Books on Translation & Interpreting

Welcome to the book page!

Here you’ll find lots of ideas to put on your reading list, and both new and not-so-new translators and interpreters should find something of interest.

I’ve divided the books into six broad categories:

Copyediting & Proofreading

Copywriting

Interpreting

Marketing & Business

Translation

Writing & Style

Please let me know if you have any other suggestions for this page.

If you’ve read one of the books below and would like to write a review of it for this blog as a guest post, or have written a review elsewhere and you’d like me to include a link for it here, please get in touch.

Inclusion in this list does not mean I’ve either read or recommend the book. Any links to my own and other people’s reviews are highlighted. You might find it useful to read A Word of Caution about Using the Resource Pages before you start exploring the links.

Last updated 25 July 2022

Copyediting & Proofreading

A New Reference Grammar of Modern Spanish

by John Butt, Carmen Benjamin and Antonia Moreira Rodríguez

Butcher’s Copy-editing: The Cambridge Handbook for Editors, Copy-editors and Proofreaders

by Judith Butcher, Caroline Drake and Maureen Leach

You can read a review of this book by Sylvia Sullivan on the CIEP website.

Developmental Editing: A Handbook for Freelancers, Authors, and Publishers

by Scott Norton

Don’t Trust Your Spell Check

by Dean Evans

My review of this book.

Eats, Shoots and Leaves: The Zero Tolerance Approach to Punctuation

By Lynne Truss

Practical English Usage

by Michael Swan

The Pocket Book of Proofreading

by William Critchley

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Copywriting

Because Internet: Understanding the New Rules of Language

by Gretchen McCulloch

Confessions of an Advertising Man

by David Ogilvy

Content Strategy for Mobile

by Karen McGrane

Copywriting Made Simple

by Tom Albrighton

Letting Go of the Words

by Janice (Ginny) Redish

Making Your Website Work: 100 Copy & Design Tweaks for Smart Business Owners

by Gill Evans

Nicely Said: Writing for the Web with Style and Purpose

by Nicole Fenton and Kate Kiefer Lee

Ogilvy on Advertising

by David Ogilvy

The Art of the Click: How to Harness the Power of Direct-Response Copywriting and Make More Sales

by Glenn Fisher

The Copywriting Sourcebook: How to Write Better Copy Faster – for Everything from Ads to Websites

By Andy Maslen

The Fall of Advertising and the Rise of PR

by Al Ries and Laura Ries

Write to Sell

by Andy Maslen

Writing for Designers

by Scott Kubie
E-book and print on demand

Writing is Designing: Words and the User Experience

by Michael J. Metts and Andy Welfe

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Interpreting

Being a Successful Interpreter: Adding Value and Delivering Excellence

by Jonathan Downie

Community Interpreting

By Sandra Beatriz Hale

Conference Interpreting: A Complete Course

by Robin Setton and Andrew Dawrant

Conference Interpreting: A Student’s Practice Book

by Andrew Gillies

Conference Interpreting Explained

by Roderick Jones

Conference Interpreting: Principles and Practice

by Valerie Taylor-Bouladon

Dialogue Interpreting: A Guide to Interpreting in Public Services and the Community

by Rebecca Tipton and Olgierda Furmanek

Essays on Conference Interpreting

by James Nolan

Interpretation: Techniques and Exercises

by James Nolan

Interpreters vs Machines: Can Interpreters Survive in an AI-Dominated World?

by Jonathan Downie

Interpreting as Interaction

by Cecilia Wadensjö

Introducing Interpreting Studies

by Franz Pöchhacker

Introduction to Court Interpreting

by Holly Mikkelson

JUMP!: A very practical guide to choosing your own (interpreting) adventure

by Cecilia Lipovsek

Note-taking for Consecutive Interpreting: A Short Course

by Andrew Gillies

Note-taking Manual: A Study Guide for Interpreters and Everyone Who Takes Notes

by Virginia Valencia

Public Service Interpreting: The First Steps

by Ann Corsellis

The Language Game: Inspiration and Insights for Interpreters

by Ewandro Magalhaes

The New Professional Court Interpreter

by Tony Rosado

The Next Generation of Research in Interpreter Education: Pursuing Evidence-Based Practices

edited by Cynthia Roy and Elizabeth Winston

View from the Dock, Diary of a Court Interpreter

by Cordelia Novak

Paperback and Kindle editions available.

