How Much Will It Cost to Translate My Book?

I've heard some authors refer to getting their book translated as an "experiment." They're not sure if their book will succeed in an English-speaking market, so they don't want to spend a lot of money on a translation.

On one level, I can certainly understand this viewpoint. It's hard to make money as an author and it can be scary to put up money you're not sure you'll get back. 

But on a deeper level, it also surprises me that authors can spend months or years writing their beautiful book only to hire just anyone to translate it for an English-speaking audience, which is of course so much bigger than the original Italian audience!

Getting your book translated is not an "experiment"; it's an investment. You're investing in yourself, in your belief that your words and your story are important, beautiful, and powerful. You're investing in a translator who is the right fit for your book, and who will treat your creation as if it were their own. 

Unlike an "experiment," you cannot just try a cheap translation and see what happens. If you're not willing to invest the amount necessary for quality right now, it's better not to invest at all yet. The damage you will do with a bad or mediocre translation is not worth the money you might save. (See When You Hire the Wrong Translator: A Cautionary Tale.)

Paying a couple of cents per word may sound pretty nice, but you're actually just wasting your money because the translation will not be done correctly. If you want a bad translation, do it yourself with DeepL or Google Translate for free!

If you've already done some searching online, you'll have seen that standard rates can range from €0.06 to €0.30 a word, with some low-budget platforms like Fiverr offering rates as low as €0.01 per word. Let's say your book is 90,000 words. Does this mean the price range for your book is between €900 and €27,000?! Yikes!

How can you even begin to evaluate a range like that?

Well, let's start with how long it takes to produce a quality translation. The professional standard is 2,000-2,500 words per day. With our hypothetical 90,000-word book, this equates to 36 full work days of work, or 7.5 full work weeks. In some cases, a good translator may be able to translate simple and/or familiar content at a rate of 3,000-4,000 words a day. 

This professional standard can be found across many countries and all over the internet, including translation associations and agencies, for a good reason. Anyone attempting to translate more than that will inevitably sacrifice quality. They will have to rely on machine translation/AI and/or not be able to focus on accuracy and fluency. (Wondering if using too much AI is really that bad for translation? See this real-life story and these examples.)

So our question then becomes: how much would a translator need for 7.5 weeks' worth of work? If a translator is offering you a rate that does not seem livable, they are almost certainly taking shortcuts. They're taking on other projects in addition to your book (thus negatively impacting quality), and/or they're relying heavily on AI and minimal editing. There's no other way around this.

And of course, you're also paying for level of experience and expertise. As with almost any profession, you would expect better results, and therefore a higher price tag, from someone who has been doing the job for 20 years than from someone who just graduated from college.

My own rate is between €0.03 and €0.05 per word. My price is lower than many other translation professionals because I am still building out my portfolio of openly available books. Due to confidentiality reasons, I'm unable to include my 17 years of work for the U.S. Government in my portfolio, so I have a lower rate as I continue to build out my Amazon profile. Because of this, you're getting my 19 years of experience at a lower price than you would typically get from someone with my level of expertise and experience!

Feel free to contact me for a custom quote!

In addition, you will not have to pay everything up front. Instead, we'll establish a payment plan whereby you'll make partial payments only after receiving agreed-upon installments of the translation. This way, there is no risk of you paying me and then, for whatever reason, I can't finish. (I have never failed to finish a project or missed a deadline, so this is just for added assurance!) You only pay as you receive.

Be aware: Some translators negotiate a contract to receive rights and/or royalties from your book sales. Some authors actually prefer this because in some cases, it may mean that their upfront costs for translation are lower. I simply receive payment for my work and then the book is all yours to do with as you wish!

Think you've found someone who will do a good translation of your book for €0.02 per word or less? I'll help you evaluate their test translation! See my "Is It Too Good to Be True?" Challenge.

See the next article: How Long Will It Take to Translate My Book?