Last week, I had a great visit to London and one of the best things I did was meeting Marta Stelmaszak, who runs The Business School For Translators.
The translators communities have heard the news about Marta’s coming book “Business Checklist Book for Translators”, even some of us have pre-ordered it and read the draft of chapter eight. Yesterday, I had the chance to meet Marta and we had a long discussion about different things, including her book. I thought some people may like to know more about what the book will look like. So, here we go:
1- Business concepts for translators: Marta gave me a chance to check the draft of the Table of Contents. The book is loaded with business concepts that are introduced to many translators for the first time. Lot of translators have not heard about terms like price elasticity, Porter’s give forces, economies of scales, marketing 4Ps, PESTEL framework, growth strategies and many other business related terms. Marta announced before her book will be titled, Business Checklist Book for Translators, but I thought this will undermine its real expected value, so I was really happy when I knew she is considering to change the title of the book, as it will include more than just checklists.
2- Why it will be different: I really like the books we have in the market now for translator. They give the needed directions to the translators and how to start a business as a freelance translator. However, these books are based on the writers personal experiences, which is great by the way. I think it is time for translators to read a book based on real business theories and how they can implement them in their work. Mart’s new book does this, which makes it an important addition to the experienced translator and a must for the beginning one. The later will have a business book written for them, and the former will have a benchmark to compare against what they have been doing. Also Marta plans to add some video tutorials for the e-book version, like role play videos, which is something new and different from other books written for translators.
3- Organization of the ideas: if you are following Marta’s blog, you can see how organized she is when writing about certain business topics, and the same applies when she writes a book. She will be following the below sequence for each chapter, which makes the book consistent, as consistency is an important part of our work as translators as well:
– Introduction to the topic: here comes the theoretical part. Marta will be introducing some business concepts and how they are understood by people in other industries.
– Application of the topic in the languages industry: this is where Marta will talk about the relation between such theoretical business concepts and our work in translation industry.
– Invitation to act in a practical way: by end of each chapter there will be a checklist to be implemented by the translator to apply the ideas introduced in the chapter, which is another good aspect of the book, so translators are not just left with abstract ideas.
4- Multilingual version of the book: in addition to the English version, Marta disclosed that she will be publishing her book in Spanish too in the same time the book is released in English. Also, she has plans to publish the book in Polish soon after it is released.
The book is expected to be released by end of September, which coincides with the International Translation Day. I expect the book to be a significant addition to any translator library. You can pre-order the book now if you like and be among the first translators how apply business concepts introduced only in business schools!