Now that I have 18 ebooks selling online exclusively through the KDP amazon.com platform, I decided to generate alternate revenue sources through the same book. Regional languages are the rage now as the content is being guzzled in regional languages in B and C class towns and rural areas, penetration of mobile phones has also gone up here, as well as internet penetration. So I have decided to get my books translated into 5 of there major Indian regional languages that amazon.com supports, mainly Hindi, Bengali, Malayalam, Marathi, and Kannada. So I got my book Yes Sir I killed my dad translated in Hindi and Malayalam. I also went through. My old blog translations there can be two or three books I can compile out of them too. For translations I pay 0.50 paisa per word that is the standard rate on the net a bit higher than the 0.35 to 0.40p that exists normally, that’s what I pay my freelance content writers as well.
Translation can add to your bottom line that way and increase your reach into markets you never could capture. My next endeavor will be to get my other masala storybooks translated as well. The audiobook section has rolled out with one audiobook Madness of the Monk already selling through I tunes and audible, this I uploaded through the acx.com platform and it has started working for me already. The audiobooks also can be recorded in a regional language no doubt a rate should be fixed for it. Here again, a compensation depending on the recording hour can be fixed per word or hour and the voice artist and the regional narrator can make his narration. That way one can sell audiobooks in regional languages as well. The trick is to get as many revenue streams as possible.
The rate of a producer and a sound engineer is Rs 1000 per hour maybe you can pay the narrator Rs 500 per hour. Remember as the owner of the content you can make money from it a life long as long as you live and even beyond. Get translation done from the state and people who speak the regional language and have good command over it. Have a series of checks and corrections and make sure your cover spells out the title in the regional name, which tells the reader specifically that it is in a different language. Translations are a must to make inroads into smaller towns and the heartland where India stays.
You can keep the prices of the regional editions a bit lower than the English translations, as readers of regional languages do not have deep pockets, life in B class towns is inexpensive and cheap, people get by with little and affordability is a factor one has to look into. Go regional and go with translations.