By We get a lot of questions about Head First translations and the sale of Head First books outside of the United States, and it got me curious about the series in other countries.
Since the text tends to be casual, with an almost colloquial style and many cultural references, I'd imagine some translations are quite difficult. (I'd love to hear from our foreign readers about any amusing or bizarre translations they've come across in Head First titles!)
In addition to the licensing of Head First sales in other countries (for example, most of our titles are published in India by Shroff), O'Reilly has a number of foreign offices that translate titles and/or sell the English version in their countries. I spoke with them about the series, and today I'm sharing the info from Taiwan and Japan.
Head First does very well in both Taiwan and Japan. Mori Su of the Taiwanese office told me, "Head First is the most successful [O'Reilly] series in Taiwan. We have a IT professional bookstore whose web site lists a best seller top 50 and is updated weekly. Our first translated title was "Design Patterns", and even though it released 2 years ago, it's still listed in the top 50. Most of the Head First titles are still in the top 50. When a new Head First title is released, it must be in the top 5."
She had an interesting comment regarding translations. Compared to O'Reilly's animal books, she said Head First is much easier to translate, because most of sentences are short and straightforward. "For 600 pages, we can finish a translation in 2 months, but animal titles will
cost at least 3 months, sometimes half year or more."
They try to release Chinese versions of Head First books as soon as possible after their American releases. Their next book is Head First SQL scheduled for December 20.
Fumi Yamakawa explained that the Japan office has been slower to translate the Head First titles despite their success. So far, the only titles available in Japanese are Java, HTML, and Ajax, with Object-Oriented Analysis & Design coming out this month, and SQL planned for next year.
The series sells well in Japan due to its unique content. They do make some changes to the text, including a smaller trim size to save production cost and paper. Fumi noted that the American jokes and metaphors don't require any tweaks to be understandable by Japanese culture, so the translation itself goes easily. The main challenge is fitting the text on the page, because the translation tends to take up more space than the original.
Stay tuned to this blog for more international info. If you have any questions about translations or foreign availability, you have a number of options: email us at talkback@headfirstlabs.com, contact O'Reilly's customer service directly, or post to the forums.
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for example, most of our titles are published in India by Schroff
it's Shroff not Schroff
I am a teacher of the University Estacio de Sá Brazil, and Development Manager also. I knew the series when I read a Brazilian magazine specializes ! Almost 2 years, my students are using the books in Portuguese of Head First Design Patterns, Head First OOA&D and HF Java, and the books really are very good! Congratulation for All ! Simply Perfect ! The books are an excellent purchase. Easy to understand and fully illustrated. But, I would like to know if the book HF EJB will be launched here in Brazil ??? - in Portuguese ? Last year the Alta Books Publisher reported that it had not sure whether or not the publication. I believe it important publish all the books in the series, because aid in the training of students. We are also awaiting the book HF JavaScript ! I hope this series will never end !Many Thanks,
When the book Use a Cabeça JavaScript will be launched in Brazil ? I bought the Use a Cabeça HTML/CSS and liked very much ! Quando será lançado o livro de JavaScript no Brasil ? Eu comprei o HTML/CSS e gostei muito.
Obrigado - Thank you.
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