Winnetou, Old Shatterhand & Co

[Winnetou]

I found my way here because someone wanted to know about English Karl May novels in ebook form - I publish them ... LOL ... so now I'll go and find the member who posted the 'help' ...

Winnetou rides again ...

There aren't many people in the English speaking realm with whom I could exchange Karl May 'things' - so I consider myself lucky to have found someone who actually knows who 'Winnetou' is ...

cheerio
Marlies from Tassie (that's downunder in Australia)

[BookishDreamer]

Welcome to the forum!

Dreamer

[MickeyC]

Hi Marlies and welcome to the Forum. Been to Tassie (Hobart and Launcestern) before. Best lobster ever

[kacir]

Originally Posted by Winnetou

There aren't many people in the English speaking realm with whom I could exchange Karl May 'things' - so I consider myself lucky to have found someone who actually knows who 'Winnetou' is ...

Fortunately people in this forum are from all over the world, so some of us have very fond memories of reading *all* Karl May books in our young years. Several times. I could never get enough of his Kara Ben Nemsi series.

Are his books still in copyright?
Karl May died in 1912 so the "70 years after authors death rule of the thumb" should apply to his works ...

I can't find his works on project gutenberg site. Strange.

[Wordcrasher]

Hi and welcome to the forum

[BookishDreamer]

Originally Posted by kacir

Fortunately people in this forum are from all over the world, so some of us have very fond memories of reading *all* Karl May books in our young years. Several times. I could never get enough of his Kara Ben Nemsi series.

Are his books still in copyright?
Karl May died in 1912 so the "70 years after authors death rule of the thumb" should apply to his works ...

I can't find his works on project gutenberg site. Strange.

A few of his works are on manybooks.net.

Dreamer

[Elsi]

Originally Posted by kacir

Are his books still in copyright?
Karl May died in 1912 so the "70 years after authors death rule of the thumb" should apply to his works ...

I can't find his works on project gutenberg site. Strange.

There are a couple of his books posted at Project Gutenberg. Try this link: http://www.gutenberg.org/author/Karl_May

Since Karl May died in 1912, his works are in the public domain in life+50 and life+70 countries. But that applies to the German version of his works. Any that were translated into English would be in copyright until 50 or 70 years after the *translator's death*. New translations are covered by new copyrights. A generous translator might offer his (or her) translation under a Creative Commons copyright, allowing the translation to be posted here on MobileRead.

[Winnetou]

oh, my, what a friendly welcome ... thanks a bunch, guys - yep - we got the best lobsters ;-)

I have a whole heap of questions (the mind boggles), but first a few answers to your welcome messages ...
In 1962 Karl May's works were placed in the public domain. At the time the 'old' 50 year copyright term was still applicable.
All my Karl May translations are from Karl May's own 'last authorised' works, not from those that have been edited after his death in 1912 - as supplied online by the Karl May Gesellschaft (my thanks to the Gesellschaft).
Many translations, unfortunately, are based on 'quantity' and 'fast buck' rather than 'good read' ... my loyalties lay with Karl May himself - hence I'm neither fast, nor 'make many bucks' as the saying goes, but, so my readers say, what I produce from morning to late night are 'excellent reads' ... that'll do for blowing my own trumpet for now ... Elsi is right, a translator's non-German version is copyright that translator.

Anyway - after posting the message to Dave Berk, last night, about Karl May's Winnetou as e-book, I started to think (going to sleep interrupted my thinking process somewhat) and when I woke up, I found it intrigueing to have found someone who is looking for the Winnetou adventures in e-books.
I found it even more astounding to find the great long list of reading devices on the market... that brings me to my 'uneducated' queries ... (you might have guessed by now that I'm a 'printed book' worm - as an artist I'm forgiven for being one as I create the covers for my translations as well) ... to make a long story short ... (and after the publisher of my 'other books' kept going on about e-books) ... I'm here now, so why not start to make myself smart on the ins and outs of e-books and reading devices.

