Translation Blog

You have written your book; that’s great! But what next? Have you considered the idea of translating books into other languages? When done correctly, translating books can help you reach broader audiences and share your words with the world. However, if you don’t know how to translate books professionally, the task can seem daunting.

This article looks more closely at book translation, helping you decide whether translating books is the right avenue for you. We also offer tips on getting the best book translation services possible and how to choose the right languages for your writing.

Why Get your Book Translated?

The benefits of book translation are clear: When you translate books into a new language, you increase the number of people who can read your book. This opens a new, broader international market for your book. It makes it possible to speak across generations and cultures, enriching people worldwide with your stories and ideas.

You can also broaden your fanbase by translating books. Your biggest audience might be in a language you don’t speak. With a skilled translator who is experienced in book translation, you can reach that audience and improve the success of your writing.

What Languages Should I Translate Books into?

One of the biggest problems preventing writers from translating books is not knowing how to choose a language for translation. Unfortunately, there is no concrete answer; there are lots of factors to consider, including the following elements:

• Genre Popularity: Where is your genre of book popular? For example, Swedish and Norwegian thrillers are incredibly popular in the United Kingdom. As such, translating a Scandinavian thriller into English is a good idea. Fiction is popular in Germany. Meanwhile, in France, non-fiction is popular.
• Market Size: Another thing to consider is the market size. In 2017, the USA made up 30% of the worldwide book market, while the UK accounted for 4%. English translation services are therefore a wise idea for books written in other languages. Across Europe, the largest book markets are Germany, France, Spain, and Italy. Translating books into any of these languages could equally be good for driving sales and revenue.
• Translation Budget: Your budget is also an important consideration. You can choose to translate books into one or many foreign languages. If your budget is modest, start with one language, and translate into more languages over time. Translating into commonly spoken languages is cheaper than rendering texts into more niche languages.

How Does Book Translation Work?

Now that you have chosen your language(s) for your book, the next step is the translation itself. We always recommend hiring qualified translators when translating books. Professional translators typically follow a three-step process called TEP (translating, editing, proofreading). This ensures that your translation is accurate and that the message is retained.

Professional translation services are also done with the true meaning of the book in mind. This practice involves contextualisation and localisation, and goes further than a word-for-word translation. A word-for-word translation can lose sense and clarity, which could confuse or frustrate readers. On the converse, retaining context when you translate books keeps your readers engaged and happy.

How Much Does Translating Books Cost?

The cost of translation can vary significantly depending on several factors. Most professional translators quote projects based on their length. Therefore, the length of the book is the primary consideration; a short novella will cost less to translate than a 400-page novel.

The language pairing also affects how much it costs to translate books. The language pair is the language the original content and the language you want to translate into. More unusual combinations of language pairs are often more expensive. This is because translating books into rare languages is a specialist skill with few linguists able to take on the project.

Deadlines can also affect the cost of book translation services. A short deadline will push up the cost of your book translation, whereas having a longer timetable will help keep the cost of translating your book down. If you want to a cost-effective book translation service, ensure you give as much time as possible to your language partner.

Can you Translate Books without Permissions?

You do not need permission to translate a book for personal use. However, if you intend to sell or distribute a translation of a book, you will need written permission from the copyright holder. There are a few exceptions to this in which you can translate books without copyright permission:

• If you are the author or the copyright holder
• If the copyright has expired and entered the public domain
• If the book was published before copyright laws were created

Before translating books, you may need to research copyright laws and current copyright holders. You can find information about when a book was first published on the first few pages of the book. It will also name the publisher and author. The author is usually the copyright holder. However, sometimes the publisher can be the copyright holder.

There are websites for book catalogues that you can also use to find the copyright status of a book. If the book was first published in America, the Library of Congress and the U.S. Copyright Office have information about its copyright status. Websites like Project Gutenberg also hold collections of public-domain books that can be translated freely without permission.

Trust our Professional Book Translation Services

Renaissance Translations maintains a network of over 5,000 professional translators and offers high-quality translations in over 120 languages. This makes us the one-stop shop for translating books of all lengths and genres. Whether you need a translation into one language or ten, we are here to help your reach your full audience.

Our company is member of the Association of Translation Companies in England as well as SDL LSP Partner Programme. We have helped hundreds of clients with their needs and are sure we can provide book translation services you’ll love. Click here and tell us more about your book translation project, or request a quote through our website.

Literal translation refers to any translation that replaces words from one language to another without evaluating the cultural contexts. Word-for-word translation is a common path while learning a language. Nevertheless, you cannot retain the message of the original content when you literally translate one word at a time, meaning literal translation has significant limitations for businesses.

The article looks at several literal translation examples, highlighting issues that come from directly substituting words between languages. We also discuss another better option for business translations: creative translation or transcreation.

