Putting 40 cents a word in context
Well, it seems that something about money and income always hits people’s urge to discuss! At 65 comments and counting, “How much do freelance translators earn? Is it enough?” is far and away the most-discussed post in three years of Thoughts on Translation and everyone’s comments have provided me with lots of food for more posts. Here’s one: that elusive 40+ cents per word, which I would consider the top of the freelance translation market. I know at least two thriving freelance who’ve told me they charge that much, plus several more translators who I suspect/assume charge that much, and Chris Durban noted in her comment that her base rates are between 40 and 50 euro cents per word. I should say for the purposes of this post that I don’t earn 40 cents a word (for reasons I’ll go into…). I do publish my rates, and on official document translations I do sometimes make up to a dollar a word when the project is priced per page.
First, let’s give this number some context. If you produce, let’s say 500 finished words an hour, 40 cents a word translates (so to speak) into $200 an hour. No question, that’s good money. However, even here in Colorado (where professional services generally cost a lot less than in New York, LA, Chicago, etc.), my accountant makes $200 an hour and my business attorney makes $250. The Wall Street Journal recently ran an article about the growing contingent of attorneys who charge over $1,000 an hour (yes, that’s three zeros after the one). The article concludes with a prediction that within five to seven years, the gold standard for attorneys’ fees will be $2,000 an hour. So I think that part of the high rates issue is that if you want to charge 40 cents a word, you have to position yourself as a professional service provider on the level of an attorney, accountant, business strategy consultant etc. Realistically, most translators either cannot or are not willing to do that. Note that the WSJ article includes some excellent advice from an attorney who charges $1,100 an hour: “Some clients do focus on the hourly rate, but in the end what really matters is their total cost and whether they got a fair price.” Good tip for any professional service provider!
Second, I would hazard a guess that many translators who charge very high rates work very slowly, or at least more slowly than translators who charge 10 cents a word. At 10 cents a word, you don’t have the luxury of waiting for inspiration: you churn it out and send it in. At 40 cents per word, you have more of that luxury, and your clients also expect much more from your work. So maybe you produce 300, even 200 finished words an hour.
Third, as luscious as 40 cents a word might look, there are some reasons you might not want to charge that much:
- As Chris and others commented in relation to my previous post, clients who pay 40-50 cents per word expect you to have their backs, all the time and with no exceptions. You cannot get huffy when there’s a problem with your translation. You cannot shut off your phone and go hiking when that client is having a business meltdown. You must be cheerful, helpful and positive all the time. You must follow the news in that client’s industry and spend your own money to go to their industry conferences whether or not they have a job in the pipeline for you. You must get out of your sweats and put on a suit and take that client to lunch a few times a year, shut up about yourself and invite them to talk about themselves. You must either take very short vacations or have someone you really, really trust who will fill in when you go away for more than a couple of days. In short, that $200 per hour is not going to come in exchange for only a modicum of effort on your part. And not to rant, but if some translators will not even spend $25 on business cards that don’t have the “Get your free business cards!” text on the back, they are not going to do what’s required to find and retain $200 an hour clients.
- Some specializations just don’t pay that much (or at least this is what I tell myself!). For example, my preferred specialization is international development. I translate a lot of legal documents and I enjoy that work, but development is my real passion. And realistically, even high-level direct clients in those specializations probably do not have the budget to pay 40-50 cents a word on a regular basis. Realistically, even at the rates I charge now, I am probably paid more than a lot of the in-house employees at the companies I work for. However I love the work, and I love translating documents that are, for lack of a less hackneyed way to put it, meaningful. So there’s that aspect too.
None of this is to say that a) high income is a bad thing or b) 40-50 cents a word isn’t worth striving for. Mostly, I wanted to raise the possibility that 40-50 cents a word is doable; it’s out there if you want it! Readers, any thoughts?
Written by corinnemckay
Leave a Reply
This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.
Having put a big project to bed just three hours ago, I’m finally having time to catch up on my blog reading and your last two posts came top on the list. Good job!
You are right that charging 0,20 and “producing” (for lack of a better word) 3,000 words a day means earning the same as charging 0,40 and “producing” 1,500 (my own comfortable-with-a-bit-of-wiggle-room measuring stick when scheduling client projects).
But that is where the similarity ends. Besides Chris and Sara’s points on nano-niche specialization and Service (sic):
– 0,20-level projects are less satisfactory for me, not because of the rate, but because the client’s stake in the result of my work is weaker. And I enjoy getting involved in discussing strategy and objectives with clients.
– 0,20-level projects’ opportunities for upselling are narrower. Rates can be higher for tougher texts, tighter deadlines and so on, but the fundamental boundaries are not shifting.
