Menjadi Pemburu Singa Mati dan Berburu Instrumen Mortal di Festival Pembaca Indonesia 2013

Akhir pekan lalu, 7-8 Desember 2013, saya ikut serta dalam acara Festival Pembaca Indonesia 2013. Berbeda dengan tahun-tahun sebelumnya, acara tahun ini diselenggarakan di Museum Bank Mandiri. Saya tinggal naik kereta dari Stasiun UI sampai Stasiun Kota lalu jalan kaki sedikit; lebih mudah daripada pergi ke Pasar Festival seperti tahun-tahun sebelumnya.

Booth Pemburu Singa Mati dijaga Lily
(Foto: Dina Begum)

Saya hadir dua hari dalam acara ini untuk menjaga booth Pemburu Singa Mati (lapak penerjemah, penyunting, dan penyelaras kata yang bekerja untuk penerbitan buku, baik secara tetap maupun lepas). Lebih banyak tentang kegiatan kami di booth itu bisa dilihat di tulisan Mba Dina Begum di sini dan di sini. Kami memperkenalkan pekerjaan kami kepada para pengunjung dan mengajak mereka untuk ikut serta dalam kuis berhadiah buku-buku yang disumbangkan oleh teman-teman seprofesi atau penerbit, termasuk buku-buku hasil pekerjaan kami.

Leo, maskot Pemburu Singa Mati, dan para peserta kuis
(Foto: Dina Begum)

Pada hari pertama saya tidak banyak melihat-lihat lapak-lapak lain, tapi memang terlihat lebih sepi dibandingkan tahun 2011 (tahun 2012 memang sepi juga). Sore hari saya membolos dari jaga booth untuk kopi darat bersama teman-teman LCDP, grup penulis fantasi. Selain mengobrol, kami menulis flash-fiction secara bergantian dan menciptakan cerita yang aneh bin ajaib, hahaha.

Diorama pendirian Bank Mandiri (1)

Diorama pendirian Bank Mandiri (2)

Separuh hari kedua kurang-lebih sama dengan separuh hari pertama: menjaga lapak Pemburu Singa Mati. Teman-teman pembaca atau sesama kuli buku mampir untuk bersilaturahmi. Kami juga bergantian menengok lapak-lapak lain. Salah satu orang baru saya temukan pada hari itu adalah Bu Meda, penerjemah City of Ashes dan City of Fallen Angels (nomor dua dan empat serial Mortal Instruments yang saya terjemahkan nomor satu, tiga, dan limanya).

Melody Violine dan Meda Satrio di booth TMIndo
(Foto: TMIndo)

Untunglah kertas kuis habis sebelum jam 2 siang, jadi saya bisa kabur ke booth komunitas TMIndo (penggemar serial Mortal Instruments karya Cassandra Clare) untuk ikut permainan Perburuan Instrumen Mortal. Walaupun tim saya hanya menjadi juara kedua, setiap orang dari kami mendapatkan hadiah CD OST film City of Bones yang dirilis Agustus lalu. Padahal, sehari lalu aku mempertimbangkan untuk membelinya sendiri. xD

tim City of Bones
kiri ke kanan: Nurul, Dinda, Laras, Melody
(Foto: TMIndo)

Hadiah Perburuan Instumen Mortal
Terima kasih, TMIndo!

Selesai berburu, kakak-kakak Pemburu Singa Mati sudah membereskan lapak kami (maaf saya tidak bantu-bantu waktu itu). Kami menyempatkan diri foto-foto dulu di panggung sebelum pulang. :p

Para Pemburu Singa Mati
kiri ke kanan: Melody Violine, Lulu Fitri Rahman, Dina Begum, Barokah Ruziati
(Foto: Feby Indirani)

Selamat kepada Goodreads Indonesia yang sudah menyelenggarakan Festival Pembaca Indonesia 2013. Terima kasih kepada kakak-kakak penjaga resmi lapak Pemburu Singa Mati (Dina Begum, Barokah Ruziati, Lulu Fitri Rahman), kakak-kakak yang ikut membantu kami menjaga booth, dan kakak-kakak yang menyumbangkan buku-bukunya untuk dipajang dan dibagikan di booth. Terima kasih juga kepada semua pengunjung yang sudah mau dikerjai untuk mengerjakan kuis! :D

Fire dari GPU, pin dari TMIndo, Public Relations Writing dan Sakit 1/2 Jiwa dari bookswap

Success Through A Positive Mental Attitude by Napoleon Hill

This is not my favorite project. There were many problems along the way, but I'm grateful that I've handled it. It's a learning process, however, and I'm new in this business.

