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Liber is the literary translation branch of Best Translators Online. Our service isn’t about simply translating your book word-for-word. It’s our job to re-create the feelings, stories and nuances of your original work in a new language and culture, and by doing so, open it up to an entirely new audience of readers.

We offer a team of professionals that care about your work just as much as you do, and a rigorous quality checking process that ensures nothing is lost in translation. No one will be able to tell that your book wasn’t written by a native

Why “Liber”?

In literary translation, one word can change everything – that scene where your protagonist cheerfully tells his friend to “break a leg” before a show? Improperly translated, your reader will be scratching their heads at this violent change in character, and left wondering if they were rooting for the wrong person all along. 

This is why we have chosen our name carefully. “Liber” (pronounced li-ber as in liberty) is a Latin word that has several different meanings, each of which means something to us.

BOOK – similar to “Libro” in Spanish and Italian, and “Livre” in French, both meaning book

Literature allows for the sharing of feelings and stories across physical boundaries; thoughts from centuries ago preserved in writing we still read today, to literary works from around the world available at the click of a mouse (or visit to the local bookshop).

FREE – As in “Liberty” in English, and with “Libero” in Italian also meaning free

However, transcending physical boundaries means nothing if your work can’t be understood! While books can broaden people’s horizons, first it’s your book that needs to be set free – this is where we can help! By translating meaning across language and cultural boundaries, no matter where your book ends up in the world, your original thoughts, feelings and stories will be free to be enjoyed by everyone!  

CHILD – A free born creature

A book is so much more than paper and ink (or in the digital age, zeros and ones). Stories are based on the life experiences of their author – you. Your thoughts, feelings and perspectives, whether through fact or fiction, characters real or imagined, live through your work. Books contain life. 

Writing a book, raising a child – both require sleepless nights, tender nurturing and a whole lot of patience to develop into something you can’t help but be unconditionally proud of. After all that time, effort and dedication, you wouldn’t just hand it over to anyone, would you?

So that’s where Liber comes in – the safe pair of hands you need, delivering your creation into a bravenew world of possibilities.

How Liber works – Literary Translation by Best Translators Online

When carrying out a literary translation, we work in teams – and that team includes you! Comprised of a translator, an editor and a quality manager, our 3 professionals are all linguists with a mastery of both the source and target languages. And they are just as determined to achieve your goals as you are.

Our teams work on a maximum of two projects at any one time, ensuring they can dedicate themselves to knowing you and your project inside out. This is all about you and your needs, and our teams will be there to support you every step of the way. Adapting to your writing style, your mindset and your objectives, they will work with you to re-create your book in the languages that you need.

As well as ensuring excellent spelling and grammar, our teams take the time to really “write” your book in another language. We don’t believe in word-to-word translation, which often completely fails to re-produce the intended meaning of the original language.

When our teams are fully aware of how important it is for cultural idioms and regional phrases to be taken into account in order to preserve meaning. It is for this reason artistic and literary translations can be so complex – which is also why we take great care in choosing and training the best translators for the job.

Why Best Translators Online?

Best Translators Online is a close-knit network of professional translators – not just another faceless translation agency. You will know who is working on your project from the start. All of our translators are bilingual, and are as equally proficient in their second language as they are in their native. Some have studied language and literature for years, and many have also lived abroad for a long time.

Not only do all of our translators have a mastery of the languages they translate in, but also a thorough understanding of cultural nuances, and a deep interest in the craft of language translation.  

Our translators, editors and quality managers are real people, doing real translations informed by a real understanding and genuine interest in language and culture. You can even check out our profiles on our website!

We’re not just a service that finds any anonymous online translators and gets them to do all the hard work. We have built a team of excellent translators whom we have worked with on projects many times before. Our best linguists can translate English to French, German, Italian, Portuguese, Spanish, and other languages.

Our Translators

In order to do your work justice, a technical understanding of language is not enough to achieve the most accurate possible translation. A complete comprehension and an appreciation of the culture both of your source and target language is essential for translators to be able to recognise the subtleties and style of your original work, and then accurately re-create this meaning in a new language.