– At 0,40 and up, it’s another ball game. If someone is paying you that kind of cash, they do expect you to contribute and behave as an expert, to have a consultant’s approach. The level at which you are dealing within the client’s company goes up several notches (management to executive, for example).
Upselling then means not only charging more for dicier projects, but pushing back the scope in which you work.
This is exactly what happened with the project I just finished (for now; knock wood, if they are shortlisted, there is more to come).
Phase 1: lousy translation done by agency, get called in emergency right before New Year’s (double whammy on the rates, they did not blink; post project, have chat with client.)
Phase 2: rebranding for another, unrelated, project (flat fee based on value)
Phase 3: brought back in for the second part of the first project, but this time as consultant, speech-writer and coach (consulting day rate, they did not blink).
On this phase 3, as Chris underscores, the answer to anything must not be “well, but, uh…”, but rather “Yes! And?”, no matter the time of day, day of week, family, sleep deprivation, no matter what. A day can be 6 hours (ha!) or 14 or more. Punching the time clock is a no-no.
Some love the hairiness of it all, the responsibility and satisfaction that come with it (I do at least). Some would freak at having to respond at the spin of a dime. That would be the case of several participants in a workshop I ran last Saturday for Aprotrad. Others have constraints that make these types of projects hard to handle.
What’s nuts, sometimes, in these discussions about rates (i.e., ‘whine’, ‘gasp’, X charges so much more, how do they do that and why can’t I) is that it often obliterates the responsibility/service aspect of such projects — something that many translators (or other freelancers) *do not want*. They are happy doing their thing and avoiding too much weight on their shoulders. They shake at the idea of advising a CEO.
What’s wonderful about this profession is there is space, there are niches, for just about every profile and personality.
And every professional who believes in him/herself enough to at least aim for Brazil nuts (those are the largest nuts, yes?) instead of peanuts.
“They shake at the idea of advising a CEO.”
Excuse me, I don’t shake at advising a CEO. I don’t want to waste my time talking to some dumb white collar criminal. That’s not what I like to do. I like to translate, that’s why I am a translator.
If somebody’s comfortable rate is 1,500 words and my comfortable rate is 3, 4 or even 5 thousand words on a good day, then I am probably making more at 29 cents than many people may be making at 40 cents or more.
But I think that this overemphasis on money is a little unhealthy, although very American.
I graduated 31 years in Japanese studies. The rest of my life after that point has been and hopefully will continue to be an infinite course in postgraduate studies, without the backbiting politics of a liberal arts college. If I can make enough to feed my family and put my kids through college while “pursuing my postgraduate studies in linguistics”, then I consider myself very, very lucky, because I really like my job.
I am my own boss and I enjoy the freedom that freelancers have. I can live where I want, and if I don’t like a customer, to hell with him. How many people can say that?
How many dentists, who make more than me, like to stick their hands into other people’s mouths all day long, I wonder? I would not want to do that no matter how much it pays. I would not want to steal other people’s money working on Wall Street either, and that’s basically their job description.
How many lawyers like being lawyers these days, especially in this country? And how many lawyers make even less money than translators do? Quite a few would be my guess.
Most people work because they have to. And many of them do that although they hate their stupid jobs.
Most translators are not like that, I hope.
That’s really what makes us different.
Money is nice, but it’s just money. Life is about something else (except maybe in America).
Patricia points out something important here that a colleague of mine recently brought up. One of the keys to higher rates is broadening the range of (strategic) services you offer. If you don’t know how to do this, a good place to start is by taking a course to learn more about your customers’ projects (like what happens before and after translation). This will of course vary depending on the type of project and industry you deal with. Content strategy? Multilingual search-engine optimization? Development of sales force training materials for a new product launch? Coordination of multilingual patient interviews or marketing focus groups? Can you offer (or learn) additional skills along this chain of services that would enable you to position yourself in more of a consulting role?
This is NOT only about the money. It is also about more intellectually satisfying work and more satisfying relationships with customers.
Exactly.
My main motivation carrot is not money, but rather diverse and challenging projects where the added value I bring matters to clients – and to the project’s objectives.
Over the years, I have found (sometimes to my dismay) that access to those opportunities is, in part, fee based (and not just in US culture) as it touches on a credibility issue. For example, if a dentist I’ve never consulted before says he’ll put in the best quality crown I need for $100, I’ll have doubts on his level of experience, the quality of the prosthetic, and his willingness to provide subsequent care if something goes wrong. (He/she may be perfectly competent, I just don’t want to be one of the first clients, not on something so critical).
Thanks for these great comments, I am really enjoying reading them. I do agree that the bottom line with most winning financial strategies is “almost anyone *can* do this, but very few people are *willing to.*” As Patricia pointed out, many translators are attracted to the idea of earning 30, 40, 50 cents a word, but when it comes down to it, they do not want the level of responsibility that goes along with those rates. They don’t want to talk to CEOs, or in some cases talk to anyone 🙂 They don’t want to work 15 hours days to finish the annual report, and so on and so on.
