Chinese Translation
My novel, Red Corner, An Alternate History of Rus, available here from Amazon, here from Apple and here from Barnes and Noble. The novel took almost a year to translate by translators in China and, although I don't understand Chinese (so have no chance of ever reading it), I hope the translation is a good one. The hardworking team consisted of translators Ren Qing Wen and Pinocchio (surely an artistic nom de plume), as well as translation manager Zou Yun. The ebook cover, so professionally done, was created by illustrator Ge Meng Hua. To all these contributors, I would like to say a special thank you. Without their hard work and dedication, this would never have happened.
The Chinese book market is huge. With over 1.3 billion people in the country, the possibilities are endless with the right marketing. That is why, with a lot of luck and hard work in advertising, I can make a success of it. Fiberead, the service I used for the translation, connects English language authors with translators, project managers and graphic designers in China. The service is top notch, in my humble opinion, but is still relatively little known outside China and independent publishing circles.
More exciting for me, however, is the forthcoming book that currently is being translated into Chinese. Shanghailand, a novella I published in April 2017, tells the story of Harry, a young Chinese man working for a rich British businessman in the International Settlement, in Shanghai in 1937, and Pan Yi, his childhood friend, the woman who loves him. With similar themes and geographical locations to JG Ballard's 1984 novel, Empire of the Sun, I am hoping sales of the book will climb through the roof once it is released on the Chinese market in the very near future.
Still, though, sales are unfortunately few and far between for many authors who have been lucky enough to have their novels and stories published in China: Ebooks are still an expensive luxury for the average Chinese person, added to this the cannibalization of sales from pirating sites - which is rife in The Middle Kingdom - and you can just see how hard a fight it is to find success. As a glass half full kinda guy, I'll take this news with a pinch of salt and just get on with it.
Keep your fingers crossed for my literary endeavors in the world's most populous country!