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Foreign Translations of my Books

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I snapped the shot above with my iPhone after a box of foreign translations of my books came in to our offices a few weeks back, and I just ran across it while looking through my Camera Roll (that’s what it’s called on an iPhone anyway).

I get such a kick out of seeing how they’ve laid out these translated versions, because in most cases the size is different (often times they’re hard cover as well), and they often completely redesign in insides and in particular the front cover to suit their market (I complain about them redoing the cover, but my publisher swears that each market feels like they know the kind of cover that appeals to their demographic, so I let it go, but it still kind of drives me crazy).

What’s in the Stack
Taking a quick look at the stack, I can see various versions of my Digital Photography book series, my iPhone book (co-authored with Terry White) gets translated a lot; I see my Mac OS X Leopard books in there, and my Lightroom 2 book, and a couple of copies of my Photoshop Down & Dirty Tricks books are in there as well. I see Russian, Korean, German, Turkish, and my first Photoshop book translated into Japanese. (NOTE: If by looking at the spine of the book you recognize any of the languages here, let me know in a comment).

Anyway, I just want to thank all of you who buy these translated copies of my book, and help my books reach a wider audience. I get emails from all over the world each week (sometimes telling me about the quality of the translations, which they say is usually very good, but I have gotten a few that let me know that the people of their country don’t get my jokes. I don’t feel so bad. People here don’t get my jokes either). :)

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Scott Kelby Author
Scott is a Photographer, bestselling Author, Host of "The Grid" weekly photography show; Editor of Photoshop User magazine; Lightroom Guy; KelbyOne.com CEO; struggling guitarist. Loves Classic Rock and his arch-enemy is Cilantro. Devoted husband, dad to two super awesome kids, and pro-level babysitter to two crazy doggos.
50 comments

  1. Heey, I can see a Swedish one :)

    Photoshop Elements 8 för digitalfotografer, haven’t read it though

    Anyways, at least all of the Digital Photography books look exactly the same in the Swedish versions as in the American and it’s really a great layout!

  2. You’ve got a couple of Dutch versions. Digitale Fotografie boek and the Het Iphone boek and the Digitalfotografi above the Iphone is also Swedish. It must be cool to see your work in so many languages even if you don’t understand them.

  5. There’s a couple of books in Finnish:

    Photoshop – Parhaat käytännöt
    Digikuvauskirja
    Digikuvauskirja 2
    Adobe Photoshop Lightroom – Tehokas hallinta

    Haven’t read any of them, though, and I think I’d still prefer the English version if I were to read one of these…

  10. Great stack! I have the german version of your Photoshop 7 point system and just hate the title (“Gloreiche 7 for Photoshop”… sounds like a Western to me) but what is inside is well done, I even get your jokes sometimes! ;-) I prefer the original versions, though.

  11. I’ve got two of your books in italian translations, and another one in original language.
    I must admit that original language version are much better (like all the other programming manuals i get).
    The problem is translation sometimes change some aspects of the reading (i don’t mean the content, but the general tone) and even not always are strict to contents (this is because translations are not alway made by experts in the matter…… once i got a C programming book where they translated even the sample codes……)

    Anyway they are always very good works!!

  12. I recognize the following languages:
    Dutch: Het iPhone Boek derde editie (the book just above the books with the white spines)
    German: DAS DIGITALE FOTOGRAFIE BUCH BAND 3 (first book with white spine)
    German: MAC OS X SNOW LEOPARD – DAS BUCH (second book with white spine)
    German: IPHONE 3G S DAS BUCH (third book with white spine)
    Dutch: Scott Kelby over Digitale fotografie (light blue spine)
    Dutch: Scott Kelby’s DIGITALE FOTOGRAFIE BOEK New Rider’s (thick book, black spine)

    It seems Germans like their CAPITALS.

  13. The three ones above the korean book seams to be Thai translations. I don’t speak thai (I’m Swedish) so I’m not sure but the characters do look the part.

  15. Like my fellow Swedes already pointed out, there is a copy of Digital photography…. Same layout as Pontus wrote, but with a significant difference. I have both the english and Swedish version, and the the Swede-version is thicker, with, what i think, nicer paper. Gives the book a better feel to it. Does it matter… Not really, red the english one anyways. Books are always better without translation. And of course: Awsome books!

  18. Third one from the top, upside-down, is French, “la photographie numérique” (Digital Photography)!

    Any plans for Portuguese translations? I prefer reading in English myself, but not everybody around me does! :)

  19. Hmmm… no danish version there. I saw one of your books (I think it was The Digital Photography Book – Part 1) translated into danish last year when i was back home. I had to check it out in store because I have it in English here at home. I read a few paragraphs of a couple chapters. Man it was a huuut..lol. Your humor and way of writing looks VERY different in danish… But other than that the layout and cover was exactly the same.

    Jan

  20. Hey, I’m Russian. But there’s no book in Russian as u told ) At least I can’t see it.
    And I live in Kazakhstan and unfortunatlly many your books are sold in b&w version here =( And it’s very difficult to find any color version.

  22. Scott, I am very glad to see your books translated into Korean! iPhone one shocked me being as how right now the iPhones causing a little bit of a stir here. Anyway, love the books and keep’em coming!