Examples of Literal Translation

Many online translation tools provide a word-for-word translation. The resources are usually free and do not require specific knowledge of the target language or other technical skills. The translations are produced by algorithms that literally translate sentences one at a time; that’s why they sound mechanical and automatic.

We decided to include a list of English and Italian idioms to identify the differences between a natural and literal translation. In these literal translation examples, it is fascinating to understand how the word-for-word translation does not match the accurate translation at all:

• “Tocca Ferro” is an idiom used when avoiding bad luck. This phrase literally translates to “Touch Iron” in English. However, the correct translation is “Touch Wood”, which translates word-for-word to “Tocca Legno” in Italian.
• “I vestiti non fanno l’uomo” in Italian translates literally to “The clothes don’t make the man” in English. However, the actual English saying is “The cowl doesn’t make the monk” In Italian, the literal translation is “L’abito non fa il monaco”.
• “In bocca al lupo” is a phrase which means “Good luck” or “Break a leg” in English. However, the literal translation of the Italian phrase is “In the mouth of the wolf”. Comparatively, “Break a leg” translates literally to “Rompersi una gamba” in Italian.

Why Should You Avoid Literal Translation?

The above literal translation examples should already give you an idea of the problems that come from word-for-word translation. A literal translation is easy and quick but often without a correct meaning. Even when the sentences do make sense, a literal translation does not sound natural. It reads like a computer language: automatic and mechanical.

When machines translate literally, they do not consider the nuances of a language, namely structure, grammar, idioms, and context. Your sentences are deprived of emotions and tone of voice, significantly impacting the desired effect of your content on your audience. They also increase the risk of delivering or creating a text with a different meaning.

What is Creative Translation?

To avoid errors like those in our literal translation examples, consider creative translation. Unlike a literal translation, creative translation can keep the original meaning of the message using the right tone and context for the target language. The goal of creative translations is to maintain the content of a message, changing words and structure accordingly.

To translate literally requires basic language skills, but creative translation requires a deep knowledge of the target language. Words can have different meanings, which vary according to the context and the language. This variety of expressions creates a wide range of choices for translation, and only skilled translators can choose the most suitable version that elicits the desired response.

Innovation and creativity also play a crucial role in correctly translating and interpreting business messages. In fact, creative translation plays a considerable part in a business aiming to reach as many clients as possible. They enable companies to engage worldwide with their audience by delivering the right message and tone through easy-to-read text.

Literal Translation vs Creative Translation

To highlight the differences between creative and literal translations, here is a quick comparison:

• Literal Translation: Literal translation is accurate and quick, yet mechanical. It does not consider the grammar and the structure of the target language and literally translates words without considering the tone and meaning. They often come from online resources like Google Translate (where we got our literal translation examples).
• Creative Translation: Creative or natural translation aims to create texts specifically for the target audience. Context and culture are fundamental elements, ensuring the right tone of voice and meaning. Creative translations are performed by human translations offered working at professional translation services

Three Steps for a Natural Translation

Getting a literal translation using online tools can be tempting, but it will not sound natural or effective. As you’ve learnt from our literal translation examples, your content might lose its meaning entirely when you literally translate each word.

Creating natural and engaging translations is more challenging, but it is essential for any global business. And with these three steps, natural-sounding content is possible:

1. Localise Content: Localisation plays a crucial role in translation, considering regional and cultural nuances. For example, Spanish is spoken in Spain and South America, but the culture, pronunciation, and some words of these countries are quite different. Localising the content will probably result in two different translations, both in Spanish.
2. Tone of Voice: Words can significantly impact consumers’ decisions, so it is essential to transmit the same tone and emotions when translating from one language to another. This is impossible with a literal translation, as culture significantly impacts how content and ideas land. Something humorous in the UK might be offensive in China, for instance.
3. Simplify When Possible: Copywriting and translation are essential in a robust global marketing strategy and branding. Creativity is necessary to adapt the content in different languages, and a spot-on translation maintains the core meaning of the message to deliver. If the translation of a text is too complicated in the target language, simplifying concepts can result in a clear, easy-to-understand message.

Trust Our Professional Translation Services

Literal translations lack a deep knowledge of the target language. When you literally translate words and phrases, you cannot maintain tone and your content sounds mechanical. As our literal translation examples proved, you can even lose the meaning of the text entirely.

For businesses, creative translations are far superior. However, creating texts that resonate with the philosophy of a company means adapting words and structure, interpreting the context, and being able to transmit the message accordingly. It is a complex task, and working with a reliable language services provider, and a member of the ATC, such as Renaissance Translations, is essential.

We have pooled the talents of native translators and thousands of professional linguists internationally, covering most languages and subject areas. If you want to discuss your language translation project, please get in touch with our project managers or request a quote online.