This is why before joining Liber, all of our translators need to pass several rigorous tests. These tests assess language comprehension, and the ability to translate and spot mistakes. When we finally select our new translators, we will then train and test them further to improve their skills in literary translation specifically. 

When working on your projects, translators will use language and literary guidelines in order to deliver a translation that is tailored to the specific style, genre and tone of your book, so once on board, our translators will be ready to tackle anything!

Quality Management in Literary Translation

While we do select the best professionals for the job, our translators are real people, and nobody’s perfect; that’s why we work as a team!

As for any professional service or product, we have a rigorous quality control system. Would you drive a car, use an electrical appliance, or even eat a meal out without knowing the products had been properly tested and checked? 

Working with our editors and quality managers, our Quality Check system ensures only the most accurate translations make it back to you. Our work is checked and filtered through our team of professionals. 

First, editors help translators improve the quality and style of their translations, as well as removing any mistakes such as typos or missing punctuation that may have slipped the net. Then our quality managers assess the work of the translators and editors, helping to give consistency and flow to the final outcome of their work.

A World of Possibilities. Book Liber Now!

When it comes to putting your writing out there, finding a translation service you can trust is important – and tricky. This is why we feel it’s so important that our process is transparent. Working with friendly faces and names helps us to be open, motivated and connect better with our clients and each other. You’ll be working with professionals who want to work with you – how you want, at the pace you need, to achieve the results you deserve.

We’ve already found the best for you and know exactly who and what we’re offering. So pack your bags, put your best work forward, and liberate your book by booking with Liber!

Our venture into the automotive industry
By Jack Brian Robinson

Introduction

One of our most exciting projects was working with the company Chipex, who specialize in car touch-up paint. Chipex was launched in 2009 with the aim to enable people to repair paint damage on their vehicles at home. They have helped thousands of people with their easy-to-use products. The company was established in the UK and has recently begun expanding to foreign markets, such as Italy, Sweden, France, Spain, and Germany.

BestTranslators.online collaborated with Chipex last year, conducting a full review of their website and translating their various blog posts. Our team of dedicated translators all banded together to help Chipex with this task that was fundamental in helping expand their business to a wider audience.

I spoke with some of the translators who were responsible for this in order to find out what they did, the challenges they faced, and how this experience helped them develop as professionals.

First up was Mathieu, one of our French translators.

 Hey Mathieu, I want to hear about your work with Chipex. What were your specific responsibilities?

Hi Jack! I was responsible for two different projects: the first was translating some of Chipex’s blog articles from English to French (covering paint touch-ups, car insurance/maintenance, etc), and the second was proofreading the French version of their website.

Great. And would you mind telling me about some of the challenges you faced during these projects?

Sure. The biggest challenge I faced was in the preparation. I had to learn about the whole process of touching-up car paint (something I knew practically nothing about) in order to best translate the very specific and technical vocabulary into French.

Sometimes there is no established translation for a specific thing. A word/phrase for something in English might not exist in French.

An example of this which I encountered was in the translating of “Blending Solution” – this was almost always translated as “solution de mélange” from the various sources I found, but this did not seem right to me.

 After researching the product, I concluded that it wasn’t a sufficient description of what the product was designed for.

After some thorough research I settled on “solution d’uniformisation” which I found was a much more appropriate translation and encapsulated fully what the product was.

Thank you, Matthieu!

I found Matthieu’s account of his experience with this tricky translation very relatable. People who have read some of my previous articles will know that Italian is my second language and I’m responsible for some of the Italian to English translations (being a native English speaker myself). I’ve encountered this issue on a number of occasions: words that exist in one language, but not in another.

Italians tend to adopt a lot of English words, so this is generally a moot point when translating from Eng>Ita – but, when looking at translating from Ita>Eng, it can often lead to some serious head scratching. As a translator you want to preserve as much as possible the meaning behind the original text, but sometimes (as we’ve seen in Matthieu’s case) you need to get creative.

 Sandra, who was responsible for the same tasks as Matthieu (but for German) expressed this sentiment perfectly:

When translating I always try to keep the text as natural sounding as possible, all without altering the text’s original meaning. – Sandra Alles

Next, I wanted to reach out to the head of our team and fellow translator, Emanuele, in order to find out what his involvement in the Chipex project was.

