If you happen to be in Guadalajara, Mexico, this weekend, I’ll be at the International Book Fair. Specifically, I’ll speak about crowdfunding for translators Sunday, November 27, from 16:40 to 17:10 in Salón E, Área Internacional, at the Guadalajara Expo. This is part of the annual St. Jerome International Translation and Interpretation Conference.

Here’s an executive summary of my presentation, if you can’t be there.

A successful fundraising campaign needs:
• an attractive project,
• the right platform (like Kickstarter, Indiegogo, etc.),
• a team with a variety of skills,
• a list of possible contributors, and
• a plan that gets underway six months before the project starts accepting contributions.

An international, bilingual or multilingual project needs all that along with some unique requirements. For example, banking rules differ from country to country, and not every platform operates in every country. Shipping costs for sending rewards or perks overseas can be expensive. Cultures vary country about donating money.

In any case, a crowdfunding campaign is a lot of effort, but it can be a way to bring literature to new readers in other languages when traditional publishing might not be possible.

— Sue Burke