We are often asked about how much it costs to translate a document. Unfortunately, there is no simple answer! Each UK translation company has its own pricing structure. The cost of a document translator also depends on the type of document and your requirements. Translate a document into a widely-spoken language, and you’ll pay far less than translating into a niche language with few professional linguists available, for example.

So, how can you figure out a rough cost estimate for your project? This article explains all you need to know! Below we look at six factors that can affect the rates for translating a document. By the end, you’ll have a fair estimation of the budget you need to set aside.

1. Language Pair

The language pair is the first thing to consider when translating a document. What language is the original document in?—this is the source language. And what language would you like it to be translated to?—this is the target language. For example, if you need to translate a document from English to Spanish, English is the source language, and Spanish is the target language.

Translating between two common languages spoken by many people will usually be cheaper than translating a document between a more unusual language combination. This is because more translators work between widely-spoken languages. A UK translation company almost definitely has a skilled linguist that can translate from English to French, for example.

On the other hand, it becomes more expensive to translate a document between rarer languages. The translation costs more when the source or the target language is uncommon. And when the original and the target language are rare, translation fees increase further. For example, finding a professional document translator for Albanian to Hawaiian can be challenging.

2. Length of the Document

The length of the document will have a significant impact on translation fees. A UK translation company usually calculates their fees based on the number of words in the source document. The longer the content, the more time it takes to translate a document, so the more you need to pay.

Translations are charged like this as it’s the best way for companies to provide accurate translation costs upfront. It isn’t easy to anticipate the word count of a final product ahead of time, so the source document acts as a reliable and fair price point. A professional document translator can translate an average of 1500-2000 words daily, depending on the language, technology aids, and other factors.

The only exception to this rule is for high-volume projects. A UK translation company typically offers generous discounts if you’re translating particularly long documents or the same document into several languages. The provided discounts will be clearly identified in your initial quote.

3. Turnaround Time

We’ve explained that most document translators can render 1500-2000 words daily. However, this doesn’t mean your document translator will be available immediately! A UK translation company will have many simultaneous ongoing projects and a backlog of other work.

If you need to translate a document quickly and push your project to the front of their to-do list, it could increase the translation cost. This is more likely if the document has a high word count or the delivery date is just a few hours or days away. If a translator must work evenings or weekends to meet a short deadline, this is likely reflected in the quote.

Planning ahead and offering extended deadlines when hiring a professional linguist to translate a document will prevent the cost from rising due to tight deadlines. Being flexible with the deadline saves money without sacrificing the quality of the end product.

4. Area of Specialisation

Translation fees can also vary significantly depending on the content of the document. Specialisation is necessary for technical translations, such as documents in the fields of medicine, pharmaceuticals, and engineering. These types of translations require specific use of technical phrases and specialist knowledge by the document translator.

Some organisations and governments may require someone with specific qualifications or certificates to translate a document. This is especially true in the case of identity documents, evidence to support visa applications, or legal translation. This is sometimes called a sworn translation or certified translation. Hiring a UK translation company for these purposes may cost more.

5. Source Text Formatting

The formatting of the original document can affect the cost of hiring a UK translation company. If the original document is a non-editable scan of a document or even a physical copy of a book, translation fees could be higher. Your translator must convert the document into an editable format before they can begin the translation process, adding to the time taken to translate a document.

Providing an editable, digital copy of the source text is always preferable for a professional document translator and anyone wanting to keep translation fees low. It is also possible to provide translations from an audio file. This service, known as multilingual transcription services, is priced differently from text-to-text translation, charged per minute of the original recording.

6. Localisation and Transcreation

Depending on your needs, localisation and transcreation might be required. These services are more comprehensive than translation services, considering cultural preferences and making the end-user experience the same for people across the globe.

These services better suit specific industries. For example, market-facing materials that capture a localised brand image might require creative writing in another language or transcreation. You can expect to pay more for localisation and transcreation than to simply translate a document. Your document translator needs to put more work into the project, as reflected in the price.

On the other hand, a more direct translation that does not need localisation or transcreation services will be priced lower. Not every UK translation company offers localisation and transcreation, so check when requesting a quote to ensure your translated materials are fit for their purpose.

Get a Quote to Translate a Document Today!

Ultimately, it is impossible to say how much it costs to translate a document without seeing the document or discussing it first. There are many factors used to calculate translation fees. The more specialised skills your need your document translator to have, the quicker your deadlines, and the more work you require, the higher the rates.

You can receive an accurate quote from our leading UK translation company easily online. Our company is a member of the Association of Translation Companies in the UK, and we are also members in SDL Trados LSP Partner Programme. Click here and provide us with just a few details about your document. One of our friendly team will be in touch to discuss our translation fees, providing you with a competitively priced and transparent quote within a few hours.