Hey Emanuele! Mind if I ask you a few questions about Chipex? What was it that you worked on?

Hey Jack! I worked on translating instructions, website interface, website revision (before launch) and blog posts. I also worked alongside one of the Managers and the Owner to help coordinate the launch in the various different languages.

I see. Would you mind telling me about any challenges that you faced?

The Chipex project was pretty technical and there were a lot of words relating to car paint and the automotive industry as a whole. Luckily, I already had experience in this field, due to having previously done work for an automotive website. As often happens, certain terms didn’t exist in both languages, such as “road rush” – therefore I had to find something similar in Italian that conveyed the same meaning.

And how did this experience inform your work going forward?

Personally speaking, I learned a lot about car paint and how I can better maintain my own vehicle in this regard. Professionally, I learned a lot through collaborating with the website designer. It was a great learning experience.

Do you have any personal thoughts to add?

It’s inspiring to be able to work on such innovative products as those at Chipex. The company is now expanding to the US market, and I feel very proud to have played a role in helping them achieve success.

How exciting to hear about Chipex’s success following our collaboration. Thank you, Em! Here at BestTranslators.Online, we often work on some very important projects (such as this one). As a translator it’s hard to not feel the weight of this pressure. As a team we’re able to work together, pull through and tackle various projects, big and small. We always strive to provide our clients with translations and proofreads of the highest quality.

We take pride in what we do as our clients’ success is just as important as our own. We also love what we do. Chipex (as you’ve seen) presented many challenges for our team, but it was a rewarding experience that helped us to cement new professional relationships, develop new skills, and to prove that we’re able to coordinate and complete large projects efficiently, quickly and, most importantly, to a high degree of quality.

Who knows, perhaps your project will be our next Chipex success story? Let us know your thoughts in the comments section down below. Thank you.

Working on large projects with tight deadlines…
By Jack Brian Robinson

Introduction to Working on Large Projects

As a translator you occasionally get asked to work on large projects in a short space of time. Last year, this very thing happened to me. The renowned author Denis Murano had just completed his latest book “Selezioni Inumane” in collaboration with David Buonaventura and wanted to release it in English in late March.

I received the request mid-February. An entire book. Over 70,000 words. Was it possible? I had no idea. As a freelancer, you can have some “quiet” periods in which work isn’t coming in as regularly as you’d like. This was the situation I was in and, with bills to pay, I accepted this ambitious assignment.

Over the next three weeks I spent over 12 hours a day, 6-7 days a week in front of the computer tackling this translation in order to meet our strict deadline. Blood, sweat, and tears weren’t exactly shed, but it was a physically, emotionally, and mentally demanding process.

I like to avoid missing deadlines, but I will also insist on sending something late if I’m not 100% convinced of the quality. I’m a perfectionist and if something feels like it can be improved, I can’t bring myself to submit it to a client. An entire book (as you would imagine) takes quite a while to proofread, especially when it’s all you’ve done for around 80 hours, 3 weeks in a row.

Will I make it?

Of course I ended up missing the deadline, but only by a few days. I was happy with my work, and (above all) extremely relieved to be finished. I was able to pay my rent and help an up-and-coming author to reach a wider audience. The client was happy and in April 2021 the English version of the book was released through Amazon. Now that I think of it, I still need to get myself a copy!

I wanted to write an article covering this period of time, working on large projects, and I also wanted to ask some of my colleagues here at Best Translators Online about similar experiences that they’ve had. I first spoke with our Malay translator, Yuni.

Interviewing Yuni

 Hey there, Yuni. I’m just wondering… What was your most difficult project?

Hey Jack! My most difficult project was translating 3 recipe books (around a hundred pages for each book), covering different types of diets such as vegan, pescatarian, and regular- something of a health and beauty niche.

There was a lot more variety in the English cooking instructions than there would usually be in Malay. I needed to study the meaning of quite a few English terms/expressions in order to find the most appropriate translation. I watched numerous YouTube videos and read many articles to ensure the words I chose in Malay best conveyed the meaning and context of the original English.

I can only imagine how difficult that was! And what did you take away from this experience, working on large projects?

