Oct-21-93 THU 15:49 Columbia Univ Slavic Mr.

Alex Zucker Amnesty International Prague fax #: 011 - 422 - 368 - 139 phone: 0042 - 2 - 2355996

1 212 854 5009 P.01

October 21, 93 Ahoj and greetings I have your letter marked both July 14 and October 14, so I hope the latter is the right date. I did call you about three or four times, but was answered neither by parrot nor by owner. It's actually very difficult for me to tell you anything very practical, because there are so many factors that must be taken into consideration with regard to remuneration. Moreover, I am not familiar with Czech conditions these things vary quite drastically from country to country and for that matter, I don't even know that much about the current U.S. situation because the authors I've lately been translating are in a rather special category. I've always resented the idea of paying translators by the number of words, a practice which I consider undignified for everyone concerned. Length is obviously a basis for remuneration in any 'creative' field, but only in a very general way pianists aren't paid by the number of notes nor artists by the square inches of canvas. But to give you at least a general idea, American PEN published a model contract for translators in which the rate for translation of fiction was quoted as ranging somewhere between $30 and $75 per thousand words. This was some seven or eight years ago, and the current rate is probably quite a bit higher. But as I indicated, length is only one of many elements involved there are such questions as the difficulty of the text, the deadline for finishing the work, the reputation of author and translator, the potential market for the book, the matter of copyright, the possibility of subsidiary rights such as magazine rights or movie rights; a very basic question is the matter of royalties sometimes it's more advantageous for the translator to ask for a lump sum and forget about royalties, at other times you may want to take a smaller payment up front in exchange for royalties it all depends how well you think the book will sell. Royalties in this country generally run to about 3 per cent for hard cover books and somewhat less for paperbacks. I haven't used agents very much. I didn't need them to find work for me, because I had more than enough already. I would have found them valuable for legal advice in setting up contracts, but I found very few literary agents who knew much about translating or were even interested in this not very lucrative side of the business. So I ended up doing most of the negotiating myself, for better or worse. I would certainly advise you not

to use the author's agent after all, your interests and the author's are not the same; the publisher has just so much money to split between the author and you. As far as I know, the Czechs as well as the Slovaks have very kdjfkdjdfkljfkldjfkldjfdlk some good advice. If you don't have their address, I am sure the Czech PEN Club can give it to you. Oct-21-93 THU 15:50 Columbia Univ Slavic 1 212 854 5009 P.02

I hope that this has been at least of a little help to you, but the truth of the matter is that no matter what you do, you will get to understand why Werner von Masoch, the founder of the masochist movement, is the patron saint of translators. Please give my best wishes to all the exLions now in Prague. S ptelskm pozdravem, [signed] Peter Kussi