About Carole Sainte-Marie
The challenge
Carole had used DeepL before, the way most people do: a paragraph at a time, pasted into the free tool. Fine for a short text. A 63,000-word novel is a different problem.
Translating it herself was never realistic either — twice over, into two languages, alone, while working on the next book. She reads and judges English and Spanish; writing 63,000 words of literary prose in them is a different job.
“I translated into languages I feel confident about. I wasn’t going to translate into English from scratch, that’s for sure. Why, when you have AI?”
On why she didn’t write the English version from scratch
So she went looking. Her search was, almost word for word, best DeepL alternative. She judged what she found on three things: how many languages it covered, what it cost, and whether she could run it on her own, without a technical setup or anyone to hand it to.
What she did in Taia
Carole worked chapter by chapter on the Pro plan’s 300,000-credit tier, translating with Premium AI, our highest-quality LLM model. Twenty-seven chapters, sometimes two in a day, all inside a single monthly subscription at $99.
The loop was the same every time: upload a chapter, choose how many credits to spend on it, get the translation back, revise it in the editor without leaving the app.
“You just put it there, you choose how many credits you want, and it comes back, and then you can edit right away. I like that.”
On the chapter-by-chapter workflow
She used a narrow slice of the platform and it was enough. Nothing to configure, no integration to set up, no features she had to learn first.
“I didn’t use all the things that were there — it’s too much for me … But for my workflow, it went smoothly.”
On the rest of the platform’s features
Her novel is full of things a translation engine should leave alone. Indonesian words all through the Bali chapters. The French name of the jeweller’s shop, which she decided to keep in French rather than force an English version that never quite worked.
She built a glossary and attached it to every project. The shop name came back in French every time.
Before any of that, she spent fifteen minutes on a call with Matija, our founder.
“He answered some questions that I had that were not addressed on the platform.”
On the call she had before she bought anything
She says that call is the reason she went ahead.
Results and impact
of segments went into the manuscript exactly as the AI delivered them. She still read 100% of it to find the other six. We track edits in the app; when we read the number back to her, she recognised it: “five, maybe five to six” percent changed.
The whole book cost her $99.
One month’s subscription, 63,000 words, the whole English edition inside it.
“The price was there, actually. $99 to translate 63,000 words. I found it was a very good deal.”
On what the translation cost her
Taia’s English read better than DeepL’s.
Carole had already translated her first chapter with DeepL before she found Taia, so she could put the two English versions of the same chapter side by side.
“Taia was superior. Some sentences were exactly the same, but in a book you also have to transmit the emotion, the feeling. And honestly, Taia was a little better than DeepL.”
Comparing the same chapter translated in both tools
Interestingly, the Spanish went smoother than the English.
You would expect the opposite. English is the bigger market, the more obvious first translation, and the pair every engine is trained hardest on. Carole had fewer snags in Spanish, and puts it down to Spanish sitting closer to French than English does. Both editions are with native readers now, before either one goes out.
She still had to edit.
A woman was speaking in one scene and the translation put the adjective in the masculine. Curly quotation marks came back straight, and literature wants the curly ones. Small things, caught by the person who knows the book best.
We say plainly, before anyone buys, that AI translation is not 100% and that a human has to go over it. Carole went in expecting exactly that, and the amount of work she found matched what she’d been told.
“You are honest about that. You mentioned that it’s not 100%. But the changes that I had to make were very much acceptable.”
On whether the editing matched what she had been promised
That is the right expectation. An AI translation is a first draft. Carole revised it herself, and native English and Spanish readers are going over both editions after her.
What she names first is not the AI.
Asked for the single reason she would recommend Taia to another author, she didn’t name the translation quality or the price.
“The human service.”
Her top reason to recommend Taia
She bought a subscription to a translation platform and got a person as well: a call before she committed to anything, and someone to ask while she worked through the book. Carole works from Canada, six hours behind our office, which is usually where this sort of thing falls down. She raised it herself, before we had asked her anything about our service.
“Such a good service. You pose your problem and then right away … the answer comes. So you’re not lost.”
On working with us from the other side of the Atlantic
She also said the human contact was the part she appreciated most.
When we said that talking to users is how we avoid building into a void, she had one instruction.
“Stay like that. Even if you become bigger, stay like this.”
Her advice to us
She has already recommended Taia to other authors.
The opening, side by side — translated in Taia, revised by Carole
French — the original
En ce premier jour d’août 1990, la chambre baignait dans la douceur du petit matin. Samuel avait quitté la pièce discrètement, après avoir déposé un délicat baiser sur les lèvres de Micheline, qu’il appelait affectueusement Michou. Elle avait senti l’effleurement et trouvé le geste exquis, tout en demeurant immobile, à la croisée du rêve et de la réalité, n’osant ouvrir l’œil pour vérifier l’heure ou le regarder partir. Avait-il murmuré « Bonne journée » ? Ou bien était-ce « À bientôt » ? Possiblement les deux.
English — translated in Taia
On this first day of August 1990, the bedroom was bathed in the softness of early morning. Samuel had quietly left the room after delicately kissing Micheline, whom he affectionately called Michou. She had felt the brush of his lips on hers and found the gesture exquisite, but remained still, at the crossroads of dream and reality, not daring to open an eye to check the time or watch him go. Had he murmured, “Have a good day”? Or was it “See you soon”? Possibly both.
A Sad Day in Paradise, translated from Dernier jour au paradis.
Translate your book with Taia
You don’t need a publisher, a budget round, or a technical background. You need your manuscript and a month.
Start free with 5,000 words a month — or book a call first and ask your questions, the way Carole did.
Carole translated the English edition in July 2026 on a one-month Pro subscription at $99 (300,000 credits), and worked on the Spanish separately. See Pricing for current plans.
Dernier jour au paradis is available on Amazon.fr. The English edition, A Sad Day in Paradise, is in preparation. Quotations are from a recorded conversation on 21 August 2026, used with Carole’s permission.