So fed up with the "but *my* dog is well behaved" crowd, who think the "dogs must be on leads" sign only applies to other people...

Another #TranslatorInterview, this time from @racheltranslates.bsky.social I'm loving the thought and effort that is going into these answers and I'm finding out so much about the world of translation I just didn't realise #BookSky #TranslatorsOnTheCover #Translator 💙📚

A lovely German phrase for describing a place in the middle of nowhere is wo sich Fuchs und Hase gute Nacht sagen. It means “where the fox and hare say goodnight.”

I've been going on about the Author Interview series a lot recently but I've also developed a Q&A for Translators if there any around who would like to be involved. No takers so far but it's relatively new bigbeardedbookseller.uk/questions-fo... #BookSky 💙📚 #translation #LiteraryTranslator

Did I mention it's World Kid Lit month?! If you're looking for some international kidlit inspo, you might want to try one of these Scandi titles I reviewed for the @worldkidlit.bsky.social blog: worldkidlit.org/2025/09/17/n...

If you had to finish the simile "as unbuttoned as a...", what would you chose? #amtranslating (not Malibu sunset supper, jam session or Glasto crowd, all of which come up on Google, btw)

A glorious morning for a ride, a perfect cake and coffee stop at Old Buckenham Country Park, and home to find that my translator copies of Save You by Mona Kasten have arrived! Aren't they pretty?! 💙📚 #norfolkcycling #cafebythepond #maxtonhall #inmytranslation #literarytranslation #booksky

Pretty book post today: my translation of Save Me, the first Maxton Hall novel by Mona Kasten. #booksky #literarytranslation 💙📚 #MaxtonHall

The same goes for translation and localization. You don't get experienced translators if you don't have entry-level translators. I worry for what our industry will look like 10, 20 years down the line, as the veterans begin to retire.

If you can actually get to speak to a person at HMRC, they're always really helpful and friendly, but ye gods, the system doesn't want you to get to that point! Between the automated menus and hold "music" it could be designed to drive you up the wall. Their poor staff probs end up bearing the brunt

Unsolicited writing advice, no. 13: If you are lucky enough to be translated into other languages, always know this: you are NOTHING without your translator. Your translator has skills far beyond just putting words into another language. A good translator is a stylist, an interpreter, a composer.

Smooth. Lol

📣 Applications are OPEN for BCLT Translators-in-Residence 2026! ✨ We're offering two BCLT translation residencies for UK-based literary translators. Find out more: www.uea.ac.uk/groups-and-c... #LiteraryTranslation #Translation #CallForTranslators

PLEASE use the "copy link without site tracking" or "copy clean link" options when copy-pasting/sharing links (they should appear when you right click). Nearly every browser has/uses the option now. Read up, tweak some security habits, and continue doing what you do. Never hurts to learn something.

To mark the launch of GPT-5, and the fresh wave of people talking about this technology as if it's capable of thinking like human and even if it's not, it will be soon and it's inevitable and it's not actually stealing people's work, it's just learning like a human. Here's why it's none of that.

And don't tell yourself: "It's a story. The small details don't really matter." They do. I once read a historical novel set in Victorian London (written, I think, by an American author), in which the detective protagonist presses a 50-pence piece into a grimy urchin's hand. I think about this a lot.

An ongoing thread of some excellent books by #womenintranslation - all read since last August. 🧵 #WITMonth #TranslationThurs #BookSky #ReadWomen 💙📚

Been out to blow the cobwebs away at the beach...

#witmonth #worldkidlit Translated by @laurawat.bsky.social

A thing that every translator knows: Sometimes the original is wrong.

Translators are the unsung heroes of international book releases. I've set up a page on my website, only two entries so far but I'm hoping to eventually list all the translators that want to be there. www.benaaronovitch.com/translators/

So many fantastic books here from Abbe, check out her reviews & then grab yourself some of these awesome #WomenInTranslation either direct from lovely indie publishers like @corylusbooks.bsky.social or @orendabooks.bsky.social, or your fave indie bookstore (mine is @bertsbooks.bsky.social!) #BookSky

📚GIVEAWAY🌍 To celebrate #WITMonth we're giving away 11 amazing books written, and some #Translated by women. ALL BRILLIANT! To enter: 👭 Follow us 🖤 Like & RT 🏷️ Tag a friend (each tag = 1 entry!) 🇬🇧 UK only ⏳ Ends 15 Aug #WiTM2025 #TranslatedFiction #ReadWomen

DuckDuckGo has added a feature to filter out AI images from search results.