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Marketing & Business

Balance Your Words: Stepping in the Translation Industry

by Sara Colombo

Beginning, Middle and End: How to Be a Managing Translator and Deal Effectively With Your Projects

by Luisa Matos, Rui Sousa and Teresa Sousa

Also available as an e-book and in Portuguese.

Confessions of a Freelance Translator

by Gary Smith

Diario de un futuro traductor

by Ismael Pardo

Also available as an e-book.

Diversification in the Language Industry

by Nicole Y. Adams

My review of this book.

Effective Email Marketing for Freelance Linguists: Detailed Roadmap with Guidelines and Tips

by Pavel Elin

A review on this blog written as a guest post by Karolina Łachmacka

Finding and Marketing to Translation Agencies: A Practical Guide for Freelance Translators

by Corinne McKay

Available as a book, on Kindle or as a PDF download.

Get Fit for the Future of Transcreation: A handbook on how to succeed in an undervalued market

by Nina Sattler-Hovdar

Also available as a downloadable PDF.

Guide to Starting Out as a Translator: A Step-by-Step Guide to Building Your Translation Career

by the American Translators Association (ATA)

Free e-book.

How to be a Successful Freelance Translator

by Robert Gebhardt

How to Succeed as a Freelance Translator

by Corinne McKay

How to Manage Your Translation Projects

by Nancy Matis

The English version is only available in digital format.

Marketing Tips for Translators: The Ultimate Collection of Business Tips from the Podcast

by Tess Whitty

Secrets of Six-Figure Translators: The Essential Guide to Running a Successful Freelance Business

by Oana Maria Sofronov

Still Standing Out

by Andrew Morris

The Book of Standing Out: Travels through the Inner World of Freelance Translation

by Andrew Morris

The Business Guide for Translators

by Marta Stelmaszak

The Entrepreneurial Linguist: The Business-School Approach to Freelance Translation

by Judy and Dagmar Jenner

The Marketing Cookbook for Translators: Foolproof Recipes for a Thriving Freelance Career

by Tess Whitty

The Prosperous Translator

by Chris Durban

The Translation Sales Handbook

by Luke Spear

2014 edition available free online.

The Ultimate Guide to Becoming a Successful Freelance Translator: Written by translators for translators

by Oleg Semerikov and Simon Hodkinson and edited by Sheila Wilson

You can read a review of this book by Catherine Christaki on ATA’s blog The Savvy Newcomer and by Rita Maia on her blog.

Thoughts on Translation

by Corinne McKay

Based on her former blog.

Translation 101: Starting Out As A Translator

by Petro Dudi

Truly Global: The Theory and Practice of Bringing Your Company to International Markets

by Anna N Schlegel

Way Smarter Freelancing

by Walt Kania

E-book delivered as pdf.

60 Ways to Find Clients as a Translator

by Virginia Katsimpiri

Free e-book.

88 Ways to be Successful as a Freelance Translator

by Matt Stanton

Available on Kindle.

101 Things a Translator Needs to Know

by the WLF Think Tank

My review of this book.

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Translation

A Companion to Translation Studies

Topics in Translation

Edited by Piotr Kuhiwczak and Karin Littau

A Practical Guide for Translators (Topics in Translation)

by Geoffrey Samuelsson-Brown

A Systematic Approach to Translating Contracts into English

by Rob Lunn

Free e-book.

A Textbook of Translation

by Peter Newmark

After Babel: Aspects of Language and Translation

by George Steiner

An Introduction to Translation Memory

by Emma Goldsmith

Free e-book available via the SDL site.

Becoming a Translator: An Introduction to the Theory and Practice of Translation

by Douglas Robinson

Can Theory Help Translators?

