Joshua alerted me this morning to a translation of my book, Bell Mountain, into Portuguese. What?
Now I remember. Years ago, somebody named Felipe in Brazil wished to translate the book into Portuguese. That was the last I heard of it for a long time, and I’d forgotten about it.
So what’s up? Search me! The publisher will have to tell me what’s going on–like why, for instance, is the listed price so ridiculously high ($117 and change)? But he’s out in California and three hours behind me, so I won’t be hearing from him for a while yet.
Naturally, I’ve very happy that my book has now appeared in a second language. I have a ways to go before I catch up to Agatha Christie in that department. But you gotta start somewhere! So this is my start.
If I learn anything more about it, I’ll let you know.
I was surprised to see this on Amazon, so I wanted to talk to you about it.
(When I’m finished with my project, I’ll inform you!)
Maybe you ought to find someone who knows Portuguese and can tell you whether the translation is accurate. For all you know, despite the title on the cover, the text may actually be the early chapters of “Oy, Rodney.” (Seriously, you ought to get an author’s copy and check the translation. Usually, a responsible publisher would have given you oversight on the translation before publication.)
I thought my American publisher was going to take care of all the business details for me. Maybe he has: we shall see.
The $117 price is an artifact of computerized pricing by third party sellers on Amazon. If a second one was listed for $10, that $117 price would instantly go down to $9.99.
Sometimes they have “The Glass Bridge” listed at a price of $1,100 or so. What earthly purpose does that serve–other than to remind us that “artificial intelligence” may quickly morph into artificial stupidity?
It’s just some stupid programming. No one is ever going to sell at that price, but apparently having a program in place to undercut the competition is more important to these drones than actually selling for a reasonable price.
You’d think they’d want to sell the book; but you can’t sell it for those prices.
It’s not intentional. It’s a non-programmer using programming tool and obtaining unexpected and unwanted results. Even experienced programmers can have that problem, but a tyro can be in for a wild ride if they aren’t doubly careful.
And the eerie thing is that the year of publication of the Portuguese version is…
1905.
Oh, holy cow! I never noticed that.
Nice! Keep us posted
This is a good sign of things to come. How many celebrated artists are truly recognized until after they are no longer with us? Hopefully that will not be the case with you!
I would very much like to see my work bear fruit while I’m still here.
I believe it has.
Thank you! Thinking it over, you may be right.
You’ve touched a lot of people.