TV presenter Jung Ji-young

The TV presenter Jung Ji-young (31) is accused of being mere promotional front for the year’s best-selling book “Don’t Eat the Marshmallow… Yet!” whose translation is credited to her.

An unnamed professional translator told an Internet newspaper on Wednesday he signed a contract to translate the book in mid-August last year on condition that it would be published under someone else’s name. He handed in the translation in early September. The translator did not know whose name would grace his work. “The publishers told me they spent as much as US$120,000 on the copyright and that they need to use a high-profile person as a nominal translator for marketing purposes,” he said.

The publishers, The Korea Economic Daily and Business Publications, in a press release Thursday said Jung “participated” in translating the book. It said she also started translating the book in July and handed in her own version in late September, and the editing department cobbled the two versions together. “It was the first time Jung has translated a book, and to ensure the book’s quality we asked another professional to translate it,” BP added. It apologized for not being entirely upfront. The professional translator commented, “Experts can tell you how the industry works and what common practice is, so you’ll know whether what the publisher says is true or not.”

The book, published in September 2005 in the U.S., made its debut here in November that year and had sold 1 million copies by August this year, just in 9 months after publication. Jung took an active role in marketing the book, including a signing. She majored in political science and diplomacy in Ewha Woman’s University before starting her career as a presenter with SBS in 1998. She has been freelance since 2004.

(englishnews@chosun.com )