Lots of finance stuff is like this: I’ve commented in other blog posts (about freelance frugality) that my family lives off one income and banks the other. Sounds attractive: we have no debt and own our house without a mortgage. But really, most people *are not willing* to practice the levels of frugality that we did in order to get where we are. Every piece of furniture in our house was either given to us, bought used or trash-picked. We probably eat out once a month or less. We bought a fixer-upper house that was sort of like indoor camping for the first year we lived in it. No joke, a translator came up to me at the NYC ATA conference and (when I expected a question about translation…) said “You seriously don’t have a clothes dryer???” So my take would be the same as the 40-50 cent per word issue: lots of translators can do this, but only a very, very small minority are willing to.
Hello!
Thanks a lot to everyone for these great comments. I totally agree with Patricia and Sara about the responsibility aspect of translators’ rates. We all view our jobs very differently and some of us will really need to give advice to their customers and work as a consultant for them. I’m one of them.
I believe this is a very interesting approach and I tend to think this will be a logical step for me to take in the future. I already very much enjoy the consulting aspects of translation and I think this is a great way of building strong relationships with my clients, not just basic “I-need-you-so-I-call-you” relationships, even if I understand some translators are happy not to get more involved with their clients. After all, this is all about how far we’re ready to go with clients. If your smartphone is always on and you’re always available to help out clients, this should be reflected on your rates and that is indeed a huge responsibility.
Could we please, please, get away from this unhealthy fixation on headline prices per word? As I wrote in my comment on Corinne’s earlier blog post (How much do freelance translators earn?), I don’t think that there’s any linear correlation between revenue and income in the translation business. If I can translate, say, 4,000 words a day at 30 cents a word, I’m going to earn considerably more than somebody translating 1,500 or even 2,000 words a day at 40 cents a word. And believe me, I’m perfectly happy translating 4,000 words a day of extremely complicated financial texts, and I still get the chance to tough up the CFO if I need to (though my experience is that it’s the guys further down the hierarchy who are most difficult to deal with, especially those who in today’s lean, mean corporate organisations are trying to do the work that used to be done by three or even four people until the big consulting firms rolled into town).
And if there’s an opportunity for upselling, for instance terminology creation, consulting, or training, that’s hourly paid work (at a three-digit hourly rate), not by the word. From my perspective, if you’re charging a high per-word rate, but that includes services over and above pure translated text delivery, the per-word rate starts becoming meaningless. If a customer calls me late in the evening and needs to discuss something, that’s hourly work, plus a hefty surcharge for messing around with my evening. Do like the lawyers do – if the phone starts ringing, the meter starts ticking.
I also think there’s a serious risk that this focus on headline rates can send out a message to translators that says “because X can charge 40 cents a word, and you don’t, you’re somehow inadequate”. Of course this flies in the face of reality: not all market subsegments or language pairs can support rates like that, and there’s a simple response to the “well, why don’t you try it?” challenge: If, as they claim, there are no price ceilings, why stop at 40 cents a word? Why aren’t the translators who say they charge 40 cents a word charging 60 or 80 cents a word? Or a euro, or a dollar? Or ten? And I’m still waiting for a reply from Chris (earlier blog post) as to why she charges 40 cents a word to clients outside Paris? Surely the location of a customer can’t have any influence on the price? Because if that’s the case, then the location of the translator may also influence the price…
“They don’t want to talk to CEOs, or in some cases talk to anyone 🙂 They don’t want to work 15 hours days to finish the annual report, and so on and so on.”
Damn straight they don’t.
They’ve got more important things to do like writing blogs.
Life is short and then you die.
(Although they don’t mind working long hours that much, but only if they can make well over a thousand dollars a day, sitting on their behind in their comfortable house furnished with expensive furniture, while they keep telling themselves that it’s not about the money).
Hi Corinne,
As you say, money sure focuses the mind — for translators and clients alike!
But while I have no problem at all with transparency on prices (on the contrary), I’m less comfortable when the discussion starts edging perilously over into “mine’s bigger than yours” territory. That’s followed closely by discomfort at what I feel are caricatures of what some folks imagine inspires or drives perceived “big earners” as opposed to “low earners.” (Note that I say that even as I criticize the poverty cult gang every chance I get.:-))
Against that backdrop, a few late-night thoughts for the blog pot:
– It goes without saying that money isn’t everything — and the cracks about “Americans,” don’t do a whole lot to advance the debate. Here’s an example: I’m aware that I’m occasionally asked to speak at venues precisely because translators in those markets really do want to discuss money, but for national cultural reasons have to “pretend” that they don’t. What a hoot. But the point is obviously to use income as a hook and link that to a reminder of the importance of specialization and writing skills. Actually, I’m sure we all agree on that (right?)!
