Project grants for literary translators

As a beginner you can make an application only if you have a Model Contract (or publishing plan). Advanced translators can also apply if they have a declaration of intent, meaning a letter or email from the publisher in which it is stated that a Model Contract will be concluded for the translation concerned. For most publishing companies this is an established concept and a familiar route. The declaration must also include the length of the work and the deadline for delivery of the translation. The signed Model Contract must then be sent to the Foundation later by email (as a pdf or copy). Please note: the Foundation expects to receive the contract before making a decision on your application. This often means that you must send the contract no more than ten weeks after submitting your application.

For poetry different remuneration applies (based on the number of lines and/or poems to be translated) than for prose. The Auteursbond and the Literaire Uitgeversgroep (part of the Mediafederatie) make agreements each year about the prevailing fees and can tell you more about this.

In exceptional cases, a contract that departs from the norm may be concluded for a lengthy poetry translation. It needs to concern a poetry translation such that if the usual minimum fee per line and/or poem were applied, the commercial exploitation of the publication would be impossible and furthermore the publisher has no other available means of obtaining a subsidy (for example a production grant from a foreign foundation or organization) for the translated edition. In exceptional circumstances of this kind, you would always do best to contact one of the grants specialists at the Foundation in advance; for one thing, they can tell you what the minimal remuneration requirements are that a contract must meet. Bear in mind that if the rate from the publisher is different from the norm, the grant from the Foundation will also be based on a different rate.

Yes, translations of nonfiction with a literary character and/or of cultural-historical, philosophical, cultural-political or social importance qualify for a grant. The Foundation will also look at what the text adds to the existing availability of work on the subject in the target language. Texts regarded as of a character that is too specialist, educational or informative, such as academic studies or reference works fall outside the scope of these regulations (and outside the domain of the Foundation).

Yes, that is possible. It is important however that you mention in your application which edition of the source text you are using. We will also ask you to explain the added value of the new translation. We are particularly interested in your vision of the book to be translated and your approach: how will you set to work, what do you believe are the most important characteristics of the source text that must show through in the translation? You do not necessarily need to refer to an earlier translation or translations. The advisory committee assesses the desirability of a new translation. It takes into account the availability and age of the earlier translation and its quality. Each proposal for a retranslation is assessed and decided upon based on the criteria given above, whether or not the translation is to be part of a series.

If you continue to apply as a beginner, the time in which your application is decided upon will be shorter, so you will receive the grant more quickly. Do take into account that you will receive a lower fee per word than an advanced translator and that you qualify only for the junior-senior supplementary allowance.

If you choose to apply as an advanced translator, you should bear in mind that the Foundation will have an assessment made of the literary quality or the importance, literary or otherwise, of the book to be translated, and of the quality of a recent translation. This necessitates a longer consideration period, so you will have to wait longer for a decision (more information about this can be found under ‘Deadlines’). As an advanced translator you will qualify for a higher rate per word and be given the opportunity to apply for other supplementary allowances (in addition to the junior-senior allowance), namely for a high degree of difficulty, for writing a foreword or afterword, or for selection and/or editing tasks.

Are you making a new translation along with one colleague? Then both of you should submit an application. Naturally, you must both meet the conditions. When completing the application form, you must explain how you intend to collaborate. It is important that you plan to spend enough time, so that you will have sufficient opportunity to consult each other about choices made and to edit the translation together. If you are working with several colleagues on a translation (in other words there are three or more translators in total), then you cannot submit an application.

Applicants who live in Belgium must submit their application to Literatuur Vlaanderen. If you live in another country, but your translation is to be published in Dutch by a Dutch publisher, you can submit your application to the Foundation. Applicants in the Caribbean part of the Kingdom of the Netherlands can also submit their application to the Foundation (for translations into Papiamento, Papiamentu, or English as it is used by native speakers on the islands).

The length of the translation is specified in your contract: for prose the number of words, for poetry the number of lines and/or poems. If you collaborate on a translation, the division of the number of words between the two translators will also be laid down in the contract. If no specific division is mentioned in the contract, we assume it will be 50-50. You can submit an application only for your share of the translation.

In drawing up a Model Contract for literary translations, the fee is normally determined by the number of words in the original language. But for languages that are very different from Dutch, this is not always fair; take, for example, languages that are written in characters (Chinese, Japanese) or agglutinative languages (Hungarian, Turkish). It is usual in such cases for the number of words in the contract to be determined based on the (expected) length of the text when translated into Dutch rather than the number of words in the source text. Bear this in mind when negotiating your contract. The Auteursbond can provide general guidelines for different languages.

