Bill's attitude is also mine.
FWITWON, Allen, though I am not claiming to be covering every step, and am only relating from my own relatively limited experience, I find it most practical to start with the translations to see if I can do it to my satisfaction and so that I have some samples to show. (I have to feel an affinity though it is never a waste of time to work with translations IMO. It is a learning process. I'm guessing it is the same for you.)
Then if the material is under copyright material I get in touch with the copyrightholder and ask for permission. You might also want to take into consideration that the publisher you find isn't in the US. I have several books of scholarly translations from Greek poetry to English that were published (and purchased) in Greece. Several countries have financial schemes to spread their literature to the greater public. In the US there is an organization called ALTA
http://www.utdallas.edu/alta/which is a confederation of US-based translators. (There are similar organizations: in the UK there is one for Swedish-English, SELTA
http://www.selta.org.uk/home.php.)
Look at these home pages, perhaps even consider joining if you have some publications under your belt. I used to belong to both ALTA and SELTA but because I made my living as a commercial translator I eventually dropped out. It is a good way to establish professional contacts, a network.
There is more than one way to skin a cat. Best of luck with this venture.