– That said, I have regularly pointed out that one of the reasons higher prices make for less twitchy translators is that clients *listen* more carefully to a supplier who costs them more money; you get the “respect” factor. Not to mention the working conditions you need to produce better work. I can’t help but think that some of the translator aggressiveness one sees here and there, along with the off-putting “lookit lookit how important I am” (often in a vacuum) boils down to a feeling of insecurity. If these same translators got more client feedback (and I’m talking here about regular expressions of gratitude for their input on projects X, Y and Z) surely they would take it down a notch, no? And by taking it down a notch would come across as less aggressive and weird, and be more likely to win other good clients. Virtuous circle time.
– @Corinne: while I agree that in certain segments of the market you have to be far more available and proactive than in others, the situation is not quite as dire as you describe. E.g., virtually all of my clients have other suppliers as well, so if for some reason I’m not available, well, they go to the next tier. Which can be very positive, actually, since it reminds them (I hope) why they prefer me. 🙂 I realize this might cut both ways, but until further notice I prefer to see it like that. In fact, I think you lose credibility if you are available 24/7.
– One of the most important aspects of the whole income debate was raised in a previous comment by Vera, and touched upon by Corinne: today’s earnings are not just for today’s rent and food. A portion goes for taxes (and I sincerely approve of taxes, imagine that), another chunk for health insurance and such (again, yes, that’s good), while a substantial amount should be set aside for retirement. But when rates are too low, that final essential investment item falls by the wayside, and that, too, makes translators edgy and aggressive, I think.
– What strikes me in this whole debate (and not just here in Corinne’s blog, by a long shot) is how strong the urge is to justify the status quo (to listen to many comments, each person is in the best of all worlds for him/her; shifting a bit this way or that would create insurmountable problems; indeed, change is in effect all but impossible. 🙂 Which is fine with me, hey… Just as it goes without saying that each translator, if motivated enough, will find the place that suits him/her in the market. No need to imagine scenarios in which part-timers are lazy complacent slobs and perceived high earners are robots who do nothing but work themselves to death. Because neither of those caricatures is helpful or particularly accurate.
What is helpful is describing different profiles so that people can decide what suits them best at a given point in their career or life. And agreeing that the best translators are the ones who are passionate about what they do, right? Because surely that is true!
@Robin:
“If, as they claim, there are no price ceilings, why stop at 40 cents a word?”
They don’t.
“Why aren’t the translators who say they charge 40 cents a word charging 60 or 80 cents a word?”
They do.
🙂
“Could we please, please, get away from this unhealthy fixation on headline prices per word?”
Uhm, Robin, did you notice that after you started like this your entire post was about prices?
I’m just saying.
Incidentally, one reason why I am glad that I am translating patents is that nobody calls me at night to change my translation or hold their hand gently and unobtrusively while the clock is ticking. My occupation is a rather peaceful one, as the hired killer said in the movie The Three Days of Condor (he was played by Max von Sydow).
I have been asked to defend certain terms or wording in my translations about 5 times in 24 years, for which I charge by the hour, of course, and only once was I woken up so far at 3 AM by a phone call from a panicked partner about 8 years ago. But he said he thought he would be getting an answering machine and apologized.
As I was saying, my occupation is a rather peaceful one and I like it that way.
First.. I would like to thank you for adding my comment in your last post.. i have also gone through this post and agree with you.
I would like to give my example below so that you will come to know that it is not difficult to get 40 cent per word from a client.
“one of my regular client send me regular but simple work and i charge him a fix amount and he pays happily. Those simple works only contains few words in a page or so and i charge him let say between $35-$45 per page which is very good amount for translating less then 100 words and he has been working with me for last 2 years.”
NOW QUESTION IS WHY CLIENT GIVING THIS MUCH WHEN HE CAN GET THE TRANSLATION DONE IN LESS THEN $10 EVEN THE WORK IS NOT VERY CREATIVE ??
What i feel is client is giving because till now he did not SEARCH THE MARKET AND READY TO PAY WHAT WE OFFER. HE FEELS THAT THE RATES GIVEN BY HIS TRANSLATORS ARE ACTUAL MARKET RATES IN THE MARKET.
what do you say..
