aristophanes

Knowing it was that time of year again when I can start applying for translation grants, I went to check on the info I'd need to put together. To my horror, the NEA has changed their requirements for the translation grants. They require that you have published a translation already, and now they have changed it that specifically, you cannot have self-published the translation. So, this means I have to waste a bunch of time and lose a bunch of money trying to get a publisher to print one of my translations. I even have a project I was going to undertake myself which I can use for this, but it feels like there's only 2 publishers who'd do it justice -- it was crafted to sell lots of books on the hoodoo/voodoo market, and anyone who doesn't specialize in that seems like it would just be a waste of money I could be making. It being a translation of an old spellbook, it's got too many spells about dead bodies and poisonous materials to be any interest to a company like Llewellyn, and marketing it as a historical French spellbook such that history companies would want it really really cuts back on the market for it.

So once again I'm not going to be able to get any grants this year it seems, because even if I do find someone to accept the book for print, it's going to be at least a year before it's actually published and thus lets me qualify for anything.