  23. Very cool…It must be fun seeing your work available all over the world!!…I recognize French, Dutch and German titles…but I can assure you, I could not read them in any of those languages!…Good to see you back…glad your break was great…have a good week!

    1. I actually got an email from a translator once (Chinese, I think), asking about “flobotnor” form the Lightroom book. She was confuse about what it meant. I had to explain that it was made up. Not sure what she did with that.

    2. I have a Dutch version of Scott’s Digital photography book 2.
      In the introduction of Chapter 8, for some reason, Scott starts talking about his National geoographic-subscription. Then he says some lines from a well-know Belgian song to test if his readers are still paying attention.
      That crazy Scott! always into a joke, isn’t he?
      I guess in the original version he said lines from a well know American song?

  28. Hey Scott,
    I’m glad to see that publishers do print your excellent work so those who don’t speak English can learn from your expertise and humor.
    Mike

  29. Hi Scott, I haven’t seen Polish translation?
    Luckily I speak English.
    I’ve learned a lot from your books and spent a lot of $$$ on photo gear :-)
    Thanks a lot,
    Bart

  30. Personally, I don’t like the redesigned covers either, Scott.
    I think in most cases they just don’t look good!
    It’s part of the reason I always buy the original version and not the translated version.

  31. great to see books here I have at home. eventhough I just bought one book from you in german due to the bad translation of your VERY COOL jokes! it feels like jokes from homer simpson here on TV. they just make you laugh if you translate them back to english :-)
    love your jokes and don’t stop writing them down even if some people might not understand them always. no translation problems in terms of content.

    take care
    ingoman
    ———–
    MUNICH

  32. Hi Scott!
    My first language is Portuguese (Brazilian) and i haven’t found any in my language. But i agree with Vincent and always buy the original version. I learn a lot from your books, podcasts and Blog. When are you coming to Brazil for some shooting and teaching? We have beautiful places… Cheers!

  33. Another brazilian here Mr. Kelby.
    Why no portuguese version?? I’m certain you’d have a market share here!!

    P.S. – I’m going to Florida on May 27 through June 9. Anything cool going on around this time?? If possible, let me know man! Pretty please? :)

  34. Those awkward and confusing asides sprinkled throughout your otherwise good books are JOKES?……………………… aah………. NOW I get it.

  35. I count 4 Dutch books (not bad for such a small country :-))

    – Photoshop Down & Dirty Tricks 2e Editie
    – Scott Kelby over Digitale fotografie Deel 3
    – Het digitale fotografie boek (bundle of your digital photography books 1,2&3)
    – Het iPhone Boek derde editie

  36. The last one is morden Simplified Mandarin, was published by an university,( the letters are too small to see which univercity it was). Been a big fan of your books. Last year I went back to china saw many copies of your books by different publishers in Chinese. The problems is that many ( I assumed they are not authorized by you) translated version are bad, some had many wrong spellings, some you could see that the guy were doing translation did not have any basic photographic knowledge at all, I wonder that is any of those Chinese Versions of your book were legally published and properly translated by professionals?

  37. Weey, can see one of the books I bought! I have a few of your books (the translated versions) and I absolutley love them! Read all of them too many times. Though, you should stop writing that you have bad humor :P

  38. Hi Scott.

    Last year I sold my Ruger cal. 30-06 hunting rifle and for the money I bought a Canon EOS 500D 18-55 mm kit, a Canon 55-250 mm zoom and a Canon Speedlite 430: Instead of shooting the deer to death I thought I’d make a change and try to preserve them by another kind of ‘shooting’. I have to mention that in my teens I was a very active amateur photographer and always carried my camera around. However, I got married, got children and lost the camera.
    Well, this time around I didn’t quite regain the interest as much as I thought I would when I bought that EOS 500D and actually thought about selling the damn thing (I’m 45 years old, what did I expect…?!!!)
    At least that was my plan until a couple of weeks ago when I found myself standing in a big mall flipping through some “computer-for-dummies” booklets and by chance stumbled upon your book “The Book on Digital Photography” no. 3 published this year (in Denmark anyway).
    That book absolutely and completely changed my world……
    I’m keeping my 500D, I have added 27 ABSOLUTELY-MUST-HAVE’s to my wishing list (all of which are Canon EOS 500D-related products naturally), and – apart from my dog – my wife is the most photographed object ever since.
    Thank you so much for your inspiring book, your tips and even cranky jokes. I now know that there is much much more to discover and try within the (for me until now) lost world of photography.
    I’m going to Iceland this august on a business trip … and the 500D will be on my shoulder ALL the way :-)))))))))
    Again, thank you very much and very best regards
    Tino, Denmark

  39. Hi my name is Mehdi I’m photography lecturer in art uni in iran and also i teach photoshop lightroom .
    I want to know am i allowed to translate your lightroom book2 to our language (persian)”
    ?

    thank you
    Mehdi

  40. Can’t see ant from Norway, but MAN are your digital photography booke huge here! They got em in like every electronics store, all magazine stores and of course all photo equipment stores and book stores. There are literally no competing booke that stand a chance. I got your CS3 book and your photo recipes book (even pre-ordered that i think) :)

    going to buy some moore, think I’m going for the down and dirty next ;)

    – Stein Tore

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