For publishers
Your book in another language, with the record to prove it
What it is
We translate with AI, guided by a professional linguist who knows the book's subject: the linguist writes a detailed brief before translation and revises every passage the AI marks as uncertain.
Every book comes with a signed Assurance Report of what was revised and changed.
Which books and languages
- history
- biography
- philosophy
- psychology
- business
- academic and professional books
- the religious and spiritual books where we began
We don't translate fiction or poetry.
Any pair of languages you need. For each book we place a professional linguist who knows the subject and both languages, and we don't start the translation, or commit to a date, until that linguist is in place. If AI doesn't yet translate well between two languages, we say so in our first conversation.
What you send, what you get back
- You send
- You send the book in Word or PDF.
- You get back
- We deliver the translation in Word, with its headings, styles and footnotes, and, if you want it, as an EPUB 3 that passes EPUBCheck, the industry's validator, together with the translator's notes and the signed Assurance Report.
Can you translate the book's metadata?
Yes: the title, subtitle, description and keywords, under the same brief, so the store listing says what the book says.
How much a person revises
AI-checked
What a person does: The AI translates according to the brief, then revises its own work in several independent passes. No linguist revises the text, and the report says so.
What the report says: "No linguist revised this translation", and the checks it went through.
Who it's for: For samples, reading copies, and deciding which books to translate fully.
Assured
What a person does: The linguist revises every passage the AI marks as uncertain, and a random selection of the rest, and signs the Assurance Report.
What the report says: The counts: marked, revised (with the sample), changed. "The linguist didn't revise every word."
Who it's for: Our standard, for most non-fiction.
Fully revised
What a person does: On top of that, a linguist revises the whole book against the original.
What the report says: "A linguist revised the whole translation."
Who it's for: For scripture, law, medicine, and any book a publisher's name rests on.
A report on a translation you already have
What a person does: A linguist revises a random selection and the passages our AI marks as uncertain, and signs a report on whether it can be trusted.
What the report says: Whether it can be trusted, and where not.
Who it's for: For partners and publishers holding a translation made elsewhere.
Ask your distributor for a quote.
To decide first, ask for a sample chapter at the AI-checked level: for samples, reading copies, and deciding which books to translate fully.
How long
Far less time than a translation usually takes. What would take a translator months takes us weeks, and what would take weeks takes days.
Our first book, French into English (about 20,000 words)
- the first unit came back the day after it was translated
- all seven units were translated within a week
- The linguist's time
- about 14 hours
An estimate, not a record: a 60,000-word book, with a linguist in place, about three to five weeks, most of it the linguist's reading.
We agree the date with you before we start.
Did a person read every word?
No. The linguist revises the passages that the AI marks as uncertain, and a random selection of the rest.
The Assurance Report states how many passages the linguist revised and how many were changed.
Revising only where it's needed is what lowers the cost and the time. If you want a linguist to revise the whole book as well, we can add that.
What does the Assurance Report show?
The Assurance Report is signed by the linguist. It sets out the brief the linguist wrote before translation, how many passages the AI marked as uncertain, how many the linguist revised, including the random selection, and how many were changed. It also states that the linguist didn't revise every word. A publisher can share it with readers, rights buyers and online stores, some of which now ask for a statement on how AI was used.
Rights, your author, your text
- Rights
- We take no rights in the book or in the translation, and nothing is published without the rights holder's agreement.
- Your author
- You commission it as the rights holder, and nothing goes ahead without your author's agreement.
- Your contracts
- If your contracts limit AI or foreign editions, we look at them with you first. Some books won't be possible, and we'll say so.
- Your text
- Your text is used only to translate your book and to produce its Assurance Report. It's never shared, and it never trains any AI model, ours or anyone else's.
- Your translators
- Where your translators know the subject and both languages, they can be the linguists who revise our translations.
- Data processing
- A data processing agreement is available on request.
What do I put on the imprint page?
We give you the record; you decide the label.
The Assurance Report is the record: it says that a professional linguist wrote the brief, how many passages the AI marked as uncertain, how many the linguist revised and changed, and that the linguist didn't revise every word.
The label and copyright
Publishers' associations in several countries now ask that AI-assisted translations be labelled. The wording of that label, and the copyright position of the translation, differ by country and are questions for your own counsel.
Who we are
Credence Translations comes from the team behind Spiritual Translations, and was founded by Gabriel Rymberg.
A quote for a book contact@credencetranslations.com
How we do it