What can I do about this?

As someone with no published books who is around halfway through translating a novel that "MUST be translated by me"*...

I think it just comes with the territory. I just hope the territory doesn't kill me.

*in my humble yet clearly essential (to the future of world literature in translation) opinion ;D

My strategy so far is to try to get in with the author (first, through the Japanese publisher, who did reply very kindly, but didn't offer to make contact for me; second, directly because the stars aligned), but I can't tell if it's working or not yet.

If I don't hear back from the author by the end of the summer, I will start shopping around for a publisher on my own, I guess?

SOUL FIRE INTERLUDE

Btw, don't slog your way. I know you probably didn't mean it that way, but my advice is to go in expecting your heart to be ripped out of your chest. Being first AND best is next to impossible, but if we don't try, what are we here for? Embrace the urgency and throw yourself off the cliff, because yeah, otherwise someone else will skydive right past you.

END SOUL FIRE INTERLUDE

Here's a related question:

Do you think its a better idea to avoid mentioning the author that you're aiming for in public places (Twitter/blog/whatever) so that other people don't steal your idea OR could it actually work in your favor to go exactly the opposite direction and mention the author ALL THE TIME so that when someone searches for that author you come up looking very knowledgable about their work?

Ever since Kirino almost took an Edgar, and especially now that Murakami and Higashino are famous in English, Japanese authors are very interested in making money overseas. Until now, they've been quite happy merely to be published in English, but now many of them see dollar signs in their future, and that makes negotiations difficult.

If you can talk to an author directly, and convince him (or her) that you are a good translator who will do the work justice, they may be happy to work with you anyway. They've already made their money from the Japanese book, and any English-language income is extra. They write for a living and would surely want the income, but it's outside their budget and can also be skipped if necessary.

Many authors are scared of English and contracts, and when you ask them simply hand the whole thing off to their publishers, who (by virtue of being publishers) are supposed to know what they are doing. Most of them don't. Also, once the publisher is involved, they insist on things they feel important, like advances, guaranteed minimums, etc, etc. They prefer to deal with other, established publisher who can deliver those things, and not deal with translators who offer nothing but words. Since they are usually incapable of telling a good English translation from babelfish, they also prefer to deal with an established publisher who can take responsibility for translation quality.

Literary agents are in the middle. They don't always ask for advances, they do always look out for the interests of the authors, but the bottom line is that they make their income by taking a cut from any money that moves across the table, so obviously they are more interested in books with big payments attached.

We have had very good luck searching out authors and asking directly. Sometimes they ask for conditions we can't meet; sometimes they hand us off to agents or publishers; sometimes it doesn't work out for other reasons. But in many cases, even if they do hand us off to agents or publishers, it does work out. And in our experience it works out most often when we talk to the author first.

FWIW and YMMV.

Setting up a company is quite a bit of work... and once you're a company, translators, authors, and agents will expect you to act like one. And pay them like one.
There are lot of places to get information on publishing, but here's a good one. They have a magazine, but a number of useful articles are free online.
www.ibpa-online.org/

They boil down to one thing, mostly: Get your numbers right first, which includes making a living, costs, and marketing. Among six million other things, most of which you won't discover until you're in up to your neck.
I don't make a living at publishing, and doubt I ever will.

I do think it's possible, given that some books become best sellers in English. I know a number of translators in the business who make a good sum from it, but don't really know if "a good sum" is enough to live on.
I think it would be worth remembering that Edward Seidensticker said he never made anything from any of his books, with the single exception of Kawabata, and that was only after Kawabata received the Nobel.

Big publishers will want to pay you a flat sum and buy all rights. Little publishers will want to pay you royalties to keep their initial outlay down. I almost never buy rights, instead paying royalties against sale, often with a non-refundable advance on royalties. For the translator, that means a lot of work translating with little or no income, followed by a few years of low income. Our best-selling books are the Rampos, which sell a few hundred copies a year... Considering retailers want about 50% off, and it does cost money to print things, whether you count publisher income or translator income, it's not enough to live on.

I imagine Haikasoru does better, but don't know offhand what they pay their translators; probably flatrate for all rights.

Always happy to look at proposals and talk numbers direct, though!

Yes, I'm afraid it is common, and the reason it is common is that inexperienced, unprofessional people are doing "translation" for low prices. Few companies actually worry about the quality of their English (or other languages), classifying translation as a commodity to be purchased at the lowest cost rather than a professional service essential in satisfying the customer.

studioblog.envato.com/category/freelance-freedom/