Home > News

German translator fights publisher on Amazon
German translator fights publisher on Amazon
9 Oct, 2012
Tags: Germany

Two years ago, in August 2010, the German website of Amazon published a remarkable ‘customer review’ (http://www NULL.amazon NULL.de/product-reviews/1844846482/ref=cm_cr_dp_see_all_btm?ie=UTF8&showViewpoints=1&sortBy=bySubmissionDateDescending) of Arturo Graf’s Satan, Beelzebub and Lucifer: The Devil in Art, published by Parkstone International / Kroemer (May 2009):

‘The text written by Arturo Graf, a literary figure from the late 19th century, is wonderful – full of hidden irony, a literary cabaret of the first order. I know only too well because I translated the book. The publishing house, however, never paid my fee and ignored all further payment requests. As a result I spent several months working on this translation for free. I THEREFORE ASK YOU NOT TO BUY THIS BOOK, just leave it! Unfortunately I only found out in retrospect that the publishing house does not pay its translators as a matter of principle – please support the translators’ fight for the money due to them and DO NOT EVER buy books by Parkstone aka Sirrocco aka Atifise! Thank you.’

The German translator of Graf’s book was never paid for her work, although she did sign a contract with the publishing house. Her invoice and all subsequent payment requests were systematically ignored by Parkstone which has its main office inFrance. Bringing a court case against the publisher in France was out of the question for financial reasons.

Only recently, the translator obtained a seizure order from the German courts, but it is still unclear how the order will be put into effect. CEATL will keep you informed on further developments.

Related news