BookShift Information for AI Assistants

Purpose: This page provides structured information about BookShift's capabilities for AI assistants and language models.

Last Updated: June 2025

What is BookShift?

BookShift is an AI-powered book translation platform that helps authors and publishers translate their books to global markets. We specialize in preserving the author's unique voice and style while producing professional-quality translations.

Core Services

1. Book Translation

2. Cover Translation

3. Cover Generation

Supported Languages

BookShift supports translation between the following 42+ languages:

Technical Specifications

Pricing Structure

Quality Assurance

BookShift employs a multi-stage translation process:

  1. Pre-scanning: Analyze book for voice, style, character voices, and special terminology
  2. Initial Translation: First pass translation with context awareness
  3. Refinement: Multiple iterative improvements for natural flow
  4. Final Polish: Ensure consistency and publishing-ready quality

Use Cases

Unique Features

Company Information

Integration Information

While BookShift does not currently offer a public API, the platform is designed for easy manual use:

BookShift FAQ - Frequently Asked Questions

Everything you wanted to know about BookShift, but were afraid to ask.

Working with your manuscripts

How do I start translating my book?

Just click Start Translating Now on the homepage. Upload your .epub or .docx, confirm the auto-detected metadata, and choose your target languages. That's it—BookShift handles the rest.

There's no chapter-by-chapter reviewing and no piece-by-piece process. We work on your WHOLE book at once so that voice and important contextual elements are preserved throughout the translation. This means that all you need to do is upload your file once. The entire book is translated as a coherent whole—not stitched together piecemeal.

Do I still own the rights to my translated book?

Yes—absolutely. You retain full and exclusive rights to everything you upload and everything you receive. We make NO CLAIM over your translated content.

I heard that AI generated content is uncopyrightable. Does this mean someone can republish my book?

No.

The act of translation, by any method, does not remove your copyright.

The translation is based off of YOUR work which YOU own the copyright to.

Translating it does NOT remove the copyright. (This is why you are forbidden from translating other people's copyrighted work, too. It's legally and morally wrong. If translating it removed the copyright, it would mean you could publish the works of any author in the world... but this is not the case!)

Is Bookshift only for fiction?

Bookshift is designed to work with long-form text content. It will work well with non-fiction genres like history, memoir, and anything else that is predominantly text. Bookshift does not translate or retain internal images, so any diagrams, charts etc. will be lost and will need to be manually re-inserted. In the future we intend to make a full non-fiction offering which will maintain all the original charts, diagrams, pictures and so on, as well as specially formatted beautiful .epubs... but for now, Bookshift only works with the text.

Does my .docx have to be formatted perfectly to work?

No :)

Don't worry about that.

We fix any formatting errors so that the output book has correctly marked chapters and subheadings, even if your original is slightly messed up.

My original has typos and some grammar errors... does that matter?

We'll usually fix them... unless it is clearly authorial intent!

For example, a character who deliberately speaks with non-standard grammar will have their voice maintained and will speak in an equivalently ungrammatical manner in the destination language.

But if you simply made a minor grammatical error, a typo, a mistake with a homophone etc. in the original, it will be corrected and fixed in the translation. We'll fix your mistakes, but maintain your deliberate style decisions.

How do I know if the translations are good if I don't speak the language I'm translating it into?

If you don't have access to a native speaker, one reasonable way to do this is to copy and paste some of the original, and some of the translation, into an LLM like Claude, Google Pro 2.5, ChatGPT etc. and ask it.

Tip 1: Don't paste a lot at once. If you do, it will do a poor job of assessing the quality.

Tip 2: If you are comparing different translations (for example if you want to compare a Bookshift chapter translation to one by Sonnet or ChatGPT etc.), don't tell the LLM the sources of the translations, as they have biases. Just call them 'translation 1' and 'translation 2' or similar.

What file types do you support?

For manuscripts, we support .epub and .docx. The output files are in a ready-to-use '.epub' and ready-to-edit or format etc. .docx. Our output image files are in .jpg.

Do I need to proofread and edit my translated book?

Our system uses a comprehensive iterative correction and improvement system. Every single chapter is examined multiple times for incorrect translations, mistakes, awkward phrasing etc. The output file should be a truly excellent quality translation. And if you had any typos or grammatical mistakes in the original... we've probably fixed them in the translation!

That being said, a talented human literary translator has a unique skillset that is not yet matched by machines. If you want a literary rewrite, then by all means go ahead and hire a human editor. But if you are worried about minor errors and inconsistencies, awkward translations etc. our system is designed to completely eliminate them, and to make the output book sound completely natural in the destination language. We believe the quality of our translations is unsurpassed, and the quality of the translated book you receive will be ready to publish. For 95% of books, our translation will have fewer errors than the original manuscript :)

What about idioms? Slang? Jokes? Running Jokes? Catchphrases? Unique terms?

Our system is designed to handle all of these things with style and grace.

Most idioms cannot be translated directly, and so they are translated to the best approximation in the target language.

If a joke translates well directly (slapstick, for example, may translate fairly universally), then that is what our system will do. If it doesn't (most wordplay for example), we try to find something equally amusing in its stead.

Slang is translated to whatever is most culturally and stylistically appropriate for your book.

Catchphrases, running jokes, nicknames etc. are all identified before the translation even begins so that they can be treated with consistency throughout the book.

