Choose your crossing
Pick a mood for the site. The work stays the same; the lantern changes colour.
The Story
Sometimes a book needs to cross into French. Sometimes it needs another pair of eyes before it goes anywhere.
I work with fiction in two distinct ways.
I translate English novels into French, preserving voice, rhythm, tone, and all the small choices that make the original book itself.
Separately, I offer developmental manuscript reviews for authors who want a close editorial look at structure, character, pacing, tension, and the promises a story makes to its reader.
Either way, the job starts in the same place: voice, rhythm, atmosphere, dialogue, worldbuilding, and all the small choices holding the book together — whether it has magic systems, haunted cities, starships, unreliable narrators, morally damaged heroes, or just very sharp people making terrible decisions.
The Passage into French
Some things cross easily. Others need to be rebuilt, reshaped, or quietly saved from disaster.
English and French do not breathe the same way. They do not handle rhythm, repetition, dialogue, humour, exposition, emotional restraint, or stylistic pressure in quite the same manner.
A sentence can be technically correct and still sound painfully translated. A translation can be accurate and still flatten the voice, drain the atmosphere, stiffen the dialogue, or turn worldbuilding into furniture assembly instructions.
French is not hostile. Just demanding.
I translate fiction from English into French with particular attention to voice, atmosphere, dialogue, register, style, worldbuilding, tension, and narrative flow.
The Tools
Some tools carry a book across.
Others help you see what the story needs before it goes anywhere.
For authors preparing a French edition of their novel.
I translate fiction from English into French with a literary approach: preserving voice, rhythm, atmosphere, dialogue, register, tone, and genre texture.
Especially suited to fantasy, speculative fiction, dark fiction, atmospheric fiction, literary-leaning fiction, and voice-driven novels.
Quoted separately.
For fiction writers who need an editorial view of the story before the line-editing stage — whether or not translation is part of the plan.
I look at structure, character arcs, pacing, tension, stakes, setups and payoffs, narrative logic, unresolved promises, and the places where the story may not be doing quite what you intend.
You receive a detailed editorial report focused on diagnosis and practical revision priorities. This is developmental feedback, not line editing or ghostwriting.
Quoted separately.
For authors who already have a French translation but do not read French.
I assess whether the French manuscript reads naturally as publishable fiction: flow, style, dialogue, rhythm, visible anglicisms, awkward phrasing, consistency, and overall readability.
Assessment report only. No line-by-line corrections. No accuracy check against the English.
From €0.02 per French word.
For authors who want to know whether their French translation is both readable and faithful to the English.
I compare the French with the English source and identify mistranslations, omissions, additions, shifts in tone, weakened voice, flattened dialogue, terminology issues, and damaged worldbuilding.
Comparative report. No full revision unless quoted separately.
From €0.04 per English source word.
A review tells you what the translation needs. A revision fixes it. If you want me to correct the French manuscript directly, that is a separate service and must be quoted separately.
If the translation is mostly sound, revision may be possible. If the translation is beyond repair, I will say so. There is no glory in repainting the shutters of a burning house.
The Eye
FrenchWillRead is built around one simple idea: the book gets the spotlight. My job is to look closely enough to see what makes it work — and what quietly gets in its way.
Sometimes that means checking whether a joke, a voice, or a piece of worldbuilding survives in French. Sometimes it means noticing that a character arc stalls, a setup never pays off, an obstacle arrives too easily, or the middle of the book has quietly gone on holiday.
Good fiction is more than correct sentences. The whole machine has to move.
Voice. Rhythm. Atmosphere. Dialogue. Character. Structure. Tension. Narrative promises. Setups and payoffs. Register. Genre texture. Worldbuilding. Consistency. The small things that quietly break a book when nobody checks them.
I don’t flatten style into polite French, and I don’t treat every story problem as something that can be fixed by polishing sentences. I don’t translate names “because why not.” I don’t treat fantasy, science fiction, dark fiction, thriller, and literary fiction as the same soup in different bowls.
Most of my commissioned work is covered by confidentiality agreements, so I do not display client titles, excerpts, manuscripts, or private project material here.
I do not use client work as public bait. Your book stays protected before, during, and after the work.
For a developmental review: a synopsis, the manuscript, and any context you think matters — especially what you are trying to achieve, what has changed already, and what still worries you.
For translation: a glossary if you have one, notes on invented terms, meaningful names, and anything drawn from a real language, folklore, myth, religion, family history, or your own private naming system.
And if something foreshadows book two, three, or the emotional collapse of a dynasty, please mention it before I make a perfectly reasonable decision that turns out to be cursed.
The Notes
A place for the small craft and translation questions that can change how a story works — before or after it crosses into French.
These notes are written for fiction writers who like looking under the floorboards: structure, voice, narrative promises, translation choices, and the quiet decisions that help a book arrive whole.
Names, clues, jokes, world-building, and the occasional name that knows too much. A short guide to what can stay, what may need adapting, and what deserves a note before translation begins.
The moment a detail stops being decoration and starts asking the reader to remember it. A look at setups, expectations, payoffs, and what happens when the story quietly forgets the deal.
A translation can be accurate and still sound flat, stiff, too clean, too formal, or quietly dead inside. This note looks at what makes fiction feel alive in French.
A practical checklist for authors: glossary, meaningful names, invented terms, series notes, foreshadowing, and other things your translator should know before accidentally stepping on a prophecy.
Or, less dramatically, an email.
If you are planning a French edition, already have a French translation you cannot evaluate, or want a developmental look at an English manuscript before the next draft, get in touch.
Tell me what you are working on, the genre, word count, current stage, timeline, and what kind of help you need.