I learnt that I need to be super careful with my choice of words and expressions when translating cooking-related texts. This is in order to avoid making the recipe sound ridiculous and unfollowable. It’s always a good idea to do research and ask questions regarding the topics we are translating.

Translating reminds me that there’s still a lot of things in this world that I don’t know. When I get a translation task, I treat it as a learning experience. There’s a great a sense of achievement whenever I finish a translation task and send it to the client. I feel glad that I can be of help to someone out there.

Fantastic. Thank you again, Yuni.

Yuni’s take on translating really got me thinking. We are exceptionally lucky to do this job. Not only do we get to be privy to various exciting projects before everyone else, but we also get to play a fundamental role in our clients’ successes. It’s a great deal of responsibility, yes, especially when working on large projects, but it’s ever so rewarding also.

Next, I spoke to our Hungarian translator, Orsi.

Interviewing Orsi

 Hey Orsi, what was your most difficult project?

My most difficult project was translating an online betting page. Fortunately, the relationship and communication between myself and client were excellent. He knew from the beginning that this was a difficult job for everybody involved. He didn’t expect us to be experts in this field from the get-go.

I don’t bet (never have) so it turned out to be fairly complicated. It took me a couple of days to familiarize myself with the whole process, the different sports, and the various betting methods, etc. I needed to do this in two languages (being English and my native tongue), and, since this involved a wide range of terminology, I could only proceed once I was confident with the material.

What did you gain from this experience?

I love reading and learning about new things, therefore I’m glad to have accepted this job. I gained lots of confidence from it and it opened up many other opportunities. The thing I love about translating is that I can learn new things, read about different topics and challenge myself. Every project is different, so it’s impossible to get bored. 

Thanks a lot, Orsi!

My Conclusion about Working on Large Projects

Well, there we have it, I wasn’t completely alone. We all face challenges here at Best Translators Online. And in Yuni and Orsi’s recounting of their experiences, we find precisely what makes a good translator working on large projects.

It’s about striving to do the best possible job, even while initially lacking all of the necessary terminology. It’s about being committed to research and studying the various things that will aid us in our goal of producing a perfect translation. And lastly: it’s about persistence and an unwillingness to give up. The answers are out there somewhere, and we will find them.

Thank you for reading. Please feel free to leave some of your own stories/similar experiences in the comment section below.

Why improving your pronunciation is more important than you thought when learning a new language…
(by Jack Brian Robinson)

Introduction

About a month into living in Italy I was sitting down for breakfast with a new group of friends when one of them asked (in Italian, of course) what everybody wanted for dinner that night. “Carne” I responded, meat. At least, that’s what I thought I said. My friends burst out laughing, while I looked at them perplexed. “We don’t eat that here,” they chuckled. I smiled but inside I was completely confused. They explained that due to my inability to properly pronounce the “r”, it sounded like I’d said “cane”, which means “dog”. I laughed along with them, but deep down I was quite embarrassed. How about improving your pronunciation?

You see, though I’d studied Italian for many years before moving here, I put no effort into practicing the pronunciation. I told myself something along the lines of: “learning a language from scratch is hard enough already. I don’t care what I sound like!” but, as I discovered in this moment (which was, thankfully, very soon into moving here) it wasn’t really a matter of sounding good, it was about being comprehensible.

My Feelings about Improving Your Pronunciation

Now, let me tell you, as a native British guy, mastering the Italian trilled “r” is quite the task. And I’ll be honest, I’ve never really got it fully, nor do I think I ever will. But, I found a few tricks along the way and now, at the very least, my friends understand that I want meat and not dog for dinner. You see, someone who is learning a new language ought to give the same level of importance to pronunciation as they do to both grammar and vocabulary. The most fundamental thing, of course, is being understood, but that’s not the only reason you should care about it.

As we know, people can also be quite insensitive from time-to-time, and as a foreigner in a foreign country attempting to speak a second language, it’s not uncommon to hear people repeating what you said while mimicking your strong accent. They don’t mean anything by it (most of the time), and they no doubt find it charming, but it can hurt to hear someone, even light-heartedly making fun of something you’ve dedicated so much time and effort to.

It’s a feeling I know well and one I want to help prevent you from experiencing. I’ve compiled together 3 tips that have helped me to improve my pronunciation in my second language. I guarantee, if you put in the time and follow them carefully, you’ll have people complimenting you, rather than making jokes at your expense.

