Book Translator for the Whole Story

Keep the person consistent without erasing their different names

Before translating a long novel, record each recurring name, nickname, title and invented term with its preferred target wording and a short source example. Link the different names for one person in your notes. After translation, compare an introduction, a later appearance and a scene where the form of address changes. A glossary guides wording; it does not guarantee that every occurrence is correct.

The useful question is more specific than “Did the same word appear?” Ask whether the reader can still tell who is speaking, who is being addressed and what their relationship is.

1. Give each recurring person a small identity record

Start with the characters and terms that could confuse a reader if they changed. For each person, note their full name and the other names actually used in the source. Keep chapter titles and a few opening words so you can find the passages again when page numbers change.

Do not merge two people just because their names become similar in the target language. Do not replace every title with a person's name: the title may explain a relationship or a change in status.

Use this review table in a spreadsheet or notebook:

Original teaching example: the characters, locations and decisions in this table were created for this guide. These are possible editorial choices, not SEKA translation output or universal translations.

2. Test the decision against a short passage

Original source example:

“索尔队长，请留步。”卫兵说。门关上后，弟弟才低声叫她：“小莲。”

An illustrative English rendering:

“Captain Sol, a moment, please,” the guard said. Only after the door closed did her brother call her softly: “Lian.”

Both forms refer to Elena. Keeping the formal address in the first sentence and the childhood nickname in the second preserves the shift from public duty to family intimacy. Replacing both with “Elena” would make the identity explicit but remove that contrast. Treat this as a decision to check in context, rather than a rule that one spelling must replace every other form.

Also look for ordinary words that resemble names. A character nicknamed “Ash” and ash in a fireplace need different treatment. A glossary entry should not become a reason to change every occurrence blindly.

3. Put approved choices into the task you will actually use

In SEKA's guide, the Glossary workflow lets you create or review entries, save a glossary and explicitly select it for a translation task. Saving it in your library does not automatically apply it to later tasks. If you select several glossaries, review their order: entries in a glossary higher in the list have higher priority.

For an existing list, use the import dialog's template. Its columns are Category, Original, Translation, Case Sensitive and Notes. Current Web code supports XLSX, XLS, CSV and JSON imports with up to 5,000 data rows per import. Check the current dialog before preparing a large list. Keep the identity and chapter-review columns above as your own review record; they are not extra import columns.

Automatic glossary extraction is an optional paid step. Its result is a draft to review, not an approved character directory. Check the wording, duplicates and quote before proceeding. You can prepare your decisions manually without starting extraction.

4. Compare three occurrences, then record what you found

Find the same person or term in these places:

1. Introduction: does the chosen name identify the intended person?
2. A distant chapter: is a spelling change accidental, or does the source use a different name?
3. A change in address: does a nickname, title or rank still convey the right relationship?

Record the source phrase and target phrase beside the location. “Looks inconsistent” is difficult to act on; “Ch. 18, the line beginning ‘Only after the door closed’: brother uses the childhood nickname” gives you something to compare.

These are diagnostic checks, not proof of a single cause. A model can deviate even when the glossary is present. Updating a saved glossary should not be treated as confirmation that an existing translation has changed; inspect the task and output separately.

Your glossary review checklist

• I linked each person's full name, aliases and titles in my notes.
• I kept different people separate, including names with similar target spellings.
• I recorded source context for names that can also be ordinary words.
• I selected the intended glossary for this task and reviewed its priority.
• I checked an introduction, a distant occurrence and a change of address.
• I recorded unresolved wording with a location and a next action.

Keep the original source available while reviewing. A consistent label can still be wrong in context, and this checklist is a sample review rather than proof that a whole book is accurate.

When your source and preferred terms are ready, start a book translation. Check the enabled file formats, choose the target language and style, and review the required Credits before confirming.

For a separate check on voice, use the novel dialogue example. For chapter and note locations, use the EPUB chapter guide.

Sources and example status

SEKA workflow facts: Glossary guide and task glossary selection, checked against current Web source on 26 October 2026. The American Translators Association's Audiovisual Division discusses recording recurring names, approved translations and usage notes in What Makes a Great KNP?. Applying an identity record and the three-location check to this novel example is this guide's editorial method, not an ATA endorsement or a measured SEKA result.

Check the text before asking a translator to read it

For a long TXT novel, prepare a readable, complete copy before you upload it. Open the beginning, a middle chapter and the ending; check character encoding, chapter boundaries and dialogue breaks. Work on a copy, keep the original, and stop if you cannot recover missing or unreadable text. Translation settings are not a repair method for a damaged source.

