How to Translate a Book: 7 Tips for International Success

As an author, you know how exciting it is to finally see your work published. Soon, you might start brainstorming ways to reach a wider audience and expand your market.

One option is to get your book translated and market it to international audiences. In this post, we’ll walk you through everything you need to know about choosing the right markets, translating your book, and building success abroad.

How to Translate a Book

The following tips will help you evaluate the foreign market for your book, find the right translator, and publish your translated book for more readers to enjoy.

1. Decide if your book needs to be translated.

Before you spend time and money hiring a translator, decide whether a translated version makes sense for your book.

One way to get a feel for this is to review your existing international sales. For example, if you notice some international sales coming from Italy, that might be a good sign that your book could do even better there if you translate it into Italian.

But if the subject matter of your book pertains primarily to Americans or people from countries where English is the dominant language, it might not make sense to invest in translating your book.

This is all just one more reason why understanding your audience and doing thorough market research is an important step in every part of the publishing process.

2. Identify your target markets.

Publishing a book is exciting, and doubly so in a foreign language. But don’t get ahead of yourself: when it comes to self-published and independent books, it’s often best to test your book out on one market at a time.

Generally speaking, the most popular foreign markets for self-published authors are:

• France
• Germany
• Italy
• Spain
• India
• Japan
• China

Of course, you’ll notice that these are all countries with their own Amazon marketplace; however, don’t assume that your book would do well in all of these markets.

Study the popularity of your genre in each of these markets. Just because a given genre is popular is France doesn’t mean it’s equally popular in neighboring Italy.

Cruise Amazon’s international sites and check out the top-ranking books in your niche. Do they get a lot of reviews? Does the genre seem generally popular? What’s your competition like? These are all important questions to answer before you decide to publish in an international market.

3. Consider selling the rights.

Before we go any further, you might also consider just selling the rights to your book in a certain Amazon market through an international publisher, in which case they could handle the translation process for you.

We discuss the process of selling foreign language rights (and its benefits) in our podcast interview with author Elliott Katz.

4. Hire a professional translator.

If you do decide to take on translation yourself, please, please, please, please ignore the little voice in the back of your head that’s telling you to just copy and paste your manuscript into Google Translate. The software can be a mighty force when you just need to translate one or a few words at a time, but things can get really messy when you’re working with anything more than that.

That’s because tools like Google Translate can’t really understand the context of what you’re writing, and it’s very common for them to misinterpret a word’s usage, spitting out a totally different meaning from what you intended. (You’ll probably find at least one example of this if you type even a short paragraph into Google Translate).

When it comes to writing a book, nothing can replace a human writer who fully understands both languages and can pick up on the subtle nuances that make your writing powerful and unique. They need to be able to reproduce that tone, which means they’re often doing more than an exact, word-for-word translation.

While there are plenty of translation services around, it’s often best to find professionals who specialize in literary translation. They’ll be more familiar with how the writing and publishing process works, and will know what they need to do to maintain the feel and quality of your writing. The American Literary Translators Association is a great place to start your search.

Another thing to consider when publishing a translation is your title: a direct translation might not be the best option. Ask your translator if they can help you come up with an attractive, catchy title in their language that maintains the meaning and tone of your original title, but speaks to your target audience.

5. Create a contract with the translator.

Just as you should for any type of professional partnership, you’ll want to work out a contract with your translator where you clearly outline and agree to the expectations of both parties.

Here are a few things you’ll want to be clear on before signing anything:

• Will the translator help to translate marketing material as well (such as book blurbs, the description, or your bio)?
• Will the translator be available to do a final proofread? (Typos can find their way into a translated work just as easy as in the original!) Is the proofread included or considered an additional cost?
• What’s the expected turn-around time?

And of course, you’ll want to set and agree to a price. You’ll also want to check with your publisher and translator to verify which international rights you’ll still own.

Always read the fine print!

6. Publish your translated book (or sell the rights).

Now it’s time to publish your translated book! This part really isn’t much different from publishing your original book (check out our guide to Kindle self-publishing for a step-by-step checklist).

You’ll also want to set up an Amazon Author Central page for your target Amazon marketplace. We have an Author Central tutorial that will show you how to do that for every country. Be sure to include a translated version of your author bio.

7. Market your book internationally.

If you’ve published a translation of your book, at the very least you should link to it from your author website.

If you want to go a step or two further, you can try the following:

• Check your mailing list. Ask subscribers from your target country if they’d like a free copy to review.
• Research the top book reviewers or bloggers in your target country and send them copies to review.
• Use Amazon ads, which are currently available for the UK, German, French, Italian, and Spanish marketplaces, with more to be added soon.
• Post about your translated book on social media! Tag posts with your foreign title and use geotags for your target country.

How Much Does It Cost to Have a Book Translated?

The rate you can expect to pay for a book translation can vary greatly depending on the translator’s experience level and the difficulty of your book, and as a freelancer they can set their own rates.

On average, though, you can expect to pay around $0.10–$0.12 per word for the main European languages (so for an 80,000-word book, $8,000–$9,600); other languages may cost slightly more, depending on how common they are.

However, some freelancers may charge by the hour (this is not the most recommended payment method, since it’s often hard to predict how long a project will take a translator).

Others may ask for a percentage of your royalties (sometimes with an up-front fee, sometimes not; make sure this is also clear to both parties).

Take Your Book Abroad

Translating your book and selling it in foreign marketplaces can be a great way to grow your audience and your sales.

The important thing is that you do your research beforehand and determine that there is a viable market for your book in another country. If there is, then your book may be ready for translation and a trip abroad!

Did you find this post helpful? Let us know in the comments below!

 

If you enjoyed this post, then you might also like:

• How to Publish a Book: The Ultimate Guide to Book Publishing in 2021
• 169: How to Write Children’s Books and Work with an Illustrator with AJ Cosmo
• 100: Selling Foreign Language Rights for Your Book with Elliott Katz
• Copyright Page Templates: Sample Copyright Language You Can Use

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