The copyright page of a translated book
A translated book holds two pieces of creative work: the book somebody wrote, and the book somebody else rebuilt in another language. Both are protected, and usually by different owners. The copyright page is where that gets stated, and it is the page most self-published translations get wrong.
What belongs on a copyright page covers the lines every book carries. This is what a translation adds — and what it must never simply copy from the edition it came from.
Two notices, not one
A single-language book has one copyright notice. A translation has two.
Copyright © 2019 Marta Ruiz Translation copyright © 2026 Helen Okafor
The first covers the original work: the original author, and the year that work was first published. The second covers the translation, which is a separate copyrightable work with its own owner and its own year. The years differ, and they should — a notice showing only the translation's year quietly claims the original was written this year.
The common failure is one notice, in the publisher's name, covering both. It claims the original author's work and erases the translator in a single line.
Who holds the second notice depends on the agreement. Absent one, the translator generally owns their translation — see Copyright: what you have automatically, and what registering adds.
Name the original edition
Originally published in Spanish as La casa de piedra by Editorial Nave, Madrid, 2019.
Title, language, publisher, place and year of first publication. This is the line that lets a cataloger connect your edition to the original record, tells a reader which book they are holding a version of, and tells a rights buyer where the work came from. It is standard in trade translations and missing from most self-published ones.
If the original was self-published, put the author's name where the publisher would go. An invented publisher is worse than the honest line.
Credit the translator by name
Translated from the Spanish by Helen Okafor.
This is convention, and increasingly an expectation: translators and readers have spent years pushing for translators to be named rather than absorbed into the production credits. The copyright page is the minimum. The title page is better, and many translated books now carry the name on the cover. It costs nothing, and it is the clearest signal that the edition was made by people who know how translated books are made.
Some countries also recognize a right of attribution that sits apart from who owns the copyright. Whether it exists, how it is asserted and whether it can be given up varies widely, so if the translator raises it, that is a question for someone qualified in that country.
Its own ISBN, and one per format
A translation is a different edition, not a variant of your book, so it needs its own ISBN — and so does each format of it. The Spanish paperback, hardcover and ebook are three products with three numbers, exactly as the English ones were.
Two errors to avoid: carrying the original edition's ISBN onto the translation's copyright page, and reusing one number across the translated formats. Both are live data errors in every system that reads them. Do you need your own ISBN? covers where the numbers come from.
In the Interior Formatter. The copyright page is built from fields, so the second notice, the original title and year, the translator's credit and this edition's own ISBN are entries on the book rather than a page you typeset by hand. Start your interior → · about the Interior Formatter
Whether you may publish it at all
The right to publish a translation is a right somebody holds. You either hold it or you do not, and no wording on the copyright page changes which.
You hold it if the original rights holder granted it to you, in an agreement naming the language, the territory, the formats and the term. You may also be free to proceed if the original is out of copyright where you publish. If neither is true, the edition is not yours to make.
None of this is legal advice, and the variation between countries is large — how long protection lasts, what has entered the public domain where, how rights can be assigned. Translations and foreign rights, for a self-published author covers the commercial shape of the decision. For anything contested, anything involving an estate or heirs, or a book you want to sell in several countries at once, pay a lawyer for an hour.
A public domain original does not make a public domain translation
Translating a classic produces a new copyrighted work. The translation belongs to whoever the agreement says, and other people cannot lift it into their own edition because the original was free.
The rule also runs backwards, which is the part that catches people: a translation made a century ago may still be protected even though the novel it translates is not. If you are reprinting an old translation rather than commissioning a new one, the translator's dates matter as much as the author's.
If you commissioned the translation
Settle ownership in writing before the work starts. Afterwards, you are negotiating with someone who already holds the thing you need.
- Who owns the translation. An assignment moves it to you; a license leaves it with the translator and grants you defined use. Both are normal. Silence is not.
- What you may do with it. Formats, territories, term. Say whether the ebook and any audio edition are included.
- The credit. Where the name appears, and in what form.
- Money. A flat fee, or a fee plus a share, and whether further formats trigger more.
- Corrections. Who fixes errors after publication, and at whose cost.
That the translator owns their work by default is not a trap set for you. It is the same rule that protects your book, applied to theirs.
Typeset your book
The Interior Formatter is free to use: name your book, bring your manuscript, and it sets real pages you can read before you commit to anything. You only pay when you want the files without the preview watermark.
Next: Translations and foreign rights, for a self-published author · More: What belongs on a copyright page · Quoting other people's work in your book · Bilingual books and facing-page layout