Chris wrote:
“- That said, I have regularly pointed out that one of the reasons higher prices make for less twitchy translators is that clients *listen* more carefully to a supplier who costs them more money; you get the “respect” factor. Not to mention the working conditions you need to produce better work. ”
I agree completely. We are currently working on a total re-do of a corporate customer’s website. Big job, big stakes. Not so big rate (25 eur cents per word). Should have listened to my gut on this one, but the siren call of the new big corporate customer name to post proudly in the case studies section of our website lured me in. Plus I’d been courting this client for about 5 years…
To get back to Chris’ comment and rates, on this project we have taken on a level of responsibility that surpasses the rate being charged, and yet, we have not been able to get quite *enough* responsibility to make sure the project goes as we need it to.
We were contacted too late in the process. The Com’ manager is too frazzled to stick to the validation process we determined. The internal copy contributors writing in non-native English that needs a total rewrite insist on only minor “corrections”. The web agency appears never to have localized a website before (our questions on SEO for the English pages have gone unanswered), a print journalist rather than a web copywriter is rewriting the French content (hello big blocks of unbroken text unreadable even on my 25.5 inch HD monitor)…and the list goes on.
The result is that nobody is listening to us, nobody is working together (I generally insist on at least one sit-down with the client, the web agency, the writer, the translator at project launch…again, I threw caution to the wind on this one, letting the client dictate how we would work), and the website is going to be a laughing stock. And of course, we will not be able to put our name on it, because half the content was provided in non-native English and our rewrites are being rejected by in-house contributors (product experts, yes, but not experts in writing, writing for the web, or the English language!).
Perhaps if we had doubled our rate, things would be different. Actually, I know they would, because given this customer’s modus operandi, they never would have assigned the job to us at that rate, even for such a seemingly high-profile project. I think you get the customers you deserve and the ones willing to pay more are often willing to get more involved and, yes, listen to you more (or get you involved in the process earlier on, in any case).
And to address Robin’s comments on getting away from per-word rates, I agree completely. We also do copywriting, and that of course is charged per deliverable. Our training workshops are charged by the day. We are working on getting away from selling translation by the word; hopefully we can roll out a new pricing scheme in our next fiscal year. We try to stick to a billable income of around 500 EUR per translator per day on average. Some days we are much lower (like on this %*$& website project!!!), and some are much higher (we can hit up to 1,500 to 2,000 EUR per day on certain copywriting or very urgent translation jobs…training is another ballgame). Factoring in days not worked (no billable income) we try to average 500 eur per person per day over the course of the year – 200 to 220 workable days…it’s our first fiscal year since starting the company, but so far, so good…
As to whether I’d prefer to do 1000 words a day at 70 cents or 3000 words a day at 20 cents, well, I think that depends on the type of document. I personally like the variety of having a five-word tagline with a budget of 1000 EUR one day and having to churn out 2500 words at a lower per-word rate the next day. As long as the average income works out over the year, it’s all good with me!
@Steve: I was trying to use examples of headline rates to explain why they can be so misleading, but clearly I wasn’t very good at getting the message across. I’ll try to arrange my thoughts more clearly to explain what I mean. And then I’ll try to sleep for a week: I know exactly what Patricia means with 14+ hour days, and I really don’t want to be there again. The risk is simply too high.
@Chris: It’s no doubt your personal experience that “clients listen more carefully to a supplier who costs them more money; you get the ‘respect’ factor”. It’s my personal experience that you get the ‘respect’ factor through a combination of very high personal expertise, an understanding of client problems (and providing solutions to those problems), an ability to communicate with clients at *their* level (and not from the perspective of “just a translator”), and giving clients the feeling that they’re in a safe pair of hands: in short, your value proposition is superior. I can’t say I’ve ever had the impression that price is a factor in client respect, but maybe that’s a cultural thing, and I’m sure that the behaviour, cultural mindset and expectations of French clients differ significantly from those of German clients.
@Sara: I think you’re doing everything just right. Maybe you should write the textbook 🙂
Your focus is on income, not rates, which means that you can tailor your rates to meet your income targets. The fact that you have a mix of project types and different rates allows you to pick and choose what you want to do, and when you want to do it, to a far greater extent than if you were fixated purely on high-rate work (that this improves your risk diversification is a further bonus). Of course, translating, rewriting and polishing a few lines of copy for a financial ad in three or four hours produces a nominal per-word rate of many euros per word, but that in itself shows just how misleading a blanket “x cents per word” approach can be – rates should follow, not lead.
However, I do get the impression that financial project rates in France are probably higher overall than rates in Germany. This could be due to a simple demand/supply equation, or it could also be linked to the fact that the cost of doing business is lower in Germany (moderate taxes, no social security contributions or other compulsory levies for freelance translators, lower cost of living). Every market segment has its own dynamics and constraints, so I’m convinced that trying to push a particular per-word rate as some sort of general target for all translators doesn’t stand up to any objective examination.