Translation has been around for centuries. The technique of translation has evolved over time, and several types of translation have emerged. In the modern world, there are three types of translation: human translation, machine translation, and post-edited translation. These three examples of translation are all viable ways of rendering content into another language.

But which of these types of translation should you use for your project? Each way of translating content has its benefits, and the ‘best’ option depends on your budget, timeframe, and requirements. Let’s take a closer look at your options and help you decide the right choice for your needs.

1. Human Translation

Human translation is the process of translating text from one language to another performed by a human translator. This method produces the most accurate and reliable of all types of translation, resulting in natural-sounding, authentic content. Here are a few more examples of translation benefits you get when enlisting real people to work on your projects:

• Improved accuracy as the context and nuances of the source and target languages are considered when using this technique.
• Ensuring the finished content sounds natural and fluid in the target language, helping to connect and engage audiences more effectively.
• Human translators can pay attention to detail and recognise the many elements of a text, such as symbols and metaphors.
• Translators can take a more creative approach to translation when necessary, offering localisation and transcreation services.
• Increased types of multimedia formats that your translator can work on, including written content, audio files, websites and apps, and video.

Despite these many benefits, human translation services are more expensive and time-consuming than other types of translation. For this reason, this technique of translation is not always the best option for large-scale projects. As technology has advanced, machine translation has thus gained popularity in recent years.

2. Machine Translation

Machine translation is a computer-aided translation process in which a machine attempts to translate text from one language to another. It is often used for large-scale projects thanks to its price advantage. An automated process is also faster than human and other types of translation. Here is a look at some more examples of translation benefits when using computers:

• Machine translation can be much faster than human translation, making this technique of translation ideal for large-scale projects.
• Machine translation is often cheaper than human translation, making it a more affordable option for businesses and organisations.
• Large amounts of text can be translated quickly using this method, which is useful for urgent projects or anyone working to tight deadlines.
• Many machine translations are available for free on websites and mobile apps, often integrated into the software. They automatically translate into the language of the end user.

However, machine translation is less accurate or reliable than human translation and can often produce awkward or unintelligible translations. This leads us to our third translation method, which strikes a balance between the types of translation we’ve covered so far.

3. Post-Edited Translation

Post-edited translation – also known as post-editing machine translation (PEMT) – is a form of computer translation combined with a human element. Human linguists rework machine-translated text to improve the quality. The results are made more accurate, consistent, and authentic.

These types of translation strike a good balance between human and machine translations. Post-edited translation is thus a solution when human translation is not an option due to cost or time constraints, but when accuracy is of high importance. Below are some more examples of translation benefits using this method:

• By editing machine translations, human translators can improve the accuracy, fluency, and readability of translations in the PEMT process.
• Post-edited translation does require humans to translate text from one language to another but instead uses machines, making the process highly efficient.
• It is a good option for professional content when the quality of machine translations is not good enough for publication or use, but time and budget matter.

Although post edited translation is much faster than human translation, this technique of translation is still more time-consuming than machine translation alone. This is the main drawback of this translation method, but it is still a great alternative to human translations when accuracy is essential.

Which Type of Translation to Use

Budget and time are two essential factors to consider when deciding which of the three types of translation to use. However, you must also determine how important accuracy is in your translation. Weighing up these three factors can help you choose a suitable method. Let’s look at some examples of translation projects to explain things more clearly.

For more creative translations that do not have a short deadline, human translation is often the best option. This technique of translation is the most authentic and accurate and is a good option for companies looking to launch businesses overseas. Human translators can take a creative approach and make your brand name and marketing materials suitable for other cultures.

On the other hand, machine translation may be preferable when a translation needs to be done quickly. However, machines should only be relied on if accuracy isn’t important. Legal translations should never be left to a machine, for example. In many cases, legal paperwork has to be certified by a human linguist to ensure it is 100% accurate.

Post-edited translations are your best option if you have a tight deadline and a low budget but need accurate and authentic translations. They’re beneficial in cases where machine translations cannot provide enough context for understanding what is being said in the source text, and are far more accurate than machine-translated texts alone.

Professional Translation Services from Renaissance Translations

The technique of translation has evolved over time with the rise of technology. Today, the three types of translation are human, machine, and post-edited. Although each type of translation has its benefits, machine and post-edited translations are often used in tandem with human translation to complete large projects within an acceptable timeframe.

If you need a quick and affordable yet 100% accurate translation, we can help! Renaissance Translations has a growing network of qualified human linguists. We have pooled the talents of native translators and thousands of linguists internationally. Each uses our computer-assisted tools to help streamline projects, improve consistency, and keep our fees low.

Our outstanding services have made us the go-to translation agency for companies worldwide, and you can find examples of translation testimonials here. If you want to discuss your project, please contact our project managers or request a quote online on our website.