This is young Napoleon Hill.

Cash in a Flash by Mark Victor Hansen and Robert G. Allen

This is my first project in Ufuk Press. I thought it was difficult, but recently I realized that it's nothing compared to my current project.

Overall, it is a really nice book about encouraging yourself to be a winner and gain much money with a fascinating fiction about its application. It challenged me to look for appropriate translations of some terms made-up by the writers. I loved it. Even though a reader complained about my editing, that's fine. I'm going to be better in the future.

The most wonderful thing is I received to free copies of this book yesterday. It is expensive, and I wouldn't buy it on my own. Moreover, I love having new books, more books, especially with good package, regardless of its genres, hahaha.

The Next Evolution of Marketing by Bob Gilbreath

This is a cool book about marketing with meaning. It's definitely not my field of interest, but I enjoyed translating it. Yesterday during a meeting in my office, I applied what I've learned from this book to promote City of Bones (read my previous post). I'm glad that my boss appreciated my ideas, and we are actually running them.

That's why I love my job. It obliged me (forced me, sometimes) to read various stuffs that I wouldn't have glanced. However, I strongly believe that I have to learn something from anything I do, and that's what I did with this book. That's why, despite of many difficulties I'm facing due to my current project, I'm still trying to learn something from it.

Cheers :)

City of Bones by Cassandra Clare

I've finished translating this book a few months ago, and it will be published next month. I'm so proud of this project, since I tackled the whole 485 pages down in only 5 weeks.

Yesterday, we've discussed the pre-promotion and post-promotion strategies. I gave them many new tactics, having learned it from The Next Evolution of Marketing (read my subsequent post). Hopefully, this book will be the next big hit.

My review about this novel is available here. Unfortunately, it's only in Indonesian.

Help

I wrote it last night on around 23.30 GMT+7

I know precisely that I have to finish my translation as soon as possible. But it’s very difficult. I’ve never imagined myself dealing with investment banking terms. I had no idea about CDO, CLO, MBS, SIV, and God knows what else. I knew nothing about Lehman Brothers, JPMorganChase, Goldman Sachs, Bear Stearns, Merrill Lynch, and others. Now I see their names running before my eyes.

It really exhausts me day by day. Fortunately, I’m using it as an escapist act from doing my written works for my gradute application. Therefore, I can go on.

In the end of the day, I’m so tired and hungry, please help me :’(

A New Book Project

One of my projects got cancelled until August and I didn’t know how to feed myself until then. So the book project dropped by when I needed it badly...

Yesterday was wonderful. First thing in the morning is my friend Y had her thesis defense successfully. She got her defense early in the morning that when I got there in the campus, she’s all alone, even her supervisor was still on his way. Even though I was jus an insignificant help, I’m glad that I came. She got so many things in her hands to be shared at that time.

Then I got my Fulbright reference letter from my lecturer, Mr. U. I can’t wait to get my TOEFL test result on Friday so I can finish my master degree scholarship application. I still have to ask for one more reference letter from Mr. F though.

I went to a publisher for a translator test. It took longer than I had expected but the result was great. They trusted me both to be a translator and an editor. In the same day, they directly give me a book to work on. The book is not easy but the payment is way finer than my previous projects in other publishers. The best thing about this publisher is they forgave my late response. One month ago, they had sent me an email responding my application, but I just had figured it out a few days ago. Such a big fish I’ve almost missed!

The next thing was I had to go to Tanah Abang directly. I had a class there on 04.30. Two times I had to take ojek (motorcycle cab) to minimize the time but thanks God I didn’t come late. One of my students refused to keep studying in the last ten minutes but it wasn’t a big deal. My way home was average. I just got confused a little in Pasar Minggu and had to pay the last minibus with coins since I got no more small cash with me.

One of my projects got cancelled until August and I didn’t know how to feed myself until then. So the book project dropped by when I needed it badly. When I told my friend, she said, “God never sleeps.” I guess it’s true. If He sees us fighting for our good, He will help us somehow. But I said to my other friend that, “If we do something good, good thing will come to us.”

Last week I also joined a selection for translating a young adults fiction in a different publisher. I've just received an email about the result. I failed the selection but this time I'm relieved since I've already got a bigger project in my hand.

From now on, I got so busy that I won’t be able to write many. But working hard is fun when we’re expecting some money from it ;)