Start a translation
A translation is its own book, linked to the original. It starts with the same chapters and story bible, and you write it paragraph by paragraph with the original beside you.
CHAPTER ONE
Un scandale en Bohême
Pour Sherlock Holmes, elle est toujours la femme. Je l’ai rarement entendu la désigner autrement. À ses yeux, elle éclipse et domine tout son sexe. Ce n’est pas qu’il éprouvât pour Irene Adler un sentiment proche de l’amour.
Je n’avais guère vu Holmes ces derniers temps. Mon mariage nous avait éloignés l’un de l’autre. Mon propre bonheur, et les mille soucis domestiques qui naissent autour de l’homme qui se trouve pour la première fois maître de son foyer, suffisaient à m’absorber tout entier.
Holmes, qui détestait toute forme de vie mondaine de toute son âme de bohème, était resté dans notre logement de Baker Street, enfoui parmi ses vieux livres
To Sherlock Holmes she is always the woman. I have seldom heard him mention her under any other name.
He waved me to an armchair, threw across his case of cigars, and indicated a spirit case and a gasogene in the corner.
* * *
“Now, I know that there are seventeen steps, because I have both seen and observed.”
Translations
Original · English (US)
The original chapter sits beside you, read-only, while you write the translation on its own page.
How to do it
- Open the original’s Metadata. Open the book you want to translate and go to Metadata .
- Choose Create translation. Under Editions & translations, click Create translation .
- Name it and pick the language. Give the translation a title and choose the language you’re translating into.
- Create it and open a chapter. Click Create translation . Open any chapter and the original is on the left, with your translation on the right.
What comes across
- The structure. Every chapter and part, in order, with empty pages for you to write into.
- The story bible. Characters, places, glossary, references, world-building, research, the style sheet and the timeline, so you can translate names and terms once.
- The language. The quote marks you type become the new language’s, the print PDF hyphenates by its rules, and the EPUB is tagged with it.
It has its own cover, ISBN, blurb and book design, so a German translation can be justified and hyphenated while the English stays ragged right.
From the dashboard instead
You can also start one from New book on the dashboard: choose From existing, pick the book, and choose Translation. It’s the same thing.
Good to know
- On the dashboard, translations sit under the original as a small row you can click.
- If the new language uses a different script, the typeface list changes to faces that can set it.
- Giving a separate translator access to the book isn’t built yet.
Next
Everything about series, editions and translations is in series, editions & translations. If you’re doing it yourself, there’s advice in translating your own novel.