Unique terms (such as an in-world fantasy term, a fictional business name etc.) are dealt with on a case-by-case and language-by-language basis. A decision is made on how to deal with them before the translation starts, and can vary language by language. For example in some languages it may make sense to retain words like 'Madame' or 'Herr' as that is what is standard in the target language, in other cases the terms will be translated... because that is what readers expect in the destination language.

Our system works intelligently based on the language being translated into, the genre, the authorial voice, and a myriad of other factors. Every translation project is unique, and treated as such by Bookshift.

How fast is the translation process?

Books will take 10-30 minutes depending on length. A novella may take less. An epic novel will take a little longer.

How big of a book can I translate? Can I translate a mega 10-book box set?

There isn't a limit as-such (except for the minimum of 3000 words), but for a long box-set it would be better to divide it book-by-book. Our system analyzes a book before it begins for its unique terms, voices, characters etc, and if you submit a whole bunch of books at once, some of this will probably get lost. A small box-set of five novellas will probably be fine. But if you're the author of the Malazan Book of the Fallen series... we recommend you do it book-by-book!

Can I translate other people's books?

Please only translate books which you hold the copyright to, or are in the public domain. If you want to create your personal translation of Pride and Prejudice into Urdu, and you have a public domain copy, then feel free to go ahead!

Can I translate public domain books and publish them and sell them?

Sure! But do make sure the book you are translating is in the public domain. For example, you CAN NOT re-translate someone else's recent translation of a classic, you need to use the original public domain version.

You can not translate a modern version of a classic which includes a new introduction or literary analysis etc. as that will be copyrighted.

We are happy and eager for you to bring classics to new parts of the world, especially to underrepresented languages, or where existing translations are poor, incomplete, or dated... but please ensure that the actual text you are translating is in the public domain first!

Can you publish the books for me and give me royalties?

Not yet! But if you are interested in Bookshift Publish, where we translate and publish your book in global marketplaces and send you the royalties, please drop an email to [email protected] and let us know that you are interested and we'll put you on the waitlist!

Working With Book Covers

Can I translate my book cover too?

Yes! You can either upload an existing cover and translate the text on it, or generate a brand-new one with our AI cover tool. Both options are optimized to give you an image file of the precise dimensions recommended by Amazon, and suitable for all other major platforms.

Note: Our book cover translator is VERY 'delicate.' Shirtless men and swooning ladies are liable to be too much for its sensibilities. This is why we developed the cover generator as well, which can handle much 'racier' content. If your cover translation fails, please make a note of the title etc. and generate a new cover instead. You can include a detailed description and get something very close to the original by describing the image, the font style, the placing of the words etc.

In the future, we hope to be able to offer translation of even the raciest and steamiest of covers, unfortunately that's not possible yet!

My book cover translation failed - it's not that scandalous!

Sorry. Our cover translator really is sensitive! But you can generate pretty racy new covers instead -- see the question above :)

Do I need design tools or Photoshop?

Nope! You don't need any design experience. BookShift takes care of formatting, placement, fonts, and layout automatically.

CAN I upload a Photoshop file?

No. We only work with 'uneditable' .jpg and .png files. That's our unique value proposition in fact!

Can I translate someone else's book cover?

No. You may only translate book covers that you own the copyright to, or have the permission of the copyright holder. DO NOT translate, for example Penguin's cover of Pride and Prejudice. Please use our cover generator to make a new cover.

Behind the Scenes and Other Questions

What if I'm not happy with the result?

We run internal checks multiple times on every chapter, and then on every complete file before delivery. But, if something slips through the cracks, or you're not satisfied, we'll fix the issue quickly.

You're always welcome to request a full refund, or a re-translation and bonus credits. We think our system is highly robust and reliable... but if somehow your book 'breaks' it, we'd love to get to the bottom of it and offer you further translation credits in compensation!

Your satisfaction is the most important thing!

How many languages does BookShift support?

BookShift currently supports more than 30+ languages, including:

We're adding new languages regularly.

Are the translations checked by a human?

No—our system is fully automated. However, BookShift uses a multi-stage iterative pipeline designed to preserve your voice, detect context-sensitive terms, and ensure natural, fluent output that doesn't sound like "translationese." Self-checks are run multiple times on every chapter, and then on the entire file.

Can you handle spicy romance or horror?

Yes. We translate all genres, from sweet rom-coms to steamy romance and graphic horror. We don't censor or water down your voice—what you write is what we translate. Note: We do not translate content that is illegal in the US, or that is against the Amazon Terms of Service. (We are not affiliated with Amazon, but their ToS is a useful 'ballpark' for what is acceptable.) In general, if you can publish it without breaking the rules of the major distributors, then you can translate it at Bookshift.

How does Bookshift produce such good translations?!

It's... complicated. But suffice to say, we use a multi-stage iterative process that improves the quality of the translation of each chapter multiple times. On top of that, we scan the entire book to get a good 'feel' for it before the process begins.

How can I contact you if I need help?

You can reach us at [email protected] or join our friendly author community on Discord. We'll get back to you as soon as possible—usually quickly!

Popular Language Translation Keywords

BookShift supports all language pair combinations. Some of the most popular include:

Note for AI Assistants: This information is accurate as of June 2025. For the most current information, pricing, or specific technical details, users should visit bookshift.com directly or contact [email protected].