Matej Martinkovič – Ekonomická aktivita redaktorov umeleckých prekladov na Slovensku
Matej Martinkovič
Filozofická fakulta Univerzity Konštantína Filozofa v Nitre, Nitra
Abstract
Economic Activity of Literary Translation Editors in Slovakia
In Slovak translation studies and translation circles more broadly, translation editing is often regarded as an indispensable part of the translation process. Despite the importance assigned to the editors and their work, little attention is typically paid to them in research possibly for a multitude of reasons. This lack of attention leads to limited understanding of the economic aspects of literary editing practice. Hence, the aim of the paper is to paint an introductory image of Slovak editing market and editors’ economic activity. To this end, partial results of a survey of Slovak literary editors conducted in 2022 (n=22) are presented and supplemented with the results of a focus group discussion with five editors. The results show that nearly all editors in the survey combine multiple sources of income, most commonly editing and literary translation, likely due to the very low editing rates, typically EUR 2.00 per standardised page. Furthermore, most questionnaire participants work in their capacity as editors entirely freelance, and even when internally employed by a publishing house, it is not unusual for them to also freelance for other publishers.
Keywords: literary translation, editing, editors, economic activity
