Translators do so much more than translation – and we need the industry’s help.

Translators are the Clark Kent of the publishing industry. By day, they translate just as their name suggests. By night, they set out to save the world. Their work exceeds the name: the actual act of translating is only a part of what translators really do.

The stereotypical – and very misleading – idea of a translator might include someone who quietly collects a book, disappears to mysteriously convert it into another language and resurfaces only to deliver the now-translated book to a publisher. They are not seen or heard from again until the cycle repeats.

To test this stereotype, I conducted an informal survey. I asked around 80 respondents, people with an interest in world literature, to look through the following list of activities and, for each one, answer this question: “Who, in your opinion, is more likely to do this?” with the answer options being “translator” and “someone else”.

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Source: The Bookseller