More on Apocalypsis

Trade mag Publishing Perspectives has a post by Sebastian Posth (for tongue-twister fans) on the e-publishing experiment Apocalypsis. German publishers Bastei Lübbe have been releasing Mario Giordano's specially commissioned thriller in serial form, each e-book totting up about 60 pages and including extra shiny stuff like sound and pictures. There are no concrete sales figures in the article, but the series seems to be keeping readers' interest afloat.

Posth is enthusiastic about the translation/marketing strategy:

Different approaches for different markets! Whereas the English version was translated in-house and distributed by Bastei Lübbe themselves, the Spanish and Mandarin version will be translated abroad and marketed internationally as a joint venture together with local publishing, distribution and retail marketing partners in Spain and China.

I'm not sure how to define in-house, because I'm not sure the English translator Diana Beate Hellmann actually lives in Germany, but certainly the German publishers commissioned their own translation rather than waiting for an English-language company to buy the rights. Fascinating stuff, and I'm sure I'm not the only one following this development with bated breath. Am I?

More on Self-Translation

...as defined previously, as in publishers having their own books translated into English and then putting them on the eBook market from afar...

Cologne-based publishers Lübbe have started doing just that with a serialized "webnovel" called Apocalypsis, written by Mario Giordano. You can download installments in English via Amazon or iTunes. Unfortunately I don't have the right device, which meant I had to ask someone to do me a favour. The reason being that I was interested in who translated it but the translator's name isn't given on either of those two pages, nor in any of the publicity material I found. That's unusual - most German translation contracts stipulate that the translator must be named in publicity material.

But she is named in the eBook itself: Diana Beate Hellmann, Los Angeles. She's an experienced translator, albeit in the other direction. But they also name the English editor so I assume the translation is of decent quality. Aside from the translator invisibility issue, if you're going to do the job yourself then this is the way to do it.

According to this PR text, the book "contains a  captivating  cap·ti·vate
tr.v. cap·ti·vat·ed, cap·ti·vat·ing, cap·ti·vates
1. To attract and hold by charm, beauty, or excellence. See Synonyms at charm.

2. Archaic To capture.
..... Click the link for more inforblend of text, illustrations, video, audio, and interactive enhanced elements". Apparently, "what starts out as a sophisticated Vatican conspiracy, soon develops into a uniquely intense and spectacular thriller. Pope John Paul III has disappeared without a trace. The whole world is searching for him, including journalist Peter Adam. What he finds out exceeds the bounds of human imagination: evidence that the church is on the brink of doom and so is the world…."

Oh my. It's certainly an interesting experiment, and was launched with a bit of a bang at Hay Festival on 8 June, although not so much of a bang that I noticed it over here. And I love the way the protagonist has a totally international name - he could be German or Australian or Dutch or South African, for all we know so far.

Amazon.com puts episode 1 at "#107,624 Paid in Kindle Store", compared to "#1.054 Bezahlt in Kindle-Shop" for the same episode in German on Amazon.de. It's a bit too early to pass judgement, admittedly, but perhaps that demand issue I raised previously might be coming into play... But then of course I have to say that to prove my pessimistic point. I certainly wish them the best of success!