gets a timed exclusive.

Timed exclusives, when the terms are appropriate, are net wins for both partners. (For assorted values of "appropriate". YMMV, as usual.) And experience has shown that 3 month exclusives don't appreciably reduce sales; the extra income or promo effort from the partner more than offsets the loss of short-attention-span customers or hurt-feelings boycotters.

Longer exclusives do tend to hurt the bottom line but three months are no biggie. Especially when compared to helping the author-publisher find a reliable translation team to produce a quality foreign edition that might not exist at all without that assistance. Smart business move on both ends.

[Freeshadow]

Originally Posted by EowynCarter

Well, 3 months later, I might have totally forgotten about the book and not buy it at all

If that's true and no over exaggeration I'd (if I were you, that is) be more concerned about my attention span, than my TBR pile.

[EowynCarter]

Originally Posted by Freeshadow

If that's true and no over exaggeration I'd (if I were you, that is) be more concerned about my attention span, than my TBR pile.

There are quite a few books in my TBR. That's the point.

Read about the book "oh sound nice," let's get it. Mmm, what ?? Not available for my reader ?
Impulse buy is gone. I'm off to read something else.

Unless it's something like what happened with the wheel of time, where I relly wanted to read the book.
But a book you just hear about in passing while reading a mobileread thread,well.