Professional book translation is a way of allowing an author’s work to reach a wider audience, raising the writer’s profile abroad and sharing ideas and literary works with other cultures. At Espresso Translations, this is one of the many features of our translation work and language services.
Why do I need to translate a book?
There are several reasons for translating a book and the motive for doing so can vary depending on what the author or publishing house are hoping to achieve.
Reasons include to:
- Expand the writer’s readership
- Share literary works with other countries
- Enrich cultural exchange
- Reach foreign markets
Of course, there are many types of works that may be translated for various purposes including literary novels, academic texts and non-fiction. The reason for translating one type of book may not be the same as for another.
What are the first steps to translate a book?
There are many steps that a book translation needs to go through before it can be published. The majority of this work involves the text itself, while the rest is more administrative and concerns the formatting, layout and marketing of the book.
Analysis of the original text
The first step is for the translator to read the book. They will typically read the text several times. This allows them to fully grasp the intent behind the work, understand cultural references and any jargon used. It’s important for the translator to have access to all relevant background information, a style guide and glossaries.
Knowing the author’s style, tone and intent is vital and helps a translator to maintain their voice within the translation. The reading of the book gives insight into the intention behind the work and the emotions it is attempting to convey or elicit.
A good translator keeps the lines of communication open with their client. This reassures the client that their book is in good hands and it means the translator can also pose questions which are pertinent to the translation of the book. Getting answers to queries as they arise keeps the translation on track, makes sure that the author has input during the process and that their voice is being maintained throughout.
Localization of a book
More often than not, a different language will also mean a different culture. This is where localisation is important. The process of translating is not just changing the language that the book is written in. It also means adapting the content so that it resonates with the new target market.
The author will consciously and subconsciously introduce their own culture into their writing. However, the translation process doesn’t always carry across the intention to another culture and sometimes the meaning or emotion can be lost.
Localisation ensures that the content of the book is culturally appropriate for the new audience and that none of the nuances of the language are missed. In particular, idiomatic language and humour are difficult to transcreate.
At Espresso Translations, we have a global network of more than 2,000 native speaking accredited translators many of whom carry out book translations. Our linguists work in more than 150 languages and have more than five years of experience in the translation industry.
Revision
Once the literary translation is complete, the process of revision can begin. This involves proofreading the book, not once but often several times. It’s important that the book translator is not the only one proofreading the content. This is because it’s possible for the person who wrote the translation to read the text as they intended it to sound rather than what is actually on the page.
For this reason, the translator needs to have an editorial team who can check and proofread the translated content. When you work with Espresso Translations, we put each translation through a multi-stage checking process starting with the translator. The work is then given to a second translator who also proofreads the work.
Finally, the client’s dedicated account manager will carry out quality control checks before the book being translated is sent to the client for approval.
Formatting and layout
Completing the translation of the text is not the final step. The formatting and layout is important and consists of choosing a font style and size, picking margins, headings, indents and spacing.
This step is vital as it ensures that the book is laid out in a readable and professional way, whether it’s a self-published work or via a traditional publisher.
Copyright management
When you want to translate a book, you need to understand how the rights to the original book and the translated version work. The author of the book translated retains the copyright of the work in the original language.
To start translating a published book, a translator needs to obtain permission from the author or publishing house to create the translation. The translation is considered a derivative work. Once the text is translated, the translator owns the copyright to this version.
However, in some cases a publisher may require the translator to allow them to retain the copyright and this is negotiated between the parties. The author or publishing house may not be willing to sell the translation rights which refer to the right of a translator to publish a book in another language. It’s not the same as foreign rights which refers to publishing a book in another country but in its original language.
Royalty payments for the translated work should be included in the contract that a translator signs with a publisher. But contracts vary so it’s important to check the details carefully before signing.
What tools can help with book translation?
All translators at Espresso Translations have access to Computer Assisted Translation (CAT) tools. These are incorporated into the way our book translation service works and serve to make the process more efficient, effective, manageable and fast.
Some of the CAT tools that we use are:
- Translation memory: this stores phrases or sentences of text that have been used before, to ensure consistency across individual clients or genres and speeds up the translation process.
- Glossaries: a glossary holds an alphabetical list of terms and words used in specific topics or languages to further help with consistency across projects.
- Quality assurance tools: checks such as spelling and grammar, number consistency and tag verification can help to spot potential errors.
Examples of the type of CAT tools used by many translators and agencies, such as Espresso Translations, include MemoQ, Smartling, Trados, SmartCat and Lokalise.
The ebook: revolution in publishing
There’s no doubt that ebooks have revolutionised the publishing world. Not only do they allow readers to access their favourite work on tablets, e-readers and smartphones but they have also opened up the world of self publishing.
An online book is simply a digital version as opposed to a printed copy of a work. It allows authors to publish their own writing without the need for a traditional publisher. Of course, anyone who does self publish also needs to do their own marketing but as the book is available online, it’s not difficult to reach a wide readership and international market.
What are common challenges in translating a book?
As mentioned, translating a book into a new language can be a complex process and there are some common challenges that literary translators will encounter.
- Finding the right translator for your book
- Maintaining the author’s voice, intent, tone and style
- Conveying linguistic nuances from the source to the target language
- Translating humour, sarcasm, idioms, metaphors and cultural references into the new language
- Obtain the rights for the book to be translated
- Securing a publishing deal once you get your book translated
Each translation project is different and some genres of books such as academic texts are potentially more complicated than others, for example, fiction. A translator has to approach each book translation with fresh eyes even when they have a lot of experience translating such works.
Should I hire a professional translator?
In order to obtain a high quality translation, it’s imperative that you use a professional translator or translation agency, such as Espresso Translations. Despite the prevalence of online translation software that is either free of charge or available for a monthly subscription, this won’t work for a book.
Machine translation
While services such as Google translate or ChatGPT may be useful for everyday translation tasks, they won’t have the capacity or accuracy required for an entire manuscript. Although these programs are highly sophisticated, they cannot replicate the accuracy of a human translation. They may have the language skills but as we’ve seen, that’s not all that is required to translate books well. They lack the interpretive skill and contextual inference of a skilled human translator who is a native speaker of the target language and fluent in the source language.
What are the legal aspects in the translation of a book?
The main legal aspect when translating a book is obtaining the right to translate, adapt or publish a derivation of the original work. To legally translate someone else’s literary work, they must sell the rights. The copyright holder may be the author themselves or the publisher of the book.
Once you get the right to translate a book, it’s usual for a contract to be drawn up which outlines the terms, scope of rights and the financial agreement for the translation work.
Translation rights are intellectual property rights which permit a third party, i.e., the translator, to create a translated version of the original book. These rights mean the translator may claim copyright over the derived, translated work but not the original book.
How is a translated book published?
A translated book is published when the original author or publisher sells the rights to a foreign publisher or translator to publish the book in another language. The work of promoting and distributing the translated work is the responsibility of the new publisher. This process is followed in the United Kingdom and most other countries.
