How weird is it to see one of your books translated into a foreign language? It’s weird.
In some cases, it’s only kinda weird, but in other cases, it’s mind-blowingly weird.
As an itinerant control freak, one of the things that freaks me out about foreign translations of my writing is that since like most Americans I am fluent only in the language of my birth I have no idea, no way of knowing at all really, if the translator got it the slightest bit right. Does everyone in Poland who read a copy of Wrota Baldura (Baldur’s Gate) think I’m a total idiot? Based on reviews of the English version, if they do it means they probably got the translation right. But still, they could have changed it all around. I wouldn’t know.
It sold well, I heard, making me the David Hasselhoff of computer game novelizations, destined to be underappreciated in the country of my birth.
I have a Chinese translation of an anthology that includes one of my short stories. I’m not sure exactly which of the stories is mine. It was completely translated into Chinese, apparently even my name, so, well, it’s all Chinese to me, but I have to assume I’m in there somewhere. How will I ever know if they spelled my name right? Do a billion Chinese people think I’m Phillip Athens? Maybe.
How about this for a fun exercise:
The first line of my Forgotten Realms® novel Annihilation, in four different languages…
Read the rest in…
Editor and author Philip Athans offers hands on advice for authors of fantasy, science fiction, horror, and fiction in general in this collection of 58 revised and expanded essays from the first five years of his long-running weekly blog, Fantasy Author’s Handbook.
—Philip Athans
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Fantasy Author's Handbook 
As an aspiring author, this was an interesting read. I actually wondered about this myself once while reading Kristin Cashore’s blog and thinking, “I wonder how she feels about GRACELING being in a million different languages.” I appreciate your post!
My 1985 sf novel, Worldmaker, from Ace books, was translated into German in 1993. I had the same feeling–I wonted to know how well the trasnlator did in capturing what I had written. But, like you said, there was no way to know.
Oh well. Life goes on.
Loving this blog–going through old posts. And loving your book, The Guide to Writing Fantasy and Science Fiction.
Al