Corinne gave the example of the crazy hourly rates some lawyers achieve and will achieve in the future. Perhaps that’s an example of how extreme a place the United States can be. Things are different in Germany, for example: the BDÜ’s most recent income survey shows that, measured against a widely reported professional income report published last year, average translator incomes here fall about half-way between average lawyer and average tax adviser (tax accountant) incomes. And a couple of years ago, I had lunch with a colleague whose husband is a highly specialised lawyer in Germany. He remarked that around 30% of lawyers in Germany earn less than EUR 40k a year – or it could have been 40% and EUR 30k, I can’t quite remember. The point is that, if you remove the outliers (and there are certainly some lawyers here who earn millions), average professional incomes are not as extreme as many outsiders appear to think, and average freelance translator incomes appear to be well within the box.
If we accept that income, not unit rates, is the key to running a successful high-end translation business (in line with the old adage that “Revenue (sales/turnover) is vanity, profit is sanity”), perhaps what we should be focusing on more is what strategies translators can adopt to sustainably increase their income. My impression is that financially successful translators tend to operate in quite narrowly defined niche markets: for example, Steve in patents, Chris in what I think is often referred to as “transcreation”, rather than straight translation. Occupying a niche takes time and costs money, but when we talk to or train other translators seeking to improve their incomes, maybe we should start by offering guidance on how to identify a potential niche in the first place, and ensuring that this niche will be sufficiently profitable to offer a relatively high income on a sustainable basis – plus communicating an awareness of the time and effort (and cost) needed to operate successfully in a niche market. I guess what this comes down to is relatively basic business skills such as market research, SWOT analysis, cost/benefit analysis, etc.
Translators then have to build up the domain expertise and other skills necessary to move into the niche and grow their market (again, possibly a significant cost factor). There’s always a risk of course that too many people will pile into an attractive niche, destroying the supply/demand equilibrium and sending prices off a cliff, so translators will always have to be thinking ahead and exploring new opportunities.
But I think it’s that combination of business and communication skills, coupled with outstanding subject area expertise and translation ability, deployed in the right place, at the right time, that offers the best opportunity for a high income and business success, rather than any dangerously one-sided focus on prices.
Corinne: Are their any potential niches in international development (however tiny) that would offer you an opportunity to increase your income and at the same time increase your job satisfaction?
@ Chris. What does “helpful” mean? I thought putting things into a perspective was helpful.
As a European expatriate who has been living for three decades in America and became a US citizen more than two decades ago, it is my distinct impression that people here are greedier than in other countries, for instance in Germany or Japan, especially the very rich ones. One look at statistics about the average incomes of CEOs of big corporations in US and in Germany or Japan clearly bears out my personal observation – the CEOs here make ten times as much as their counterparts in other countries.
That does not mean that I am putting my adoptive country down. I just try to see things as they are.
The greed and criminality of the rich is destroying my new country, just like the lust for power and sheer stupidity of the communists was destroying my old country and I am very sad about it.
I think it is helpful to point something like this out in a discussion about the incomes of translators in different countries.
Great discussion. Must take the time to read more in detail. Our rates are also public, and while they are not quite 40 cents, they are in the ballpark. And yes, we are available for our customers after hours if needed (but not at unreasonable times), and few have had meltdowns during the years (perhaps we’ve been lucky). I am indeed a slow-ish translator — my business partner and twin is much faster — but it also depends on the subject matter (we have several, and marketing-related stuff is always tedious because I have to get creative/inspired). So yes, that per-word rate is absolutely do-able (agreed with Robin B that getting away from per-word will eventually be a good thing).
Completely agree with Chris D. on the higher prices=more respect issue. I truly do believe that our clients respect us for being an integral part of their international strategy. With that, back to work. 🙂
Man oh man, 40 cents a word? I can only dream about prices like that–but it’s a nice dream to have. It all gets down to supply and demand though, doesn’t it? The more specialized you are (the more exotic your language?) the better chances you’ll have.
I recently started exploring a new career profession and and unfortunately had to give up trying to establish myself as a freelance translator, primarily due to the urgency of the need for my financial independence. However, I wanted to comment on this post because the lucrative rate of 40 cents per word grabbed my attention, and not too long ago I was asked to take on a project for 3 cents per word (from a translation agency). Not only was I informed of a 15,000 word project with a deadline for Tuesday morning on a Friday afternoon, but the project manager also told me that their budget was 3 cents per word. I declined the job, since I view those rates, as many of us in the translation world would view them, to be like asking me to mop dirty floors for two dollars an hour! (Pure slavery if you ask me!) As you’ve mentioned several times in your blog and in your book, translation agencies can really take advantage of your long and hard work.