🚨 This is dangerous, not just outrageous. Two major newspapers ran stories implying disabled people were faking it to get 2-for-1 Oasis tickets, simply because some wheelchair users stood up at the gig. Let me explain why this kind of reporting is harmful. 🧵1/8

📖 #WomenInTranslationMonth 🌎 This August we'll be highlighting literary translations written by the FABULOUS women writers that we have the honour to publish, as well as #Translator who bring their voices to new audiences💓 #WITM #WITMonth #WomenInTranslation #BookSky

While I'm in a #WordNerd mood, one of my favourite English weirdnesses: "went" as past tense of "go"!

UK self-assessment tax payers: If you have a second payment on account it's due today, 31st July Even if you don't think you *have* to pay a second payment on account, I recommend you log in and check. I thought that last year, and I did. And they hadn't told me. And I had to pay interest.

Another British word the Spelling Bee won't allow me: blagging. And which autocarrot just tried to change to "bragging". @lynneguist.bsky.social

This is an absolutely key distinction, to the point where I think we should always use the specific terms themselves - generative AI and machine learning - rather than the AI umbrella term.

Part of the problem is the conflation between generative AI (completely bollocks “spicy autocomplete” that’s killing the planet) and machine learning (the scientific uses to expose patterns in enormous data sets which can then be explored by humans)

A good ride out this morning with a nice coffee stop in Hingham, then home to book post! 💙📚🚴 @jencalleja.bsky.social @jayhulmepoet.bsky.social

An important point. Back up your stuff offline.

Tom Lehrer made all of his music 100% public domain so if seeing people sad about his death makes you want to check them out… it’s free. he wanted you to share them. tomlehrersongs.com

Important to add that even if you get a good contract for a translation, you should still send it to @societyofauthors.bsky.social. Especially if it has a good rate: if the SoA don’t ‘observe’ rates higher than £100/ 1000 words then they can’t change the rate and publishers will continue to cite it.

Translators, it's always good to make use of the @societyofauthors.bsky.social contract vetting service, however experienced you are. Things change, new terms come up, and it gives them the opportunity to see good rates, clever terms etc. to help others with.

A note on #NewIllustrationOfTheDay. These daily posts aim to demonstrate the range and quality of children’s book illustration today. But they are also, I hope, an oasis of skill and beauty/humour/curiosity in everyone’s day, whatever else is happening. Please share with anyone who might enjoy that.

Hurray for Jen Calleja. Translators do so much to support literature. Not just the act of translation but in terms of talent scouting, pitching books, promoting writers (all unpaid). An essential part of literature as a cultural force, not just an "industry." www.theguardian.com/books/2025/j...

I fail to see what the story is here. It seems evident that if you live in London, you might like to visit the countryside, and that if you live in the country, you might like to visit the city. Surely it makes sense to advertise to people at both ends of your train line?!

✨ FAIR is Book of the Day in The Guardian ✨ www.theguardian.com/books/2025/j... @prototypepubs.bsky.social @theguardian.com

friendly reminder that AI is not intelligent, is not sapient, and is just an algorithm that's good at sounding human and creating an average / best guess based on the information in its LLM database

I spy @ohneklippo.bsky.social ... 🦈🦈

Women in Translation month is coming up again in August. Not sure if interest is waning as it was quieter on Twitter the past couple of years and I'm not sure if it has transferred to Bluesky. I'm reading for a review column during August with an all female line up so far. #witmonth to take part.

And yet they constantly send reminders and messages about everything else... It's almost as though they want to be able to charge you interest? 🤔

Denglisch word of the day: Youngtimer Based on "Oldtimer" - classic/vintage/veteran car - I guess it would be a "modern classic"? Dating from the 70s-90s... bilwebauctions.se/en/nyheter/v...

Interesting stuff following from here about class and money in the UK that people looking on/writing about the country from the outside can never quite get their heads around or do accurately...

Anyone here who is or knows a German/German-speaking journalist or book reviewer? The German translation of my book about cancer evolution, Rebel Cell, is coming out in October and we're looking for people who might want a review copy. @lynnnothegger.bsky.social

No problem! I posted the original change on a WhatsApp group of Film & TV colleagues and people there pointed out Google Drive and Dropbox have similar Ts&Cs and recommended: www.swisstransfer.com/en-gb (who are part of Infomaniak www.infomaniak.com/en/about)

Charley says: “Always consider the risks to your core business before jumping on the next Silicon Valley bandwagon.”