Improving Your Pronunciation with The Mirror Trick

This is quite a simple concept, but it can potentially be one of the most effective if done regularly. The idea is simple: pronunciation, like singing, is a matter of having correct technique. By being able to visualize exactly what movements your mouth is making as you’re attempting a particular word or sound, your chances for success improve significantly.

Speaking, acting, singing, even conducting an orchestra: each of these activities requires technique and… apparently a mirror! It’s a good reminder we do need to work on ourselves.

(Emanuele, Italian)

On a few occasions while (essentially) talking to myself in the mirror, the perfect pronunciation has happened by accident. As I was watching my mouth movements, I was able to recreate it more easily. It’s a simple thing, and it can feel a little silly, but try to do this for 5 minutes every other day. I promise you it will have a great effect on your overall pronunciation.

Repetition and Projection

This step is the reason that my fellow citizens here in this small southern Italian city likely think that I’m insane. As I ride my bike back and forth to work I can be heard by every person and car I pass, loudly repeating Italian words that I find particularly tricky to pronounce. “Torre, torre, torre, to-rrrrrrr-e”, “disseminare, disseminare, dis-semin-are”, and so on. I do this every day during my commute from home to work and back and it really helps me tackle those tricky syllables and sounds.

Our emotional state plays a huge part in how well we’ll be able to learn a new skill. It’s really important not to let ourselves get discouraged when we find challenges in a second language. This helps improving your pronunciation.

(Kerol, Brazilian)

Projection is also something that is often overlooked by people. Speaking a new language can leave someone feeling shy and self-conscious, and when one is in that state it’s more than likely that they’ll be mumbling, rather than projecting and annunciating as well as possible. Practice putting a bit of force behind your voice too and I bet you’ll surprise yourself!

Voice Messages & Better Pronunciation

Italy and many other European countries have a wonderful obsession with sending voice messages to each-other, rather than writing lengthy, time-consuming messages. It’s convenient, sure, but it also has other benefits. I understand that this doesn’t come very naturally to many people. I encourage you to fall in love with sending voice messages as often as possible in your second language. When sending a voice message, not only are you are improving your pronunciation, but you’re also making a snapshot of your practice that can be utilized later on.

In Italian schools there is this silly practice to make students memorize every dialogue of the book by listening to the audio track. I, instead, ask my students to record themselves as they read them. Then grade their pronunciation and write down the words they are not sure about. I found out this way they become more concious about their mistakes and are more likely to remember the right way to pronounce a particular word.

(Lucrezia, Italian)

Human beings are innately very self-critical creatures, and this is what we’ll be using to our advantage during this step. Don’t just send voice messages in your second language and forget about them: STUDY THEM! You’ll hate it, but nothing shines a spotlight on your pronunciation errors more than hearing them for yourself. “I didn’t know I pronounced that word like that…” you’ll think to yourself. And by having this self-awareness, not only will you be more conscious of the mistakes you make, but you’ll be more motivated to correct them too.

Final Reflections on Improving Your Pronunciation

No matter which language you’re learning, you’re bound to encounter a “sound” that is just completely unnatural to you and that requires more attention. For me, it’s the trilled Italian “r”. For the Italians themselves it’s the English (or rather, German, from a pronunciation perspective) “h”, as well as our “th”.

In Italian, the “h” is also called the “mute consonant” since we never pronounce it. That’s why, when we speak English, we tend to randomly add “h” sounds. However, in Italian, “o” and “ho” are completely different words… silly letters

(Emanuele, Italian)

Famously, native Russian speakers also have a really hard time with English pronunciation, for the Russian language only has a quarter of the vowels that English does. Just as for English natives, many Russian sounds such as their D (Д) cause a lot of bother. The more subtle they are, the harder still!

So, which languages are you learning, and which sounds give you the most trouble? Let us know in the comments below!

Conclusion

The importance of improving your pronunciation can easily be disregarded. I hope this short guide has helped to convince you to give it a little more consideration throughout your language learning journey. Now, go talk to yourself in the mirror, shout foreign words down the street and cringe at the sound of your own voice. In bocca al lupo!