We built TranslateAI for one obvious reason: the more languages your book is available in, the more readers you can reach.
Leanpub exists to serve our authors. We want to help you reach as many readers as possible, and we want to help you make as much money as possible. We also want to help you save time, so you can spend more time writing and less time doing other things.
Now, the best way for readers to read your book is in their preferred language. This is their first language: what they grew up speaking, and what they are most comfortable reading in.
For our authors who write in English: just because many people in the world can read English as a second language to some extent doesn't mean they should have to read your book that way. Furthermore, billions of people cannot read English, even as a second language. If you want to reach these people, you need to translate your book into their language. First and foremost, this is a question of accessibility: if your readers cannot read your book, it does not matter how good it is.
For our authors who write in a language other than English: TranslateAI is even more valuable for you, especially if you're writing a computer programming book or business book. English is the largest market for these books, and you're really missing out by not having an English version of your book!
So, just as Leanpub automates the process of creating a PDF and EPUB ebook from your book manuscript, and automates the process of producing a print-ready PDF, we also wanted to automate the process of translating your book into other languages.
We've always tried to give our authors even more than what they get from a traditional publisher: a better royalty rate, more royalties overall, more control, more flexibility, etc. Now, with TranslateAI, we can even give you more translations!
We've worked very hard on TranslateAI, spending months tuning it and testing it, and we're very happy with the results. We hope you will be too!