Our Book Translation Process — What to Expect
A friendly walk-through of how we translate your book into target languages: native-speaker translator selection, sample chapter approval, full translation + editorial QA, localisation choices, and exactly how rights and territory questions get answered before you commit.
Translating a book is closer to writing it again than to rewording it. A bad translation reads literal — sentence-by-sentence Google with cultural references intact — and readers in the target market spot it within paragraphs. A good translation captures the voice, the genre conventions, the cultural texture; it reads like the book was originally written in that language. This page walks you through how we choose translators, how the sample-chapter approval works, what 'localisation' actually means, and exactly how rights and territory questions get answered before you commission.
1Before You Order: Which Markets Are You Actually Targeting?
Translation is per-language, per-territory. A Spanish translation works for Spain, Mexico, Argentina, and the broader Spanish-speaking world — but the cultural register, idioms, and even some vocabulary differ. Be specific about which market you're targeting, because the translator and the editorial pass are tuned to that audience. Choosing 'just translate it to Spanish' usually means defaulting to a neutral Latin American Spanish — fine for most cases but suboptimal if you're really targeting Madrid or just Mexico City.
💡 Pro Tips
- Spanish (Spain) vs Spanish (Mexico) vs Spanish (Latin American neutral) — pick one upfront
- Portuguese (Brazil) vs Portuguese (Portugal) — significantly different markets
- Chinese: Simplified (PRC) vs Traditional (Taiwan, Hong Kong) — different scripts entirely
- If you're targeting multiple territories within one language family, ask about the multi-locale add-on rather than commissioning two separate translations
- Most fiction is published in one regional variant per language; non-fiction can sometimes use the neutral variant successfully
⚠️ Important
- Don't commission a translation without knowing where you'll distribute it. Amazon's marketplaces are language-specific; KDP requires a target marketplace at upload
- If you're publishing through a foreign rights deal (sold rights to a publisher in the target market), the publisher usually arranges translation — don't pay twice
- Audiobook and translation are usually decoupled: a translated manuscript still needs separate audiobook production in the target language
2Native Speakers, Always
Every translator we engage translates INTO their native language, never out of it. This is the bedrock of professional book translation: a native English speaker may read Spanish fluently and write academic Spanish well, but they won't capture the cultural texture, idiom, and rhythm of a target-market audience the way a native Spanish speaker who grew up reading novels in that language does. Reading fluency and writing-for-publication fluency are different skill levels.
💡 Pro Tips
- All HMD translators have a published book (or 5+ ghostwritten ones) in the target language to their name
- We pair fiction translators with fiction projects, business translators with business books, etc. — genre-fit matters as much as language
- Translators sign the same NDA as ghostwriters: cannot disclose involvement, cannot use the project in their portfolio publicly
⚠️ Important
- Avoid 'machine translation + human polish' offers from low-cost vendors — they read translated, regardless of how much polish was applied. Native-from-scratch translation is a different category of output
- If you've already had an unofficial translation done by a friend or AI tool, we can review it for usability, but most projects in that situation are faster to translate fresh than to repair
3How the Process Works — Step by Step
Every translation project follows the same six-step rhythm. Total project time depends on word count and language pair, but typical full-novel projects run 8–14 weeks order-to-delivery.
You complete the translation intake form
Source manuscript file (.docx), target language and territory, genre and target reader, voice notes, any pre-existing terminology choices (character names, brand names, invented terms), publishing destination (specific Amazon marketplace, IngramSpark, Apple Books country page, etc.), and your deadline. About 15 minutes.
We pair you with a target-language translator
Based on intake, you're paired with a translator whose published work matches your genre and target territory. You see a writing sample of theirs in the target language and (if the source is in English) a sample of their previous translation work. If you don't read the target language, we'll send a back-translation of the sample so you can verify accuracy and tone.
Sample chapter translation + sign-off
Translator translates the first chapter (or 1,500–2,500 words, whichever is longer) to establish voice. We deliver the translated chapter alongside translator's notes on key terminology choices, idiom adaptations, and cultural localisation decisions. You sign off on the approach before the rest is translated.
Full manuscript translation
Once the sample is approved, the translator works through the whole manuscript. Pace varies by language pair and genre — fiction tends to be slower than non-fiction; languages with very different sentence structure (e.g. Chinese ↔ English) take longer than closely related pairs (Spanish ↔ Italian).
Editorial QA pass (separate target-language editor)
A second native-speaker editor reads the translated manuscript fresh, looking for missed nuance, awkward phrasing, factual errors introduced in translation, and consistency across long manuscripts. This is where amateur translation services skip — but it's where reader-facing quality lives.
Final delivery + translator's notes
Clean Word document in the target language, plus a notes document explaining major terminology choices and any sections where you might want a different rendering. Ready for editing pass (if you want a third pair of eyes), formatting, and platform upload.
