Translate your book: Think big, share globally

There are many books about relationships, self-acceptance, love and the search for the meaning of life. And there are also those authors who write about significant events, horror, fear and personal trauma. Stories and messages usually serve both the writer and the reader. This is actually a kind of dual dialogue.

On the one hand, the story allows the writer to express something, to dive into an ocean of imagination — develop an interesting plot or just recount past events, to relieve stress or simply share with potential readers.

Sharing your story also means that you release yourself from your story.

Readers, on the other hand, sometimes become inspired or find a source of healing for their own problems in the writer’s words.

Should you translate your book?

To reach and touch more people in the world, you must speak their language, which means translating your book.

Translating your book into foreign languages means that your light radiates towards others; you may never know how the light from a single sentence or idea may inspire someone in the world.

[bctt tweet=”You may never know how the light from a single sentence or idea may inspire someone in the world.”]

If you are ready to tell the world about your book, and if you have a marketing strategy that will work globally, you have to lay the foundation. You need to be well-prepared if you want to ensure that your book is distributed to the widest-possible audience.

Your book should be well-edited in the source language and translated professionally in order to reach as many foreign markets as is feasible, thus significantly increasing your potential profit.

What languages should you translate your book into?

The American book market is the largest, but also the most competitive.

It is worth publishing your book in a small pond first rather than in a huge ocean. This will allow you to reach a potential audience more quickly and prevent your being swallowed by masses of other books. It is, of course, worth translating your book into English, but also into other popular languages such as Spanish, German, French, Chinese, and more, depending on your book’s genre and its target audience. A variety of languages are supported in Kindle’s Direct Publishing interface, if that’s the route you choose to go.

Editing and proofreading

You must edit and proofread your translation. Translation, editing and proofreading are different skills and affect different aspects of your book. Sometimes a translator cannot see their own errors.

It’s always good to have another pair of fresh, objective eyes verify that the translation is well done, and that the message has been conveyed properly, both from the cultural aspect of language as well as the flow of the text.

Last but not least is graphic design, writing the blurb and having your book published in various formats: print, ebook and possibly audiobook — and then comes the marketing, which is a whole separate topic.

Ally Gilboa
Ally Gilboa is the CEO of AQ Group-Language Solutions, and has over 20 years of experience in the translation industry.

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