Knowledge base

Perhaps it has always been easy for you to put your thoughts on paper, and your knack for writing has been your trademark. Maybe the passion for writing came with time and became a self-soothing technique – a space that brings calm and order to a world full of chaos. Or maybe you’ve been a closet writer mustering up the courage and waiting for that right moment to show your work to the world?   No matter which of these scenarios sounds the most familiar, in today’s article we will discuss issues related to self-publishing and preparing your work for publication abroad. Self-publishing means much greater control over the final shape of a novel, non-fiction book, a collection of poems or guidebook, but also greater responsibility for each of the stages of this complex process. In this article, we will delve into the areas where the help of a professional linguist may be useful – from proofreading a draft text to translating advertising content.     Self-publishing step by step: editing and proofreading   Putting one’s idea for a plot into words and typing the final dot doesn’t mean the end of one’s work on a book. In fact, one might say that it’s just the easiest part that’s over. Is editing and proofreading a book necessary? Skipping this stage will have significant consequences. Try to recall any book that was rife with typos and baffling punctuation: even the best plot cannot defend itself against the dubious quality of the stylistic and linguistic layer.   An experienced editor also ensures that you tie up all the loose ends in your story. After all, there is probably nothing more disappointing than stories leaving the reader with a plethora of questions – unless, of course, we plan to resolve the fate of the characters in subsequent volumes of the series. Such assistance is invaluable for both debut and experienced authors.     Aim higher: translating self-published books   One of the advantages…

In the age of universal access to the Internet, we have transferred much of the promotion into the virtual sphere, giving rise to such phenomena as e-marketing, e-commerce and e-business. The potential of digitisation has been recognised by entrepreneurs from all over the world, who are putting more and more effort into building their online branding. This way, not only can they reach out to potential customers from their own country, but also to a foreign audience.   However, this would not be possible without SEO translations which enable multilingual positioning. The role of the translator and their work in this process has a significant impact on building a particular company’s position in the market. What does SEO translation involve and what distinguishes it from standard translation?     SEO – what is it? Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) is a process that aims to optimise websites for search engines in order to increase their visibility and gain worthwhile site traffic. What exactly does it mean? With the right mechanisms and strategies, such as key phrases or localisation, we can influence the position of a page in search results and thus increase the number of visits by users. The higher the position of the website in the search engine, the bigger the number of visits and the greater the chance for gaining new customers. This whole process is named positioning.   Thanks to SEO, companies can reach not only their native audience, but also gain foreign customers by creating websites in different languages. At this point, translators come into action. Their job is to translate content while keeping optimisation in mind.     SEO translation vs. standard translation SEO involves the translation of texts meant for online publication, which means website content. Whether it is a target website, a blog article or a product description, this type of text has additional elements that need to be considered by translators in their work. These elements are HTML attributes such as meta descriptions,…