4Localisation, Not Just Translation
Translation moves words from one language to another. Localisation moves the book — the cultural texture, the references, the conventions. Most book projects need both. The translator decides hundreds of localisation calls per chapter; the sample chapter is where you see the approach and adjust before it's applied book-wide.
💡 Pro Tips
- Cultural references: a US-set novel referencing 'CVS' becomes 'la farmacia' in Spanish — usually. Sometimes you keep the brand name to preserve setting fidelity. Decide at sample stage.
- Currency: $20 → £20? €20? Convert? Keep in source? Depends on whether the book's setting matters. Decide at sample stage.
- Idioms: 'kick the bucket' has a target-language equivalent that lands the same emotional beat. Literal translation reads dead.
- Names: character names typically stay in source language; place names sometimes translate (London/Londres/Londra), sometimes don't.
- Humour: the hardest. Translator often rewrites the joke to land in the target culture rather than translating it literally and losing the comedy.
⚠️ Important
- The cheapest translations skip localisation calls entirely — they read accurate but emotionally flat. Reader-facing quality lives in the small choices.
- If your book is heavily setting-dependent (e.g. London thriller), tell us at intake — we'll preserve setting fidelity even when it costs naturalness in the target language
5Rights, Territory, and What You Own
Translation is a derivative work. Under international copyright law, you can only commission a translation if you own (or are licensed to control) the translation rights for your book in the target language and territory. Most self-published authors own all rights by default; traditionally published authors may have sold them.
Self-published authors (most common): you own all rights
If you uploaded directly to KDP, IngramSpark, or similar, you own translation rights worldwide unless you've explicitly sold them. Translation is straightforward.
Traditionally published: check your contract
Many publishing contracts grant the publisher the right to control or license translations. Read your contract's territory and language clauses. If the publisher controls translation rights, they need to authorise the translation (and usually arrange it themselves).
Hybrid / partially licensed
Common for authors who've sold film/audio/some-territory rights but not others. We can review your rights situation at intake and confirm which languages and territories are clear for translation.
What you own when we deliver
The translated manuscript is a work-for-hire commission, just like our ghostwriting service. You own 100% of the translation copyright; the translator has no future claim. You can publish it under any name, sell it to a foreign publisher, or license it onward without going back to the translator.
⚠️ Important
- If you're unsure about rights, we'll review your situation as part of intake at no charge — but the responsibility for confirming you can legally commission the translation sits with you
6Editorial Quality: Why We Use a Second Editor
Single-translator projects routinely have small inconsistencies that the translator can't see in their own work — character name spellings drifting halfway through, terminology choices getting reversed across chapters, awkward phrasings the translator stopped noticing after re-reading. The second-editor pass costs a meaningful fraction of project time and budget but it's the difference between an amateur translation and a publishable one.
💡 Pro Tips
- Standard tier: full editorial QA pass included
- Premium 'Localization Pro' tier: editorial QA + cultural-sensitivity review (e.g. for translations targeting markets with specific content sensitivities) + targeted reader-feedback round in target language
⚠️ Important
- Some lower-cost competitors skip the editor pass entirely. Their translations are technically accurate; they read translated.
7Revisions Policy
Translation revisions split into two clean categories: language-fidelity issues (the translator missed something or got it wrong — always free) and authorial preference (you wanted a different rendering of an idiom or terminology choice — covered up to a limit, then quoted).
💡 Pro Tips
- Sample chapter revisions: unlimited and free. This is the cheapest place to course-correct on voice and approach
- Full manuscript revisions: 2 rounds included for fidelity issues; 1 round for authorial preference adjustments
- Substantial preference changes (e.g. 'I want all dialogue in a more formal register'): quoted as a partial re-translation; we'll always quote before doing the work
⚠️ Important
- If you decide mid-project that you wanted a different territory variant (e.g. 'I commissioned Spanish-Spain but I really need Spanish-Mexico'), the translator either re-localises or we re-pair with a new translator — both quoted as a fresh project
8What's Included — and What Isn't
The translation package covers the manuscript translation only. Editing, formatting, cover design (target-language title and back-cover), audiobook production in the target language, and territory-specific publishing setup are all separate engagements.
💡 Pro Tips
- Included: native-speaker translation, sample chapter approval, full manuscript, editorial QA pass (Standard tier and above), translator's notes document, rights review at intake
- Not included (separate services): target-language editing pass (recommended on top of QA for major releases), formatting in the target language (line lengths and hyphenation differ), cover redesign with translated title/blurb, audiobook in target language, KDP/Apple Books platform setup for the target marketplace
- Multi-locale add-on: targeting two regional variants of the same language (e.g. Spanish-Spain + Spanish-Mexico) at significantly less than two separate translations — quoted at intake
9Turnaround Expectations
Total project time scales with word count and language pair. A 60,000-word novel in Spanish or French typically lands in 8–10 weeks. Asian languages (Japanese, Chinese, Korean) into/from English typically take 12–16 weeks because of the structural distance. The variable is your sample-chapter response time — every week the sample sits unapproved is a week added to delivery.
