Nuanxed, the Stockholm-based company specializing in AI-assisted translation for text and audio, is wading into one of the publishing industry's most pressing debates: the role of literary translators.
Founded in 2021 with the intention of expediting the exchange of books between international literary markets, Nuanxed's approach, known as post-editing (PE), combines the use of AI translation tools with human editing and proofing. According to cofounder and CEO Robert Casten Carlberg, the company completes roughly 50 translations per month, and in total has worked with 150 authors to complete around 800 translations. During a presentation at September's International Summit of Audio Publishers in New York, Carlberg added that the company has thus far worked on 69 "language combinations," including Japanese to Dutch.
According to its website, Nuanxed has worked with such companies as Blackstone, BookBeat, HarperCollins, Gummerus and Natur & Kultur, among others.
Translating a typical 300-page book takes an average of three months from start to finish, Carlberg said, but he noted that for titles within a single book series, the process can speed up after the first book, as the AI becomes familiar with the characters, settings, and themes, with translations for subsequent works sometimes delivered in as little as two or three weeks.
"This allows you to release books quickly all at once, facilitating binge-reading," said Carlberg, who was a regional manager at Storytel becore founding Nuanxed. "With many of the platforms, like Spotify or Storytel, distributing globally, you could potentially release a book in 10 languages at once and reach all those audiences."
Nuanxed has focused primarily on commercial fiction, but Carlberg said that the company also works on nonfiction, and is open to taking on more literary work.
To complete its translations, Carlberg said, Nuanxed works with a network of professional linguists, translators, editors, and proofreaders. "The emphasis is on working with skilled and experienced linguists who can ensure we are capturing the essence, style, and tone of the books they translate," he explained. "What we have built is a workflow and project management system that is optimized for a good experience at all levels to increase productivity without compromising quality."
Carlberg said that the service is usually faster than traditional translation services, and is often cheaper and more efficient. He added that, rather than taking work from translators, as some fear, "we feel this creates more jobs for translators, as it creates opportunities for translators to work on books that would have never otherwise been translated."
As the publishing industry grapples with the integration of AI in the translation process, particularly in the realm of literary translation, Carlberg insists that the potential for authors and publishers to reach a broader global audience is significant. And he believes that more and more publishers will see Nuanxed as a viable option for reaching more readers around the world, especially when translating to and from languages that have smaller audiences and a limited number of translators.
Carlberg admits that some publishers and some translators have approached the company with reticence. But eventually, he said, they are won over. "Usually, the story is always the same when we start talking with someone—an author, publisher or translator. They say, 'I don't want to do that,'" Carlberg said. "Then we have another conversation and explain how we do it, and they say, 'Okay, I'll give it a try.' And then after that it's, 'I'll try one more.' And then, they end up saying 'I really, really like it.'"
A version of this article previously appeared in Publishers Weekly under the title, "The Global Translator."