It is also important to know that positive decisions are based on the number of words (or lines/poems) in the translation contract. That number cannot be adjusted or corrected later, so supply the definitive number of words as soon as you know it.

In explaining your motivation for translating the particular title concerned, you briefly introduce the author and look primarily at the literary qualities of the book. You do not need to recount the plot or the contents. It is important that you give an insight into the narrative and stylistic characteristics of the text in connection with the subject matter of the book. For the advisory committee it is important that the explanation of your motivation gives a clear picture of the source text and of the impression you as a translator have formed of the work. In the case of a less well-known author, rather more information is needed than for classic titles, but do not assume that everyone knows the work. Your motivation must be expressed in a maximum of a thousand words.

If you are applying for a nonfiction work, when justifying your application you can look at the literary character or cultural importance of the work (specifically for the reader in the target language). Literary characteristics include for example the deployment of literary tools (such as stylistic devices or the choice of a perspective), the use of rhetorical procedures, the personal involvement or vision of the author, the choice of an original angle and subject matter, or an inventive approach and structure.

If the translation you are working on is of above-average difficulty, then if you are an advanced translator you can apply for a supplementary allowance on top of the basic grant. We require you to provide additional information and/or justification. Since it can be difficult to estimate how difficult a translation is when you have only just started, you have until six weeks after the deadline for the application period to apply for a supplementary allowance and to provide justification. A supplementary allowance raises the standard grant by 15 or 30 per cent. It is important to note that you will receive this allowance only if you have applied for it yourself.

A justification for a supplementary allowance based on the degree of difficulty ideally consists of two parts: a translated extract and the corresponding extract from the source text (1 or 2 pages in total), and along with that an explanation of the translation choices made and the problems you encountered in making them. You can mark examples of difficulties in the translated extract and add comments next to them. Or you might decide not to select one translated extract but instead to list the translation difficulties and provide an illustrative sentence or a short illustrative sample in each case (source text + (provisional) translation).

In determining the translation problems, you might want to refer to this checklist:

• Does the sentence structure demand considerable inventiveness from the translator?

• Does the text include core concepts that are hard to translate?

• Does the text involve many different genres?

• Does the text include large or subtle differences in register, dialect, or made-up language?

• Is there a lot of playing with sound effects?

• Does the text include realia or references that require additional research or inventive transformation?

These characteristics of a text do not necessarily make a translation more difficult than average. In determining the degree of difficulty, the advisory committee also looks at the frequency, complexity and diversity of the translation problems and takes account of linguistic differences and the distance between the source culture and the target culture.

If you are an advanced translator, then for the writing of a foreword or an afterword you can receive a supplementary allowance if the publisher is paying an additional fee for it. That fee for the foreword or afterword must be included in your translation contract. The allowance, if granted, amounts to 150% of the fee paid by the publisher. The Foundation regards a foreword or afterword as adding value, since it gives literary translators a chance to make their work, choices and expertise visible. If you compile an anthology, translate a text (for example an older text) that requires explanation or footnotes, or need to make a selection from various texts, then as an advanced translator you can also apply for a selection/editing allowance.

This allowance is intended as remuneration for the additional investment of time that selection and/or editing tasks demand of you and it increases the standard amount of the grant by 30%. If the work involves editing, then we ask you to indicate what form this will take and how much additional time you think you will need (beyond the usual translation work). Annotations are regarded as editing work; if you are to include notes, you need to indicate whether you will be using existing notes, adjusting existing notes to some extent, or adding notes yourself.

If you are making a selection, then you must explain your choice, describe how you go about making it and give an indication of the additional time involved.

The Foundation is an independent administrative body and falls under the Dutch General Administrative Law Act. This means that applicants can lodge an appeal if they disagree with a decision. The period within which an applicant can appeal against a decision is six weeks from the day on which the decision is made known. After that period ends, there is no further opportunity to lodge an appeal. Read more about appeals.

Grants are in theory paid immediately, or at least within eight weeks. On the application form you can state whether you would like the grant to be paid in instalments (in two years), but this is possible only if you will still be working on the translation in the second year.

The grants that have been awarded are published under the heading Toekenningen in the Dutch-language part of this website, in the digital newsletter and in the Foundation’s annual report. See Publicaties on this website.

You can also apply to the Foundation for a development grant. Development grants are intended for both beginners and advanced translators. More information about them is available on the subsidy page. A list of more applications you can make in the Netherlands and Flanders is available from the Expertisecentrum Literair Vertalen.

The Letterenfonds expects a translator to be able to translate about 200.000 words per year. As mentioned above, your application will not be processed if you translate 40.000 words or more per month.