In 2026 a book gets into another language one of four ways: a literary translator, AI that a person checks, Amazon's Kindle Translate, or a translation studio. This is what each costs, and what every way needs before the translation goes on sale.
How to translate your book in 2026
| Way | What it costs | What you get |
|---|---|---|
| A literary translator | About $13,000 for a 100,000-word novel at 13 cents a word, the average in the Authors Guild's 2023 survey of literary translators. The largest share earned 10 cents a word or less, and some as little as 1 cent. | A translation by a person, on the terms your contract sets. |
| AI, checked by a person | What the AI tool charges, and the time of whoever edits it: you, or an editor who reads both languages. | KDP counts the result as AI-generated even after heavy editing, so it's declared as an AI translation. |
| Kindle Translate | Free while it's in beta, by invitation, for Kindle ebooks between English and five other languages. | A Kindle ebook only, sold on Amazon. Amazon keeps one translated edition per language in the Kindle Store, so there you choose between it and a translation of your own. |
| PenStranding | $1.00 per 1,000 words of the original for a production translation, so $100 for a 100,000-word novel ($30 as a draft), paid in Studio credit and quoted before it starts. | A whole edition in the new language, yours to sell anywhere: the ebook, print interiors, covers and kits. |
Rates differ a lot between translators and languages, and surveys don't all count words the same way, so ask for a quote. The Kindle Translate guide compares Amazon's beta with a translation of your own in detail.
What every translation needs
- The translation rights. As a self-publisher you usually hold them; if a publisher has rights to your book, check what your contract says first.
- An ISBN of its own. Each language edition needs its own ISBN, from the agency in the country where you're based, not the country of the language. The ISBN guides say who issues them where you live.
- The translator credited. KDP requires a translation to credit the translator and the original author among its contributors.
- AI declared. A translation made with AI is AI-generated for KDP, even after you edit it. The AI disclosure guide has each store's rule.
Checking a translation
Amazon's checks for Kindle Translate make a good list for any translation: content accuracy and mistranslations, idiomatic expressions, named entities (proper nouns and titles), additions or omissions of content, language usage, terminology kept consistent, the form of address (formal or informal), gender kept consistent in references to characters, technical elements, grammar and spelling. Keep names and terms the same through the book and the series, and have someone who reads the language natively read it before it's published.
Where the translation sells
KDP publishes ebooks in 44 languages, some of them in print as well; the language guides say which stores take each language, and publishing wide what each store pays.
In PenStranding
PenStranding translates a book in stages you can follow: a style bible of names, terms and voice you approve, the first chapters translated for your approval, then the rest line by line, an editor's pass that checks every line against the original, the book's terms kept the same throughout, automated checks and a report on what to look at. You can change any line and invite a reviewer of your own by a private link. The book plan shows how many copies pay each translation back.
See what your book's translation costs before it starts.
Join the waitlistSources
Checked on 26 October 2026 against Authors Guild: the state of literary translation, International ISBN Agency: ISBN assignment, KDP: metadata guidelines (contributors), KDP: content guidelines (AI), KDP: getting started with Kindle Translate, KDP: Kindle Translate quality, KDP: the Kindle Translate beta and its questions. Stores, agencies and laws change their rules: their own pages have the final word.