On a more cheerful note, I also wanted to make a comment on a success story regarding networking in the field of freelance translation. Before I was offered my full-time permanent job, I decided I would check out some local (Washington, DC) temp agencies. I worked on several assignments before landing my current job (which is a bilingual position, so I am still being faithful to my passion for Spanish!), and I found that meeting new people through temping was highly beneficial for adding new contacts for potential clients. I would recommend to any aspiring freelance translator, who especially would like to still keep a cash flow coming in while starting out, to explore temp agencies. On one assignment with a law firm, I met an in-house SPAENG translator who took down my contact information for future projects. This is especially a great idea in a city so diverse as DC, because a lot of companies here constantly have a demand for translators and they often don’t know who to go to when they need one. Maybe you can throw this idea out to your aspiring freelancers during your class sessions! I found temping to be a great way to network. And of course, networking is the key to success in this industry!
RobinB: I think the discerning reader will find a lot of that textbook here, and the rest of the details s/he can figure out if the principles are understood. I thank you and the rest for a useful discussion that I hope my dear daughter can read and internalize before she makes a serious entry into the her intended language service profession.
Steve, I agree with Chris that the “American” comment is unnecessary, though I certainly understand its inspiration. But although Germans, for example, may self-righteously consider themselves less materialistic, you may disagree when some 70-year-old tries to start a fist fight because you almost caused him to hit your car door with his holy Mercedes as he raced past at twice the speed limit. Some US subcultures may obsess more in public about money, but this is found in many places, though it is perhaps encoded differently. Less prosperous places (like much of Germany’s “new” federal territory) may in fact be less materialistic, but there the expectations are merely lower as a certain sense of hopelessness has set in. Money issues are a small part of a culture’s character, and I think it’s more useful to consider the whole of it and how well or how badly it fits your comfort zone. I’m sure you understand this better than I do given your various residences over a lifetime.
Robin, Patricia, Sara – thank you in particular for pointing out the services beyond mere translation that are part of the higher end package and their consulting character. Clearly, this is not for everyone’s temperament, but it is indeed what engages some of us most with the profession.
@Kevin
It seems to me that in America, most people mostly live to work, while in Europe, they mostly work to live, depending on the country and the person, of course. I wonder whether you would agree with that.
More than 20 years ago I had a conversation with a taxi driver from Lebanon in San Francisco who told me that he was going back home because he was tired of having to work all the time. I’m pretty sure this was at the time when Lebanon was a pretty dangerous place to live, but he was going anyway.
When I compare the working and living arrangements worldwide based on my limited personal observations, the worst place to live a meaningful live that I experienced (because you had to work all the time) 25 years ago was Japan. Japanese “salarymen” simply do not exist apart from their work. They get up at 6 AM and come back by metro at midnight 6 days a week. Maybe things changed now but that’s how I had to live back than.
The women of Japan, however, they really got it made once they get married. They mostly just stay home, do some light cooking, spend hours doing fun things like tea ceremony and enjoy life to the fullest. The husband is not really there at all so they can concentrate on what’s really important in life.
But now they have worry about nasty things like tsunamis, earthquakes, and exploding nuclear reactors in that beautiful country.
Nothing lasts forever.
@Steve
“The women of Japan, however, they really got it made once they get married. They mostly just stay home, do some light cooking, spend hours doing fun things like tea ceremony and enjoy life to the fullest.”
Even said tongue-in-cheek, that’s incredibly condescending, particularly coming from someone who has lived in Japan and should have first-hand knowledge of the extent to which Japanese culture makes it nearly impossible for women to have both a career and a family.
Despite the 1985 Equal Employment Opportunity Law and that, today, women make up half the workforce, they only hold about 10% of management positions.
Why would women represent nearly 40% of university students (2005 figures, Educational Policy Institute report) if they were truly fulfilled staying home and just doing some like cooking and a tea ceremony here and there?
> It seems to me that in America, most people mostly
> live to work, while in Europe, they mostly work to live
I’m not sure the cliché holds, Steve. I think perhaps where people have a sense that their personal efforts will get them to their goals, more may live to “work”, whereas if they feel disempowered they’ll work to live. You’ll find that anywhere. In a place like Germany, where most of what isn’t explicitly allowed is “forbidden” (even when it’s really not), you’ll find a lot of the latter. But I can understand “live to work” and “work to live” in several ways, and what I just argued obviously isn’t what you meant.
Never lived in Japan, but I once rented a room to a salaryman on exchange for a year at the Avery Research Center. The poor fellow didn’t know how to live a life that wasn’t totally controlled by the company, and ultimately he was sent back out of concern that he might die of food poisoning from re-warming the same pot of unrefrigerated curry on the stovetop for an entire week among other things. Some people are clearly only fit to be foot soldiers living in the barracks. He talked wistfully from time to time about life back “home”, and the image I got there was clear enough that I stopped learning Japanese and moved on.
