Why the page count in translation changes, and why it matters

Almost every book changes its page count when it moves into another language, and from Hebrew into English it usually gets longer. That's not a sign of a problem with the translation. It's just how languages work. But in a print book, the page count in translation affects things that concern you directly: the spine width, the cover and the printing cost.

Why a book gets longer or shorter in translation

Every language packs meaning differently. The same sentence can fill one line in one language and a line and a half in another, without anyone adding or dropping a word.

Written Hebrew is especially compact, for two reasons:

• It has no letters for most vowels. The Hebrew word for book, sefer, is written with three letters, roughly s-f-r. In English, "book" needs four.
• Small words attach to the word after them. Uvabayit is one word. In English it's "and in the house", four words. Kshehalachti is one word too. In English it's "when I went", three.

So a book translated from Hebrew into English, French or Spanish almost always comes out longer. And a book translated into Hebrew usually gets shorter.

What else changes the page count in translation

Language is only part of the story. Even without changing a single word, the page count moves with:

• The trim size. A smaller book needs more pages for the same text.
• The font and its size. Different fonts have different widths, even at the same size.
• Line spacing and margins. How much air there is on the page.
• How chapters start. A book where every chapter starts on a new right-hand page adds blank pages.

In other words, if the translation came out longer than the original, you have a few dials to turn before you cut any text. And most of the time you don't need to cut at all.

How it affects the cover

In a print book, the cover isn't just the front. It's the back, the spine and the front together, and the spine is set by how thick the book is.

KDP (Amazon's self-publishing platform) says so explicitly. According to the help page on paperback covers, the spine width is calculated from the page count and the paper type. The same page says that spine text is printed only on books with more than 79 pages. A thinner book with text on the spine will be rejected.

In practice, you design the full cover of the translated book only after the interior file is locked. If you design the cover around the page count of the original, the spine won't fit. KDP also has a cover calculator that builds a template from your page count.

One more detail. If the book moves from Hebrew into a language read left to right, the cover flips. The front moves to the other side of the spine. We wrote about this in when a book changes reading direction.

How it affects printing cost

For most print books, more pages means more money. According to KDP's printing cost page, the printing cost is a fixed amount plus an extra charge per page. There's one exception: short black-ink books pay only the fixed amount.

That changes two things. The first is how much you keep from each copy sold, because the printing cost comes out of the income. The second is the price you'll need to ask, because a longer book needs a higher list price to leave you the same profit. If the translated book came out much longer than the original, check this before you set a price.

And in an ebook?

There, the issue almost disappears. A regular ebook has no fixed pages. The text flows to fit the screen size and the font size the reader chose, and the same book can be "200 pages" on one phone and "400" on another.

The exception is books where the page design is part of the content, like illustrated children's books. There every page is built in advance, and longer text may simply not fit in the space it was given.

What to do about it

Three simple steps:

1. Don't order a full cover before the interior is locked. You can start on the front, but the spine and the back get finished at the end.
2. If the translation came out too long, start with the layout. Font, size and margins come before cutting text.
3. Order a printed copy before you publish. Only in your hands can you tell whether the spine sits right and whether the thickness feels right. More questions are collected in our frequently asked questions.