What would be my first question to ask? and where do I start in my quest to make my translations available to read on all those (mind-bogglingly many) reading devices?

I'm strictly 'independently published' (long story, adamant, but doesn't belong here...) - so I can do many things I couldn't if someone else had 'control' over my work.

Uff, uff, (for those who remember) ...

cheers
Marlies

[BookishDreamer]

Originally Posted by Winnetou

What would be my first question to ask? and where do I start in my quest to make my translations available to read on all those (mind-bogglingly many) reading devices?

I'd recommend starting with the wiki to familiarize yourself with the terminology and existing resources.

Dreamer

[Winnetou]

Hello dreamer

I visited wiki - wow, I'm overwhelmed. I know being on the wrong side of the 50 mark doesn't excuse non-comprehension of new technologies, and I am trying (my husband reckons 'very') to keep up with it. Looking at wiki, I've come to the conclusion that I know very little ... and also, that a 'download' may qualify for something like an e-book, but isn't necessarily something that can be read on some 'device' outside the computer standing on my desk.

So ... my next question, by default, must be (while I keep browsing the wiki) ... how do I find out whether the downloads the good people at Lulu have created for my books can at all be read by any of the 'reading devices' on the market? (Aside from purchasing one of each of the multitudes of devices and experimenting with them personally ... ouch).

cheerio
Marlies

[Slite]

Originally Posted by Winnetou

Hello dreamer

I visited wiki - wow, I'm overwhelmed. I know being on the wrong side of the 50 mark doesn't excuse non-comprehension of new technologies, and I am trying (my husband reckons 'very') to keep up with it. Looking at wiki, I've come to the conclusion that I know very little ... and also, that a 'download' may qualify for something like an e-book, but isn't necessarily something that can be read on some 'device' outside the computer standing on my desk.

So ... my next question, by default, must be (while I keep browsing the wiki) ... how do I find out whether the downloads the good people at Lulu have created for my books can at all be read by any of the 'reading devices' on the market? (Aside from purchasing one of each of the multitudes of devices and experimenting with them personally ... ouch).

cheerio
Marlies

Hello Marlies

Depends on what "format" the downloads at Lulu has. If for instance, they are called something ending in .LRF, they are formated for the Sony range of Readers (PRS500/PRS505), if they end in .PRC they are in Mobipocket format and can be read on a multitude of different readers (Kindle, Cybook, Iliad, Hanlin etc). And then there is .LIT which is the MS Reader format which is not suported on many readers currently (Hanlin V3 and rebrands thereof) as far as I know.

These are the most "common" formats for e-Books suitable for the current range of e-Readers.

I assume you are familiar with PDF which is not suitable for most of the standalone readers currently on sale due to the fact that PDF is more or less meant to be a copy of an A4 page. It is possible to "re-flow" text for PDF, but the result is usually not all that great.

Then there are a bunch of "smaller" formats available as well, like ePub, fb2 and the likes which is not so common as of yet.

So it's a bit hard to say if your convesrion works without knowing what formats they are available in

[Dave Berk]

Hi Winnetou, and welcome to the forum .

I was gonna answer you in the Karl May thread but I may as well do it here.

I did manage to find some of Karl May's Winnetou books for my father, and I suppose he read them (they weren't formatted very well, and I expect he gave up reading them on his laptop. At the time he considered buying a PRS-505 but in the end changed his mind) but it sure would be intersting to read a modern translation of his works.

Looking at your site, though, I can't tell which of the standalone Winnetou books that you offer are included in the Complete Winnetou Trilogy. There is also Old Surehand the book, and the pair: Old Surehand - Book 1 and Old Surehand - Book 2. Is it simply Old Surehand split in two?

