Tips for translating a book

If you have been translating as freelance for a while, you probably want some bigger gigs as well, such as translating a book. As opposed to translating a simple text, this task is more time consuming and it also requires more attention to details. As many of you are looking for guidance regarding this aspect, this article will come in handy. So, let’s get started. It is time to learn some tips and tricks for when translating a book.

The first thing that you have to do before you start translating a book is to ask yourself a number of questions that will make things easier. The first question that you have to ask is who is the target audience?

In addition, you will need to know whether the book is fiction or nonfiction. This is important, because the latter requires specific terminology that might not be easy to translate.

You also need to ask yourself whether you have experience in the field of the book. Have you done similar jobs in the past? In addition, you need to know whether you also need to do the editing and proofreading of the translation. In this case, extra attention is required.

In order to know the appropriate language style that you have to use, you need to first read the document at hand and identify both its style and register. In addition, the genre and target audience are again important. Why? Because you use certain words for people who are already familiar with the field, and you have to explain the terminology for people who are not.

Another useful tip that you should take into consideration is that you can gather some materials like other books that are similar to the one that you are translating, both in original and translated version, along with some dictionaries that have specific terminology.

After you have finished translating the text, you should reread it to make sure that it makes sense and that it is easy for the reader to understand it. It might sound like a waste of time, but it pays off.

Now you know a few more things about how you can improve your book translating tips. Maybe you have some more that I do not know of. If this is the case, then you should definitely share them with me as I am always eager to learn. In addition, if you want to learn more about writing and translating, do check out the other blog posts on these site. Who knows? You might even find the right thing to get you back on track, Give it a try, you might be surprised.

 

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