How to Read Korean Novels Legally in English and Support Authors
If you're a fan of Korean novels but feel daunted by the translation process, welcome to the club. In a world with bad machine translation (MTL) and hard-to-get content, going through official sources ensures that you can always get the raws and support the author along the process.
Here's how to get started. (and stick till the end to find out how to get high quality translations of Korean novels)
Find an official Korean novel site
Popular ones include:
- Bomtoon
- Kakao
- Ridibooks
- Novelpia
Get verified and buy credits
We have made detailed guides about how to get verified and purchase novels on most official Korean novel platforms:
Bomtoon
- Verification: How to get 19+ verification on Bomtoon
- Buying Guide: How to buy novels on Bomtoon
Kakao
- Buying Guide: How to buy novels on Kakao
Ridibooks
- Verification: How to get 19+ verification on Ridibooks
- Buying Guide: How to buy novels on Ridibooks
Novelpia
- Verification: How to get 19+ verification on Novelpia
- Buying Guide: How to buy novels on Novelpia
Translating the Novels
Using Google Translate
Once you have access to the chapters, the next hurdle is the language barrier. Given that not every chapter comes in an official English translation, you might have to rely on tools like Google Translate to bridge the gap.
You can do this directly in your Chrome browser. However, this might not work for every site, or if it does work the translations might be bad.
Using ChatGPT
If you want to try ChatGPT, you can copy paste those translations directly into ChatGPT. However, there are a few things to consider:
- ChatGPT will not translate explicit chapters due to content filters
- There is a length limit - as chapters get longer the quality starts to reduce significantly
- Not all websites let you copy directly
Try OpenNovel!
If you find this too annoying - try OpenNovel.
With the OpenNovel app or extension, you can translate chapters directly from official websites.
We translate the novel using state of the art AI models like ChatGPT, Gemini and DeepSeek that have been fine-tuned for novel translations.
- • Use a glossary to keep character names, genders and terms consistent
- • Translate NSFW and R18 chapters
- • Unlimited length for every chapter (no more copy and pasting)
With this, you can skip the trouble and get amazing quality while supporting the authors that you love.
Stuck? Need more help?
If you get stuck with buying or 19+ verification, feel free to join our Discord Community of 3000+ members and get help!