💡 Pro Tips
- Sample chapter back in 5–10 business days
- Full translation: roughly 5,000-7,000 words per business week per translator (slower for poetic prose, faster for technical non-fiction)
- Editorial QA pass: 2-3 weeks after full translation completes
- Need it faster? Ask about Rush turnaround at intake — possible on most language pairs at a 25-40% premium
10A Small Note on Trust
If you don't read the target language, you're trusting that the translation captures your book — and that's a meaningful leap. The back-translation we send for sample chapters is one safeguard; the second-editor QA pass is another; the translator's notes document is a third. The biggest safeguard is genre-matched translator selection: a thriller translator who reads thrillers in the target market knows what readers expect, so the translation lands. We err on the side of more translator candidates, more sample iterations, and slower-and-right rather than fast-and-translated.
Ready to commission your translation?
If you've confirmed you own translation rights for your book in the target language and territory, pick a tier — Essential, Publishing Ready (recommended), or Localization Pro — and we'll have your first translator candidates within 5 business days. Need help confirming rights, or unsure which territory variant to target? Book a free consultation first.
Common Questions
Which language and territory variant should I target?
Translation is per-language, per-territory. A 'Spanish' translation defaults to neutral Latin American Spanish — fine for most projects, suboptimal if you're really targeting Madrid (Spanish-Spain) or just Mexico City (Spanish-Mexico). Portuguese splits Brazil vs Portugal; Chinese splits Simplified (mainland China) vs Traditional (Taiwan, Hong Kong). Pick the territory before commissioning. If you're targeting multiple territories within one language family, ask about the multi-locale add-on rather than commissioning two full separate translations.
Do you use machine translation with human polish, or full human translation?
Full human translation, always — by a translator who is a native speaker of the target language with published work in that language. Machine-translation-plus-polish reads translated, regardless of how much polish you apply on top, because the underlying sentence shapes come from the source-language structure rather than emerging naturally from the target language. Reader-facing quality requires the translator working from the source meaning to the target language directly.
Do I own the translation, or does the translator?
You own it — fully and unconditionally. The translation is a work-for-hire commission with explicit copyright assignment to you, identical in legal shape to our ghostwriting contracts. The translator has no future claim, no royalty share, and no right to license the translation themselves. You can publish it under any name, sell foreign rights to a publisher, or license it onward without going back to the translator.
How long does translating a 60,000-word novel take?
Typically 8–14 weeks order-to-delivery, depending on language pair and your response speed. For close language pairs (English ↔ Spanish, French, Italian, Portuguese, German), 8–10 weeks is normal. For more structurally distant pairs (English ↔ Japanese, Chinese, Korean, Arabic), 12–16 weeks. The breakdown: 1–2 weeks intake and translator pairing, 1 week sample chapter, 6–10 weeks full translation, 2–3 weeks editorial QA. Rush turnaround is possible on most pairs at a 25–40% premium.
What if I don't read the target language — how do I know it's good?
Three safeguards. First, the back-translation we send with the sample chapter — we translate the translator's draft back into your source language so you can verify accuracy and tone before the full project starts. Second, the editorial QA pass by a separate native-speaker editor — single-translator projects routinely have small inconsistencies that the translator can't see; the second-editor pass is where reader-facing quality lives. Third, our translators are genre-matched — a thriller translator who reads thrillers in the target market knows what readers expect.
Do I need to translate the cover, title, and back-cover blurb separately?
Yes — those are separate engagements. The translation package covers the manuscript only. Cover redesign with translated title and back-cover blurb is a separate cover-design project (often by the translator alongside our cover team for consistency). Audiobook production in the target language requires a separate audiobook commission with a target-language narrator. Formatting in the target language is separate too — line lengths, hyphenation, and word breaks differ from English. Most full foreign-territory launches bundle translation + cover redesign + formatting + (optional) audiobook into one quote at intake.
Ready to start? Head to the Translation service page to pick a tier — Essential Translation (£797), Publishing Ready (£1,497, recommended for most projects), or Localization Pro (£2,497, for premium-market launches with cultural-sensitivity review). Or book a free consultation if you want to talk through territory choice, rights questions, or the multi-locale add-on before committing.
What's your next move?
If you've confirmed you own translation rights for your book in the target language and territory, pick a tier — Essential, Publishing Ready, or Localization Pro — and we'll send your first translator candidates within 5 business days. Need help confirming rights, picking the right territory variant, or scoping a multi-locale launch? Book a free consultation first.
Or contact support if you have questions before ordering.
Free Tools
Word Count Calculator
Confirm your manuscript word count in the source language. Translation pricing scales with word count; useful at intake.
KDP Royalty Calculator
Model royalties on the target marketplace (Amazon.es, Amazon.com.br, Amazon.de, etc.) before committing to a translation.
KDP Category Finder
Identify the BISAC and KDP categories in the target marketplace — useful for sizing the addressable audience before translating.