Is it worth translating your comic into multiple languages?

[MarMarTche]

I'm more or less bilingual - enough that I could translate my comic with proof reading from someone who speaks the language a little better. It would be painful and take time, but time is all that it would cost.
Has anyone had success translating their comic into other languages? Do you find it's expanded your reach significantly?

[RedLenai]

I originally speak Spanish, while the authors of both the series we publish speak English, Scarlet Society by Addie French (Webtoon Canvas - Tapas Community - Webcomics App) and Love Quotes by OfficialGenesis (Webtoon Canvas - Tapas Community)

We originally publish on English and after proposing the idea we decided to translate the content to Spanish (while keeping a separate date and even behind the OG versions), we can tell that we have more interaction with the Spanish public than the English one, however, in Scarlet's case the English version has more viewership and followers than the Spanish version, meanwhile for Love Quotes it's the opposite case.

[allenT]

Depends. For me it's not a large effort because the way I "translate" my comic. I do English and Chinese dialogues together directly on the comic pages. (I don't have written script in prep only bullet points)

For reaching readers it's still a big struggle. Some languages has more traffics than others-- like Spanish. But for Chinese, readers are almost next to nothing. I think the best way is to post on comic-posting sites with their native language (non-English) (but there's so few of them).

I posted a bonus episode on a taiwanese site & it's getting nowhere. In future maybe I'll give a try on Webtoon (chi. version) I keep both versions on my ComicFury sites as base & archive.

Anyway, I make another language version because i can & want to, even if my readers are only a few people. In fact I love my alt. language version cos they're a bit different and feels right at home.

[arxianfall]

CBA. I have no audience and nowhere to share in Romanian.

[Azifri]

For a while, I was translating my comic and in my experience yes, it is worth it, but only if you are posting the translated version on a platform that's in that language. Posting a non-English comic on an English-speaking platform was a waste of time.

[BlairFujin]

It depends on how many people speaking the other language and not being proficient enough in English to seek translations are you expecting to find here (or any other platform you're uploading to)
I used to translate my series to Polish but stopped as hardly anyone read the Polish versions and I'd rather spend time on the og English version/drawing something unrelated for myself/playing some video games ;p

[Noorie]

If there is a site specifically for webcomics in that language, then it could bring you even more readers, than you have in english, because there could be less works to compete

[fleurravenbooks]

If you have a lot of readers that would read in other language then do it, also i would suggest translating it in popular languages ( for example Spanish )

[MarMarTche]

Thats kind of how I feel, I'm like debating if it's worth the effort

[Kanahani]

I'm a native Polish speaker and I translate my comics to English (so that they have a potential of reaching non-Poles, also so my non-Polish friends could read it too). It probably depends on the language and your specific luck/circumstances, but I've noticed it's way easier for me to reach Polish audience than international audience. It may seem counter intuitive since one would expect there's more people speaking English on the Internet, but at the same time there's more English content avaiable, hence more competition. There's a lot of potential in reaching niche audiences like that.

[MarMarTche]

Where do you post polish content? Is it like a polish specific site or does tapas have a polish section?

[Kanahani]

I post Polish version on webtoons and deviantArt - the second mostly because I've gained some audience over last few years and they just stayed around, can't recommend it as a viable comics-sharing site otherwise. I also post on Polish comic website webkomiksy.pl which is a relatively new and small website, so it's easier to get noticed by someone without doing any extra promotion

[system]

This topic was automatically closed 30 days after the last reply. New replies are no longer allowed.