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Book Translation & eBook Generation Services
Some publishing houses seek to translate books into other languages and resort to relying on a professional language service provider. Translated books make it easier for more readers to purchase and consume them. However, the book translation process is not that simple. It’s a multi-layered process that needs professional translators in order to be done.
In this article, we’ll discuss the following:
- Why do you need to translate your book?
- Books translation related services
- eBook generation
- What is an eBook?
- Reflowable vs Fixed-layout eBooks
- eBook Formats
- 5 Benefits of eBooks
- How to choose the right LSP for translating your books?
Why do you need to translate your book?
When a book is translated, it sells more copies in more than one country, giving the author and the publishing house a good branding opportunity to strengthen their work.
Books translation related services
- Multilingual Translation
- Template Design
- Typesetting (Desktop Publishing)
- Graphic Illustration
- Book Indexing
- Cover Design
- Monolingual Proofreading
- Quality Assurance
- XML Tagging
- eBook GenerationCheck more about our books translation services.
eBook Generation
What is an eBook?
An electronic book is a non-editable book that is converted to a digital format to be read on any digital device such as tablet, smartphone, computer, eReader devices, etc.
Examples of eReader (electronic reader) devices:
- Amazon’s Kindle
- Rakuten’s Kobo
- Barnes & Noble’s Nook
Reflowable vs Fixed-layout eBooks
Regarding the eBooks layout, there are two main types: Reflowable and Fixed-layout eBooks. Reflowable eBooks usually contain more of text than images and graphs. The content included in this type is fluid that it fits the size of the screen. While reading on a smartphone, you’ll get properly sized characters, but turn the pages more often.
Sometimes the layout design is critical. In this case, you’ll need a fixed-layout eBook. This type defines a viewport, i.e. the size of the page in pixels, which usually contains many images exactly positioned to text relatively. You can see this type in photo books, magazines and comics. On a small screen, you’ll have to zoom and scroll in the page to read the text.
In fixed-layout eBooks, you may face some issues with books written in bidirectional languages, i.e. punctuation, Arabic alphabetical numbering, brackets direction and also alignment and reading order issues. This is one of our strengths as Saudisoft. We can help you get a bidirectional error-free eBook.
eBook Formats
The most widely adopted format of eBooks is EPUB. It was developed by the International Digital Publishing Forum, which is now part of the World Wide Web. The EPUB format superseded the old Open EBook format (OEB) in 2007. EPUB can support color images, SVG graphics, interactive elements, and full videos.
After EPUB comes MOBI format, the second most commonly used one. It also grew out of the old OEB format by the French company “Mobipocket” in 2000. Then Amazon bought the company in 2005 and operated for 11 years, after which it shut down Mobipocket’s website and servers, but the MOBI format continues to live on.
Unlike EPUB, MOBI format is not open standard, therefore, is not publicly available. It also cannot support sound or video. EPUB and MOBI support both reflowable and fixed-layout eBooks types.
Other eBooks formats are:
- AZW (.azw)
- PDF (.pdf)
- LRS, LRF, and LRX (Sony)
- FB2
- DJVU
- LIT (Microsoft)
- RTF (Rich Text Format)
To make a book more accessible for a wider segment of audience, you can convert a regular book into an eBook. This has many benefits for the user/reader that we’ll discuss in the following lines.
- eBooks save space for bookworms who don’t have room for big libraries to store their books.
- eBooks save money. The average price of an eBook is less than $5, whereas paperback books are more than $10.
- eBooks are environmentally friendly. Books printing consumes about 16 million tons of paper every year, which is 32 million trees! Plus the pollution resulted from paper manufacturing. eBooks don’t need all of this.
- eBooks are portable and convenient making people’s lives easier allowing them to have a portable library at their fingertips.
- eBooks are downloadable at a glance. You can get an eBook instantly not having to wait for your copy to be available or go search for it for hours.
- The color and size of the font in an eBook is adjustable (except for PDF format where you can just zoom in and out).
- eBooks are searchable. You can easily find words, quotes, pages, and sections easily.
How to choose the right LSP for translating your book?
In order to choose your perfect LSP, you must consider the following:
- Specialization and expertise: An LSP should have specialized translators in different genres of books translation, working in different industries such as: education, novels, fiction, non-fiction, short stories, biography, psychology and textbooks. In other words, an LSP should have Subject Matter Experts (SME’s) in such genres.
- Multilingualism: If a localization company has experience with a variety of languages, this makes it more reliable and aware of the different cultures on a global scale.
- Quality control process: The in-house quality process is also important. This guarantees you to receive high-quality and error-free work on time.
- Commitment: Unlike freelance translators, professional LSP companies will have strict deadlines on contract and will deliver your work on time.
- Additional provided services: While translating a book, you may need other complementary services like Desktop Publishing (DTP), eBooks generation, book indexing, etc.
Contact us for more.
