Translating a whole book creates a different problem from translating a paragraph. A character may be referred to by several names, a technical word may carry a narrow meaning and a later sentence may depend on a definition introduced earlier.
You can make the task easier to review by deciding your terminology before submission. Clear instructions are more useful than a long request to “translate perfectly.”
Inspect the original EPUB first
Open the book and check that its text, chapters and navigation work. If the source is already broken, translation is unlikely to repair it. Use material you are authorized to process and keep the source file.
If your starting point is a scan rather than an EPUB, first consider converting the scanned PDF. This separates recognition problems from translation problems: a misspelled source word cannot be solved reliably through terminology notes alone.
Write a small, explicit terminology note
In PDF Craft's EPUB translator, use the translation notes field for names, domain terms and style preferences that matter. Prioritize ambiguous or repeatedly used expressions rather than copying an entire dictionary.
A useful note for a Chinese translation of a technical book might say:
Translate “large language model” as “大语言模型”. Keep product names and code identifiers unchanged. Use the same translation for a defined term unless the context clearly changes.
For fiction, specify preferred character names and whether honorifics should remain. Avoid conflicting instructions such as demanding both word-for-word syntax and completely rewritten prose.
These notes guide translation. They are not a guaranteed terminology database or a proof that a term will never vary.
Understand what context can and cannot do
PDF Craft's translation workflow takes surrounding text into account and aims to preserve the book's paragraph and chapter structure. That is useful for references that depend on nearby sentences and for avoiding isolated sentence-by-sentence phrasing.
It should not be described as perfect memory of every fact in the book. Local context does not guarantee that a name stays consistent across distant chapters. Structural checks also cannot prove that an explanation is factually or semantically correct.
Choose an output you can review
A translated-only version is usually more compact. A bilingual version keeps the original nearby, which makes names, definitions and ambiguous passages easier to check. Consider bilingual reading when review matters more than brevity.
After processing, open the result in a reader. Check chapter navigation, paragraph order and a few places where the book changes from prose to notes, tables or formulas. Do not treat a completed task status as a quality certificate.
Sample deliberately, not only from the beginning
Choose passages from the opening, middle and ending, plus a technical definition or a dialogue-heavy section. Search for your important terms and compare their variants. Read across paragraph boundaries to see whether pronouns and references still connect.
For each issue, decide whether it comes from the source, a wording choice or a missing structural element. Correcting these categories requires different action. Keep a short review log so you do not repeatedly inspect only the easiest passages.
For high-stakes use or publication, arrange suitable human review and confirm the necessary rights. The practical advantage of this workflow is a more manageable, reviewable book translation—not a promise of error-free language.