You do not need an elaborate production system. A source copy, a short chapter map and a list of naming decisions give you a practical starting point.

1. Choose the source you can actually verify

Use material you are allowed to translate. If you have both a TXT file and an EPUB, compare a few passages before choosing. A readable TXT can be useful for continuous prose; an EPUB may contain chapter navigation, notes or illustrations that plain text does not carry. Converting a file to TXT does not preserve those features automatically.

Keep an untouched original and make a preparation copy with a clear name, such as river-story-prepared-v1.txt. Write down the edition or source date. If two copies disagree about a chapter, resolve the difference before translation rather than combining them by guesswork.

Check the current upload control. On 26 October 2026, the live configuration and browser control on SEKA’s production and test sites accept TXT, EPUB and PDF, with a 50 MB single-file limit. Enabled formats can change; check the current control. Choose a format the entry you use actually accepts; changing a filename extension does not convert a document.

2. Reopen the file and check its characters

Look for readable names, punctuation and accented or non-Latin characters. Boxes, repeated question marks, � or strings such as café can indicate a text-decoding problem, although the exact cause still needs checking.

If your editor offers a “reopen with encoding” option, try it on the preparation copy and compare with the known source. Once the text displays correctly, saving a separate UTF-8 copy is a practical preparation choice. Close it and reopen it to check that the saved copy still reads correctly. This is local file preparation, not a requirement or an encoding-repair promise from SEKA.

If the original bytes have already been replaced with question marks or replacement characters, saving again may not recover the missing text. Return to a reliable source. Do not ask the translation to invent unreadable names.

3. Separate unwanted wrapping from meaningful breaks

A line break can be a wrapped sentence, a new speaker, a poem or a chapter heading. Do not delete all line breaks across the book.

Here is an original preparation example. The first panel deliberately contains an intrusive header and a wrapped sentence. Neither panel is SEKA output.

Before preparation:

Chapter 12 — The ferry
RIVER STORY — 107
Elena set the lantern on the
rail. “Wait here,” she said.

“Until sunrise?” Tomas asked.

Chapter 13 — Home

Prepared copy, after checking against the original:

Chapter 12 — The ferry

Elena set the lantern on the rail. “Wait here,” she said.

“Until sunrise?” Tomas asked.

Chapter 13 — Home

The page header is removed because it is not part of this story passage. The wrapped sentence is joined, while the second speaker and chapter boundary remain separate. In another book, a short standalone line could be intentional: compare before changing it. Apply a cleanup pattern to a small sample first, then inspect the result before using it more widely.

4. Make a chapter map that detects omissions

A table of contents or a large file size does not establish that the text is complete. Record several recognizable passages:

For a book with many chapters, also compare the chapter list with the source edition and investigate unexplained gaps. An intentional numbering gap is different from missing text. The table above is a useful sample, not a full completeness certificate.

5. Prepare choices before starting the task

Write down the target language, the style you intend to use and recurring names or terms. Keep a dialogue scene and a narrative passage as review points. SEKA's style guide explains that a task uses one style and that its style cannot be changed after translation starts. Choose before confirming, and review the quote for the actual settings.

If the file exceeds the current limit, first look for a complete supported source that fits. If you prepare separate volumes or natural chapter ranges, keep the order and naming decisions in your own record and configure each task deliberately. Do not assume separate tasks share context or merge back into a single book automatically. File size is not an estimate of translation time or required Credits.

Your go / fix / stop checklist

Continue with the prepared file

Open the book translation entry. Select the supported source, review the detected details, choose the target language and style, and select the glossary intended for this task. Review the required Credits before confirming. Tasks consume Credits; this guide does not promise a free full-book translation or a fixed completion time.

After translation, compare the same locations in your chapter map with the source. Clear paragraphs in the preparation copy do not guarantee identical translated line breaks, complete note handling or an edition ready for publication. Review important passages before relying on them.

If your source is EPUB, use the chapter and notes checklist. For a fiction-specific comparison after translation, use the dialogue and voice guide.

Sources and example status

SEKA facts: book guide, translation entry and style selection guide, checked against public HTML and current Web source on 26 October 2026. calibre's conversion documentation describes how incorrect character encoding can corrupt displayed characters; its heuristic-processing section explains why automated cleanup needs care. The preparation sequence, example, chapter map and checklist above are original editorial guidance, not a claim that SEKA or calibre performed this workflow on a real book.