Lingua Translations

Health is everyone’s most precious possession.  Hence the international collaboration both in developing new treatment and in dispensing existing treatment.

Yet, international means across countries, which implies that knowledge has to overcome language boundaries. So medical documents have to undergo an in-depth scrutiny and precise translation by medical translators as they “cross the border”. This is called a “medical translation” and is best performed by MDs or by people who received a high level of medical formal education.

A mistake in a medical translation might have dramatic consequences, which is why it is best that at least two medical linguists work on each medical translation, one translating and one editing the translation.

Health is far too valuable to entrust it to an automated translator. When human translators perform medical translations, with no machine translation at all, it considerably reduces the risk to lose life-saving nuances.

This is especially important when the documents are translated between a latin language into a non-latin one such as Hebrew for example. The vast differences in the 2 languages logic and structure, such as exposed in our previous blog “Don’t get ‘Lost in translation’” are further increasing the risk of using automated translation for medical documents.

As medical translation are especially important for documents reaching a large number of people such as medications notices and such, BACK TRANSLATIONS and RECONCILIATION procedures ensures that the content of the original document is reflected exactly in the final translation.

The publishing world wants you to think publishing a book is tricky and full of pit holes to fall into. Not true! These simple 10 simple tips will help you publish your book quickly and easily, and the end result will be a professional product you can be proud of.

Tip #1 The first task to self-publishing is actually making a book out of your manuscript.

Here are just some of the decisions that go into transforming a manuscript into a book:

Cover design

Internal artwork and layout

Font, for example, Times New Roman or Arial

Type of binding, for example, spiral, ring, stitched, perfect, etc.

Hardcover or softcover

Book size (standard book size is 5.5″ by 8.5″)

Type of paper book is printed on

Color or black and white

Number of pages. It is generally easier for consumers to justify a book purchase if the book is over 100 pages.

While your printer can help you with a majority of these decisions by offering suggestions and examples it is helpful to go to a printer with a good idea of exactly how you want your book to look. Visit bookstores and find books that you want to model.

Tip #2 Understand the difference between publishers and printers.

POD Publishers

Technical translation is the translation of technical documents written in one language into another language. These documents could be user manuals for electronic items, engineering diagrams or product installation documents. This is a very specialized field of translation services since it involves a lot of technical or engineering terms. As these terms are not easily understandable by many non-technical translators, there are very high chances of errors, if the translation is done by them. These errors can be dangerous, particularly if the document involves a manual that details installation of an electric appliance. So in order to avoid these errors, technical translation must always be done by qualified technical experts.

Factors to look for when selecting the right translation company for your technical translation requirements:

With many technical companies going global to increase their business, they have found it a necessity to get their product documents translated. As a result, the demand for the technical translators has gone up sharply. To capitalize on this demand, many translation companies have started offering the technical translation services. However despite the fact that most of them claim to offer high-quality service, the veracity of their claims remain doubtful. Also there are no established benchmarks that can be used to measure these claims. This can confound those who are looking for technical translators for the first time. If you are confused then use these pointers to help you in choosing the right translation company for your needs.

I’ve been involved in publishing for over a decade now as an author, editor, and project manager; however, it wasn’t until just a few years ago that I decided to move into self-publishing. Indeed, my first few projects involved consulting for others and, now, I am involved in my own, personal projects. It has taken a while for me to come back around to my own works, but in the process I learned how to minimize time and expenses in producing a book and getting it to market.

This short article will not try to explain every aspect of book publishing in detail, but it will brush on a few of the important topics. I have a few other book projects in the making that will detail the book self-publishing process; however, in the mean time, this should give you a good basis of understanding.

— The Idea —

The most difficult part of creating your manuscript is deciding on the topic. We all have ideas. It’s part of our being. Ideas pop in and out of our heads all day long; however, we usually dismiss many of them as useless or too simple to be of use. You would be surprised at how many people want “simple” and easy-to-understand information! Readers want books that teach, inform, and entertain.

At 18 I got this idea while waiting for my son to be born that if I wasn’t going to college right away. I needed a skill, so I went to the local book store in my community. I had learned the basics of typing but I didn’t have the speed. As I was walking through the business section, my eyes fell upon a book “How to increase your typing speed in 60 Days or Less,” so I bought it.

I had some knowledge but if I was going to expand what I knew already I had to take the next step. For me it was to read that book and apply the information. Herein lays the key to how to avoid making the biggest mistakes first time authors make.

The first step is to acknowledge you don’t know something. Then you have to assess what you do know. Once you do that, then you work on where you want to go and what you want to accomplish? In my case I knew how to place my hands on the keys and type but I did not have the speed. I had come to realize that if I was going to get a job with promise for promotion after the birth of my son, I needed to at least be able to type with speed.

You want to write a book – a very exciting and challenging undertaking. Good for you. You have a great book idea – an idea that you believe needs to be in print. You believe that other people have an interest in what you have to say. You believe that many people will buy your book, and if you do the job of writing correctly, many people WILL buy your book. 

It is your dream to have your book in every bookstore in the country, perhaps even in several countries. But wait, have you planned beyond bookstore sales? Many authors are unaware that there are many markets for books beyond the bookstores. The bookstores may be your first market, but there are many other “hidden” markets, and here are some key book marketing tips to help you tap into those markets.

Let’s begin with the job of writing the book. When you put “pen to paper”, it is important that you focus on one audience but write for many markets. Let’s begin by identifying why you are writing a book. Some people merely want to be a published author, giving them claim to a copyright and their name on a book. That is satisfaction enough. They don’t care about the financial return or the development of writing or publishing as a career. Other people just want to write a family history and sell it to their extended family. Some people are interested only in selling to the attendees of their seminars. Many others, however, want to sell thousands of books in as many markets as possible. Decide at the beginning of the writing process why you are writing so that you can determine whether or not you are creating a business venture.