Is It Too Good To Be True?

I hope my website helps you understand better why quality translation is so important, how long it takes, and how much it costs. But I'm also very sympathetic to how challenging it can be to make money as an author, and I understand how enticing it might be to try your luck with a low-cost translation.

This is why I offer my "Is It Too Good to Be True?" Challenge, where I evaluate a sample translation and if I can't provide concrete evidence of why the translation isn't good enough for your book, my evaluation is free. Otherwise, my evaluation is just €20 and you have the peace of mind of knowing you've had a professional native English-speaking translator review the translation!

How does it work? If you find a person, agency, or tool that will translate your entire book from Italian to English for €0.02 per less, here's the process:

1. Have this person, agency, or tool do a sample translation of part of your book. Two key points must be respected to claim my offer:

• The sample must be between 1,000 and 2,000 words.

• You must choose what you believe to be one of the most challenging passages in your book. It may be challenging due to cultural references, jokes or wordplay, subtle nuances, or just exceptionally beautiful words that you're most proud of. I require a difficult passage because a simple translation isn't a good gauge of a translator's skill.

2. Send me the sample translation for evaluation and a screenshot of the translator's quote to translate your full book.

3. I'll let you know how much time I need to evaluate the sample. My delivery time is typically a week or less.

4. You agree to my terms in email, but you will not have to pay anything upfront.

5. I review the sample translation for both accuracy and fluency in English.

• If there are no issues with the sample translation:

  • • I let you know and you don't pay a thing. You leave knowing that, for at least for that portion of your book, you've been lucky to find a qualified translator at a very low price!

• If there are issues such that I can't recommend publication:

  • • I provide detailed, concrete examples and comments about why the translation isn't good enough to publish under your name.

    • I send you a PayPal request for €20. (You do not need to have a PayPal account. The link I send you will also be payable by credit card without setting up a PayPal account.)

• In either scenario, I offer you a 5% discount if you decide to hire me to translate your entire book. Of course, you can also ask me to do a sample translation before deciding whether to proceed or not.

I realize that some of you who take me up on my challenge will ultimately decide that you don't have the budget to translate your book at all right now. That will be a painful realization, but I firmly believe that it's ultimately better to hold off on translation until you can do it correctly than to publish a translation that tarnishes your name and will end up costing you even more money to fix later on.

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 well. If you don't care about translation quality, you might as well do it yourself with DeepL or Google Translate for free!