Hello, world: introducing the LingoHop blog
Hello. This is the first post on the LingoHop blog.
LingoHop translates self-published books from one language into another using AI. The pipeline runs DeepL for translation, Anthropic's Claude for literary polish, and a combination of OCR and AI image generation to handle text embedded in covers and interior images. Authors upload an EPUB, review the result chapter by chapter, and download a publish-ready file for Amazon KDP, Kobo, Apple Books, or IngramSpark.
We are starting this blog for two reasons.
To answer questions you would otherwise pay to find out
The first time I looked into translating one of my own books, I lost two weekends to research. How much does a literary translator cost? What does Babelcube actually take in royalties? Is AI translation good enough yet? Which languages have the biggest ebook markets? The answers are scattered across forum threads, decade-old blog posts, and marketing pages from translation agencies that have an obvious incentive to make their option look like the only one.
This blog is the version of that research I wish had existed. Honest comparisons, real numbers, links to primary sources, and where we know it the trade-offs we ourselves have run into.
To write about what we are learning building the product
LingoHop ships a new feature most weeks. Some of those features come from a hunch and most of them come from a real author hitting a real problem. Writing about those problems and what we tried in response is more useful than another product update post — and it gives us a body of writing that explains why the product looks the way it does.
Expect posts about the things this audience actually argues about: pricing, quality, which markets to enter first, how to localise a cover, what AI translation gets wrong, and how to think about translation as a self-published author with a finite budget and a real day job.
What we will not do
We will not publish thin posts to fill out a content calendar. We will not republish the same listicle every other AI tool has on its blog. We will not pretend AI is better than it is — fiction translation is still hard, idiomatic phrasing still trips DeepL, and there are books where a human translator is worth the EUR 5,000. We will say so when it is true.
— Melanie
Frequently asked questions
Who writes this blog?
Melanie Koeppen, the founder of LingoHop. Every post is written by a human, with AI used only as an editor.
How often will you publish?
Roughly one post per month. Quality over cadence — we will skip a month rather than ship a thin post.
Can I suggest a topic?
Yes. Email hello@lingohop.eu with a topic and a short note about why it matters to you. We read everything.