So on the last day of February, I finally get around to enacting one of my 2022 resolutions, to keep better track of my royalty-based translation contracts, and systematically to request at least an annual statement from those concerned.

(Since you ask, January and February were largely taken up with the other end of the translation spectrum – the annual report for a cultural foundation I do regular work for here in France, and some heavyweight scholarly articles about fashion, feminism and diversity for an upcoming publication from the Institut Français de la Mode, the structure that looks like a green Cubist lizard basking on the Left Bank of the Seine, at the eastern end of central Paris).

Contacts with five publishers so far today reveal a couple of long-ago translations that seem to be out of print, and which I may try to revive; some interesting sales figures (but no actual royalty as yet, in most cases); one very pleasing windfall, and news of a reprint! Gabrielle Wittkop’s MURDER MOST SERENE, about which I have blogged quite a bit here (see ‘Pigeons, polenta…’, ‘David Bowie’s most overused word’ and ‘Translation is… bunraku?’), and which has drawn this absolutely terrific, recent review, from Youtuber BETTER THAN FOOD. Thank you for making my day! Now I want to try some of this guy’s coffee…

Here it is (skip to c. 5:30 for the meat, as it were): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gTlv7uDTVrM

Print copies of the book should be available again in a few months, it seems.

For more of BETTER THAN FOOD’s excellent reviews, go to: https://www.youtube.com/c/BetterThanFoodBookReviews