Babelcube

[Graylorne]

Babelcube, translating/publishing platform on shared royalties. Any ideas?

Author, Publisher | Book translation services & sales distribution

 

[Graylorne]

No reactions

Does that mean I forgot to ask the right questions? Or that nobody is interested in having their work translated?
I was wondering what others thought of a platform like this (free translation in several languages, etc.). Whether it is viable, a good thing or not, etc.

I've really no idea myself, that's why I thought to ask around.

 

[Devor]

I've really no idea myself, that's why I thought to ask around.

I think you're not the only one. I don't think most of us are prepared in any way to seriously try and grapple international sales. If you're looking into it, I'd love to hear whether you think the site is any good and what else you come up with.

 

[Graylorne]

This Babelcube sent me an email to offer their services, and as a European, I am of course interested in translations. So I checked their platform, meant to bring authors and freelance translators together on a shared revenues basis. (see here: Babelcube).

The author can choose where their books will be published, but mainly on Amazon, Apple and local options. That sounds very much like Smashwords, but with one big difference: from the start of the translating, Babelcube holds the exclusive right of distribution of the translated book in the chosen territories for 5 years. See for more the FAQ’s here: Sell books in new languages | Frequently asked questions.

What I can’t even remotely guess is the viability of the idea; I don’t know the US market well enough.

 

[esands]

I had a very NEGATIVE experience with Babelcube.
They advertise that they do distribution in China but this is NOT true. When I spoke with Mark, the representative or founder of Babelcube and i asked him simple pointed matter of fact questions about distribution in China he could NOT answer simple questions like where do they get the ISBN number from? Was it Beijing, which is basically the only place you can get an approved ISBN number to distribute in China because content is so policed there. When I asked Mark who were the distribution retailers in China he initially did not know and then told me, Media Corp. I contacted Media Corp and they told me blatantly in writing that they DO NOT distribute ebooks in China and had no plans to do so. When I contacted Mark to point out the disparity and ask him quite frankly why the company could not answer a simple question and when they did answer it turned out to be a lie, he went radio silent on me. WRITER BEWARE. Babelcube is not an honest company who does what they advertise to do.