A Dialogue Between the Ivory Tower and the Workplace (Translation Theories Explored)

by Andrew Chesterman and Emma Wagner

Dancing in Ropes: Translators and the Balance of History

by Anna Aslanyan

Discourse and the Translator

by Basil Hatim and Ian Mason

English & Spanish Audiovisual Translation Guide

by GOSUB and Natives For You

E-book costing €40.

Exploring Translation Theories

by Anthony Pym

Found in Translation: How Language Shapes Our Lives and Transforms the World

by Nataly Kelly and Jost Zetzsche

German and English: Academic Usage and Academic Translation

by Dirk Siepmann

Guidelines for the Translation of Social Science Texts

by Michael Henry Heim and Andrzej W. Tymowski

Also available in Arabic, Chinese, French, Japanese, Russian, Spanish and Vietnamese. They can be downloaded free.

Handbuch Technisches Übersetzen

by Peter A Schmitt

For German-English technical translators.

Il traduttore insostituibile

Specializzazione e posizionamento per i professionisti della traduzione

by Marco Cevoli

In Other Words

by Mona Baker

A coursebook on translation.

In Translation: Translators on Their Work and What It Means

edited by Esther Allen and Susan Bernofsky

Introducing Translation Studies: Theories and Applications

by Jeremy Munday

Introduction to Spanish Translation

by Jack Child

Is That a Fish in Your Ear?: Translation and the Meaning of Everything

by David Bellos

La traducción del inglés al castellano: guía para el traductor

by Marina Orellana

Legal Translation Explained

by Enrique Alcaraz and Brian Hughes

Léxico temático de terminología jurídica español-inglés

Thematic Lexicon of Spanish-English Legal Terminology

by Rebecca Jowers

You can read Rebecca Jowers’s own blog post “What’s in that book?” to see its entire contents at a glance.

Rob Lunn has written a review of this book on his blog Legally Yours from Spain.

Literary Translation: A Practical Guide

by Clifford E. Landers

Localización de videojuegos

by Pablo Muñoz Sánchez

Also available as an e-book.

Lost in Translation: An Illustrated Compendium of Untranslatable Words from Around the World

by Ella Frances Sanders

Manual de traducción inglés-castellano: teoría y práctica

by Juan Gabriel López Guix and Jacqueline Minett Wilkinson

You can read a review of this book on ATA’s blog The Savvy Newcomer.

Manual de traducción. A Manual of Translation: Textos españoles e ingleses traducidos y comentados

by Juan Jesús Zaro and Michael Truman

Manual of Spanish-English Translation

by Kelly Washbourne

Meaning-Based Translation: A Guide to Cross-Language Equivalence

by Mildred L. Larson

Medical Translation Step by Step: Learning by Drafting

by Vincent Montalt Resurrecció and Maria González Davies

Performing Without a Stage: The Art of Literary Translation

by Robert Wechsler

Revising and Editing for Translators

by Brian Mossop

Read a review of this book by Carl Carter on his blog Tips ‘n’ Tools for Translators.

Routledge Encyclopedia of Translation Studies

by Mona Baker and Gabriela Saldanha

Scientific and Technical Translation

by Maeve Olohan

Scientific and Technical Translation Explained

by Jody Byrne

Search it, Find it: the Translator’s Minimalist Guide to Online Search

by Carlos Djomo

Subtitling: Concepts and Practices – Translation Practices Explained

by Jorge Díaz-Cintas and Aline Remael

Tapping Into Translators’ Creativity: Connecting the Dots between Translation and Creativity

by Magda Phili

Terminology for Beginners

by Patricia Brenes
Free e-book.

The Georgetown Guide to Arabic-English Translation

by Mustafa Mughazy

The Poetics of Translation: History, Theory, Practice

by Willis Barnstone

The SEO Translation Bible

by Maria Scheibengraf

Available as an e-book

The Translation Studies Reader

edited by Lawrence Venuti

The Translator’s Little Book of Poetry

curated and written by Elizabeth de Zoysa, Caroline Durant, Felicity Pearce, Nathalie Reis, Rosie Robbins, Joanna Pawulska Saunders, Angie Taylor and Adriana Tortoriello