Fix the book before translating, or translate it as is?

Yes, fix the book before translating: settle the original and decide on one final version that you don't touch again. Every change to the original after translation has started has to happen twice, and if there are several translations, several times. Whatever you don't manage to fix beforehand will probably pass into the translation as is.

Why a fix after translation costs several times more

Say you discover, after the English translation is ready, that the main character is 34 in chapter two and 36 in chapter eight. In the original it's a one-number fix. In the translation you have to find the sentence, make sure it says the same thing, and check whether other places depend on the age.

Now multiply that by three languages. And by twenty small fixes like that.

And there's another problem, harder to see: versions. If you sent the translator a file on Sunday and corrected the original on Tuesday, you now have two books. Somebody will have to remember what changed, and usually nobody remembers everything.

What to settle before translation

Not every fix is worth the effort. These are the things worth checking, from most important to least:

1. Names. Every character, place and institution is spelled the same way throughout the book. If in the original "Sarah" turns into "Sari" for no reason, the translator can't tell whether it's a nickname or a mistake. We wrote about this in why names change in translated books.
2. The timeline. Ages, dates, seasons. Readers in other languages notice this just as readers in Hebrew do.
3. Facts. In nonfiction: numbers, quotations, sources. A mistake that gets translated sounds just as authoritative.
4. Passages you already know you don't like. If there's a chapter you always wanted to shorten, now is the time. Later it will cost more.

What you can leave as it is

You don't need to rewrite the book for readers abroad. Things not worth touching just because of the translation:

• Local references. Names of foods, holidays, neighborhoods. It's part of the book, and a good translator knows how to handle it. We explained how in cultural references in translation.
• Your style. Long sentences, short sentences, humor. That's what a translator needs to carry over, not something you need to change.
• Phrasings you fear will be hard to translate. Don't simplify in advance. Tell the translator what matters to you about them, and let them work.

How you know the version is ready

A few simple signs:

• The book has been edited, at least once, by someone who isn't you. The different kinds of editing are explained in types of book editing.
• You've read it from beginning to end one last time and found nothing you'd change.
• You have one file, with a clear name, like "My Book - translation version - October 2026." Not three files called "final," "really final" and "final 2."

That file goes to translation, and only that one. If you do find a mistake afterward, put it on a separate list and send all the fixes at once, not one at a time.

And if the book is already out

If the book is already in stores in Hebrew and you've found mistakes in it, it's not the end of the world. You can fix them before translation, and while you're at it upload a corrected edition in the original language too. That way all the languages come from the same version.

If you're not sure the book is ready for translation at all, there's a cheap way to check: translate one chapter first. We explained it in translate a sample chapter first. And preparing the file itself for translation is covered in preparing your manuscript file for translation.