Obviously, you can’t have a subtitle without a translation, so you will need to find a translator. A good place to look for someone to help you translate is your local anime club or college campus. Advertising on the Internet might work as well, but it’s often better to have someone local to work with as opposed to working across long distances. If you’re lucky, you’ll find someone who shares your love of anime and is willing to translate for free. Chances are, however, that they will want to be paid for their services. After all, translating isn’t much fun. Expect to pay between 30 to 60 dollars per 20- minute episode for translation. Stop looking at me like that. Didn’t I tell you that this was an expensive hobby?

     There are a couple things you want to make sure before you pay for a translation. The first is that you check to make sure no one else has already done your project and released a script to the public. Why spend all that money for a translation when you can download one free? There are a number of Internet sites that contain huge archives of anime scripts. One such archive is located at ftp://fansubs.net/pub/Scripts/. Another thing you want to make sure is that you have exclusive rights to the script once the translation is completed. You are paying for it, therefore you own it. Make sure you have clarified this with your translator that s/he has no right whatsoever to the finished product once payment has been made for it. This also means s/he cannot give it to anyone else. One more thing to keep in mind is that it takes time to translate. You shouldn’t expect to have your project translated overnight. Work out in advance with your translator the timeframe for project completion. It could take several days, or several weeks. Don’t make unreasonable demands or overwork your translator. It is hard work and they will burn out and never want to help you again if you constantly nag them.