Also, I'm not sure, but I think Lulu deals only with PDF ebooks. I understand you may not know about it much, but PDF is probably the worst format you can offer to a person who will do his reading on the computer/eink reading device. Especially if the PDF file is protected so you can't convert it to a format that your reading device can read. (since you may not know - not all reading devices support the same ebook formats)

Last question, and this may be a bit out of place. If so, feel free to ignore it. Using today cultural standards, Karl May's works is definitely not PC by any stretch of the imagination. His books contain various racial slurs and worse. How did you handle this in your translation?

Thanks
Dave

[Winnetou]

Hi Slite -- yes, Dave Berk is right, they're pdf ... I guess my next step is to enquire with Lulu how to get my pdfs converted to 'other' formats. And so I progress ... ;-)

Hi Dave Berk
May's famous 'Winnetou' trilogy consists of 3 books at around 500 pages each. I will offer them in 3 formats - a unique 6-part version (based, more or less on May's own separate, older stories he used to compile the trilogy - he only wrote Winnetou I for the trilogy, II and III are compilations of older stories), the traditional 3-book paperback, and the three-in-one hard cover. The text of each version is identical (and based on May's last authorised edition of 1909). (I'm formatting the traditional 3-book paperback version as we speak).

Old Surehand, originally, was also a trilogy. Old Surehand II was a really 'out of place' compilation of completely unrelated stories, taken from some of his various other 'genres'. As such, the Old Surehand saga (minus the unrelated stories) is one of the most compelling tales he wrote, and both the current German version of Old Surehand, and mine (but independently) consist of only Old Surehand I, part of Old Surehand II (the part May wrote to incorporate said unrelated stories) and Old Surehand III. I also offer 2 versions of this, Book 1 and Book 2, as well as the two-in-one hard cover.
(I have to make a point here ... this is my hobby - I do this in between looking after our stock (goats and donkeys on the farm), cooking, washing, and all other household chores while hubby is at work - I'm on what's called here disability assistance as I've had a car accident that rattled my bones somewhat ... however, because it is a hobby, I can spend my time on details that others might not be able to do ... like finding out which sources of information May used for his tales etc ...)

Your last question is actually important and was one of the first points that had to be addressed ... when translating an author of an earlier era, one has to be aware of the fact that he wrote to his contemporary cultural standards, and that has to be respected. Many translators are too shy to address it and either leave out 'contentious passages' or change them, which is not a true reflection of what that author wrote and, indeed falsifies the cultural reflection he left behind with his work.

A disclaimer in the front of each book both warns a reader (like warnings on television ahead of an especially violent or saucy movie) of what might be ahead, and also makes the reader aware of the fact that it is a translation of something that was written over 130 years ago.

This is my disclaimer:
The author and translator wishes to advise that May’s narrative is of historic value and the text has been translated as published during May’s lifetime, and does not endorse or confirm any of the views, terms, interpretations, representations, opinions, cultural sentiments, religious expressions, or conjectures of the original author, Karl May, 1842-1912, or those attributed to his fictional characters, antagonists and protagonists alike, within the translations. Where an inaccuracy of fact has been identified, slight adjustments for ease of reading have been effected; but it was not intended to alter, censor or enhance the work of Karl May. Terms for ethnic groups commonly used by the culture of his era were acceptable in those times and, where appropriate, have been maintained within the narrative translations, because the use of contemporary, twenty-first century politically correct, and racially or culturally sensitive terms would seem out of place. We ask the reader not to judge.

Yes ... I might just stay in this thread for the moment - I truly get myself lost in forums ... if nobody minds ... ? (and I'm not fast enough either ... by the time I'm ready to post my posts, the forum system has logged me out ... that would well and truly get me lost ... :-)

[Winnetou]

Hi again ... while I think of it ... how easy (or difficult) is it to convert from a pdf (or word) to - say - a .PRC? (I dare not think any further than that for now).

[Gudy]

PDF is generally a pretty bad format to convert from. It's much better, if at all possible, to go to the source format from which the PDF was created (e.g. MS Word) and start from there.