Why translate your book into French?
The French-speaking market offers an outstanding opportunity for independent authors and publishers looking to expand their readership internationally.
With more than 320 million speakers across five continents, French is the world’s fifth most widely spoken language and the second most translated language. It gives you access to a vast, dynamic, and steadily growing readership in Europe, North America (particularly Quebec), and Africa.
France: a cultural powerhouse with a passion for reading
In France, books are more than just consumer products: they are a cornerstone of the country’s cultural identity.
Give your work a new lease of life
Translating your book into French means reaching a discerning yet deeply enthusiastic audience, ready to discover new stories and support authors they fall in love with. A professional translation that stays true to your voice is the key to unlocking this important market.
Translating a novel means much more than changing languages.
A good translation should never feel like a translated text. It should allow readers to immerse themselves in the story, grow attached to the characters, and experience the same emotions as readers of the original.
That is the reading experience I strive to recreate in every project.
My goal: to help you introduce your book to French-speaking readers without losing what makes it yours.
AN AUTHOR’S PERSPECTIVE: With ten published novels and four literary awards to my name, I also understand the challenges of being on the other side of the manuscript.
ONE POINT OF CONTACT: You work directly with me from start to finish, with no intermediaries and no information lost along the way.
A LITERARY APPROACH: I pay close attention to your voice, narrative pace, dialogue, and style without compromising what makes them distinctive.
AN EYE FOR DETAIL: Terminology, character consistency, continuity across a series, cultural references… nothing is left to chance.
HUMAN TRANSLATION
For authors who want to entrust their novel to an expert from start to finish, with in-depth literary work and integrated editorial support.
Estimated turnaround: approximately 3 months
HYBRID TRANSLATION
For authors who want to reduce their translation costs while still benefiting from genuine human expertise in the French text.
Estimated turnaround: approximately 1 month
Human Translation
A translation that respects your writing as much as your story
You provide your manuscript in its original language, and I take care of translating it into French while preserving your style, tone, and intent.
My work goes far beyond finding the right equivalents. It also means capturing the nuances, subtext, humour, emotions, and rhythm of your story so that your book feels at home with French-speaking readers.
Turnaround: approximately 3 months for a novel, depending on its length, complexity, and the agreed schedule.
Rate: from €0.08 per source word (English or Spanish).
Much more than translation
Adapting wordplay, expressions, titles, and references that cannot be translated literally.
Taking into account the cultural references and expectations of French-speaking readers.
Included in the human translation package
Translation and adaptation of your blurb to present your book in an appealing way to French readers.
Research into relevant keywords to help readers discover your book.
A shared spreadsheet brings together my title suggestions, questions about the plot or individual books in the series, and any inconsistencies I identify during the translation process.
Particularly useful for fantasy, science fiction, and any fictional world with its own specialised terminology. It helps maintain consistent terminology throughout the manuscript and, where necessary, across the entire series.
3 steps to a polished manuscript
I translate your manuscript from English or Spanish into French, respecting your voice and the distinctive features of your fictional world. I adapt the wording whenever a literal translation would fail to achieve the intended effect.
I review the translated text as a whole, refining its flow, pacing, dialogue, stylistic consistency, and naturalness. I also check recurring elements, names, relationships between characters, and any narrative inconsistencies I spot.
A final pass catches typos, grammatical errors, and typographical issues, ensuring that the finished text is clean and consistent.
Hybrid Translation
AI provides the first draft. I give it a genuine French voice.
AI translation tools have come a long way and can provide an interesting starting point. However, a technically correct translation is not necessarily a good novel.
Artificial-sounding dialogue, repetition, expressions copied too closely from English, inconsistent registers, contradictions in character relationships… Human intervention remains essential to turn a machine-generated draft into a smooth, enjoyable reading experience.
That is the principle behind post-editing: I start with a text pre-translated by AI, then correct, rephrase, and refine it wherever necessary to produce natural French that remains faithful to your story and writing style.
You have two options, depending on whether you already have an AI-generated translation or would like me to handle that stage as well.
Have you already had your novel translated by AI?
You provide your original manuscript along with the French AI-generated translation. I first assess the quality of the translation to determine whether it provides a sufficiently solid basis for further work.
If the initial translation is too poor and would require extensive rewriting, I’ll let you know openly. I can then recommend either full human translation or the “My AI” option.
I then post-edit the text, correcting errors, improving the style, rewriting awkward passages, and checking overall consistency.
Would you prefer me to handle the initial translation as well?
You send me your original manuscript, and I take care of the entire process: selecting the tool, preparing the instructions, generating the initial translation, and then carrying out the human post-editing.
I use different AI solutions depending on the text, literary genre, and project requirements. With several years of experience using these tools, I have developed specialised instructions to improve the quality of the first draft and reduce recurring issues.
I also take care to select appropriate privacy settings so that your texts are not used to train AI models, insofar as the chosen tool’s settings and guarantees allow.
Both options include
The final text is revised by a professional. The aim is not to preserve the machine’s wording at all costs, but to produce French that feels natural, consistent, and enjoyable to read.
Estimated turnaround: approximately one month, depending on the manuscript’s length and the extent of the revisions required.
The rates shown are starting rates. A personalised quote is provided after reviewing an extract and assessing the work involved.
Frequently Asked Questions
Payments are made by bank transfer in two instalments. The first half is due when the translation contract is signed, or when the quote is accepted for other services. The remaining half is payable upon delivery.
The price is based on the number of words in the source text (English or Spanish). The rates shown are starting rates; the quote takes into account the nature of the project, its complexity, and the work involved.
My job is precisely to prevent that from happening. I correct unnatural phrasing and repetition while preserving your characters’ personalities, narrative tone, and distinctive writing style.
For the “My AI” option, I select tools and privacy settings suited to the project, prioritising configurations that exclude the use of submitted texts for model training. Guarantees vary between providers and services; the arrangements applicable to your project can be clarified before work begins.
Yes. For a series, keeping track of names, terminology, character relationships, and events from one book to the next is particularly important. I can create a glossary and a tracking document to help maintain editorial continuity. I strongly recommend using the same translator and the same translation option throughout a series.
As a general guide, allow approximately three months for human translation and one month for AI-assisted translation. The final deadline will be confirmed in your quote based on the manuscript’s length and the workload involved.