Staff Recruitment
Please Note: Translators and Editors will need to complete and upload diagnostic tests. Typesetters will be asked to upload samples as well. All links will be found in the form.
We also take Chinese to English translations now!!
Link to Our Application Form (CLICK ME!)
Some roles may require you to submit a diagnostic. In that case, either email the diagnostic to us at nanodesuadmin@googlegroups.com or upload it into our Mediafire Dropbox.
NanoDesu Translations is a rapidly growing Japanese to English light novel translation group. We pride ourselves on producing near-professional-level English translations that are both pleasant to read and clear in expression. If you would like to contribute to our efforts and join us as a team member in any capacity, please read on.
Here is a very basic description of the roles available. Even if we have not opened a recruitment call, you can always feel free to apply! We can always use more motivated staff members.
- Translator: The core and leader of each translation team. Translates a light novel from Japanese to English, and is also responsible for communicating with his team and supervisor.
- Editor: Support staff for the translator. Helps clean up the grammar and wording of the translation. Must have a very solid handle on English language, especially stylistically.
- Typesetter (Graphics): Creates site graphics and also cleans/typesets color illustrations for our projects.
- Typesetter (EPUB/PDF): Turns finished volumes into pretty EPUB/PDF format.
- Other: Want to do something else for us that isn’t covered by the four roles above? Don’t worry, the app has an option for that too!
For more detailed descriptions of the jobs themselves and their requirements, just click on the application! All ideas are welcome!
Any and all questions can also be sent to nanodesuadmin@googlegroups.com.
NanoDesu Light Novel Translations 
Hi
I would like to be an editor for your Gekkahime project. However my college proxy does not allow downloads from mediafire. If you could upload the diagnostic on zippyshare,hugefiles or rapidgator, I will give it a try.
Email us at nanodesuadmin@googlegroups.com and we will just email you a copy.
yeah joining the team for a project on NanoDesu seems pretty interesting. (=w=)
JLPT2 for a translator? Isn’t that the same as N2? I think that’s a little too high a standard, even japanese universities only require N3…
That’s more of a guideline than a standard. As long as you pass the translator’s diagnostic you’re on the team. But yes, we do expect our translators to have a solid Japanese background before they start.
Um just asking, for section 3 of the editing diagnostic, how do i go about completing that?
Sorry for the late response, but all you need to do is pick a translation sample from something already posted and edit it. Any project is fine, but we prefer if you use a project you want to edit for.
Do you guys have specific standards for encoding PDFs/EPUBs? Like a good size, how to handle things like images, etc.
Hi Ice, here’s the gist of the methods I use for myself. But keep in mind with ebook typesetting there isn’t a “correct” way of doing things so my methods are to be taken as advice rather than actual rules.
Specifically for the images I’ve adopted a standard of 650x950px at 72 or 96 ppi in .PNG format for illustrations (colour depending) for ePubs. In the PDFs I try to keep them as high quality as possible. File size wise anywhere between below <20mb is preferred for ePubs and <15mb for PDFs. No special typefaces of course, anything and everything to maximize readability. The rest of the visible formatting comes down to personal preference and will vary depending on the typesetter. Since we a group we do have a "look" that we use for a our releases and that our typesetters must adhere to.
Hope that answers your questions.
ok, random question that’s probably really stupid….but how does compensation(money) work if at all…
We are a free group who are doing this purely because we love it, so there is no monetary compensation.
What do u mean stylistically?
As in, the flow and not just the grammar of English. Some English sentences can be perfectly grammatically correct and still sound awful, and it is also the editor’s job to spot these errors.
Hi, just wondering whether you are willing staff who translate Japanese->[intermediate language]->English. Asking because some potential translators are confident in translating [intermediate language]->English, but may not be fully confident with Japanese->English.
Thanks
*willing to accept people to translate Japanese->[intermediate language]->English*
my mistake
Hi Squid-san,
Thanks for your question. We currently do not allow re-translations because it’s very difficult to ensure that re-translations (where there is an intermediate language) pass the same quality checks we hold our Japanese->English translations to. However, if there are any Chinese-original novels you are interested in, we do accept Chinese->English translator applications.
If you need an editor I can help
Feel free to submit an application.
The staff also reply in case of a rejected application?
Yes.
If you applied and haven’t received a response it never hurts to send an email to nanodesuadmin@googlegroups.com to ask for a status update.
On the editor application form, one question asks ‘What is your experience with the english language?’ What, specifically, does this mean? Please clarify.
It means you should describe your fluency level in english and any formal background (grammar, composition, etc.) you have.
For section three of the editor diagnostic, do I just go to any page now, and try to find errors, or is there specific pages where there are translation samples for me to look at?
Nope, just edit something pre-existing.
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Do you guys accept thai to english translations. Since there are thai translated novels in thailand now
Unfortunately we don’t have enough staff to reliably have quality control for thai translations, so we are not at this time.
How do you guys get the untranslated novels? Are you buying it, or finding it on the internet?
Hey do you need someone who can do translations from english to spanish?
I’m a Japanese returnee student from the US who was born in England.
I speak fluent Japanese and currently reside in a moderately prestigious fully-Japanese school.
I have multiple qualifications such as the Eiken Grade 1 (Award for Excellence) and the UN Eiken Grade A (JUN Organization President Award).
However, due to my status as a student, I cannot take as much time off to work on projects as I would like…
What post do you recommend I audition for?
Would you be interested in picking up one of our projects that have been dropped or on hold? There’s less time pressure in that case. Either way you should just fill out a translator’s application.
Does NanoDesu have any unedited text samples we could use for the editing sample in the Editor Diagnostic?
Just use an edited version for now. We’re aware you’re using something edited and take this into account during our application review process. Remember: no edits are perfect and we want to see the full extent of what you can do.
are you continuing this project or not?
i reaaaaaaaaaaally love this manga
it’s soooooooo amazing
I see that all projects have an editor. Are more editors still required?
We’re not in terrible need of new editors but you can always apply – we always have random editing tasks that pop up every once in a while.
Are editor positions still open? It seems like pretty much every work has one right now.
Please feel free to apply – we accept applications always although you might not be assigned to a project immediately.
Are your translators paid or volunteer?
volunteer