If by “work to live” you mean do a certain minimum in order to enjoy a lifestyle focused on things that can’t be had for a price, go to Oregon or some other places and you’ll find plenty of that. It’s nice. Move to Düsseldorf, and it’s all about money, career and appearance; if you don’t feel cold and choose not to wear a coat on a spring day, you may be spoken to in tones of condescending pity by insecure but well-to-do persons who ask if you cannot afford to stay warm. I suppose I should lie and say “no, I’m poor and must freeze” so that they’ll feel their lives are more worthwhile.
I wouldn’t say those Japanese women have it made, either. I know a few Japanese “refugees” in the US who stayed there to avoid marriages arranged by their families. And ol’ Shingo (the food poisoning candidate) told me how women in the company are matched up for matrimony by the HR director and afterward must quit and live “happily ever after”. Consequently, many do not pursue 4 year degrees because their working life will be limited by the need to marry at a young, fertile age when told to, and they try to enter the work market sooner and stash more cash. I don’t know if all this is really true, but I can’t see many of the women I respect wanting a life like that for themselves. As for those anywhere who stay home to raise kids (men or women), I don’t think life is all one big tea ceremony, though it can be quite rewarding.
Your SF taxi driver could have moved to Eugene to escape the rat race. But I suspect that family and cultural ties played a role there too. There is a certain edge to living in another culture that, while it may be fun and useful, can still cut, and even 40 cents a word won’t make the wound heal any faster.
@Patricia
“Despite the 1985 Equal Employment Opportunity Law and that, today, women make up half the workforce, they only hold about 10% of management positions.’
I’m sorry, I meant women of Japan who marry people like me. I should have been more specific.
But seriously, when I lived in Japan in mid eighties, most women only worked until they got married and had kids and then they stayed home. They definitely had a much better quality of life than their husbands, or at least that’s how I saw it.
My information is quite dated when it comes to life in Japan since I have not been back there since 1986.
Maybe the life of salarymen in Japan is not quite as horrible anymore either. But based on e-mails and business correspondence that I translate for anti-trust lawsuits and such, I kind of doubt it.
@Kevin
“If by “work to live” you mean do a certain minimum in order to enjoy a lifestyle focused on things that can’t be had for a price, go to Oregon or some other places and you’ll find plenty of that.”
That’s what I thought I was doing by moving from earthquake prone California (although the mudslides after endless torrential rains and the scent of smoke in the air from nearby forest fires do have a strange, romantic appeal to them when you look around you and smell the air as you are picking up your paper from the porch on Sunday morning), to green and bucolic Virginia where the grass in California is mostly brown most of the time as Prof. Higgins would say, but now I understand that it’s the same rat race no matter where you live.
Alas, at this point I think I am too old to move to Oregon. Plus they say it rains there all the time and I hate it when I get water on my glasses.
But I appreciate your well calibrated insight.
Steve, it only rains continuously in Oregon from October to May. The rest of the year is splendid. And as a kid in SoCal, I prayed for rain to banish the brown, so I didn’t mind the long wet season.
As for the wives of salarymen having a better life than their husbands, I’m sure you’re right then and now. Abused dogs on Spanish streets (whence so many Germans rescue their pets) have a better life than that corporate cannon fodder). But for many wives I think that’s possibly a long way from a truly fulfilling life. And the kids? I shudder whenever I read the stories of suicides resulting from exam prep pressure. I can only hope there’s at least some media exaggeration there.
I think that some translators I know are very much like those Japanese salarymen in ways. Last night I got a panicked call from a translator who took on a project of some 300,000 words (short deadline) and passed 85,000 of these to a freelancer who thinks/thought she could do it in a bit over ten days. Where’s the balance or even hint of sanity there? The latter individual suffers from two translator illnesses that I am aware of: (1) rates too far below 40 cents/word to offer her a reasonable life for the way she works and (2) utter incompetence in matters of time management.
Frankly, a translator who has #2 under control and works with texts that are dead easy for them can do better at 10 cents/word than someone who charges triple that and surfs most of the day on the Internet.
I think one of the most important points that several respondents have brought out is the need to be taken seriously as a service provider. Price definitely plays a role here, but as Robin B. rightly pointed out, there is necessarily more to the package. But as you go up the price scale and deal with a clientele who understand their communication needs well and want good results, it’s gratifying how the haggling drops away and the discussion focuses on more interesting and professionally satisfying matters. Whether that point is at 15 cents, 20, 30 or 60 will depend on where you play. I’ve seen what one can make here in Germany in the financial translation markets, and I’ve spent some time familiarizing myself with IFRS terms and the like, because there are sometimes unavoidable in the speeches I like to translate. But I’ll happily work longer hours fiddling with a tough patent or technical publication and earn less, because in doing so I have satisfied my craving to learn more about things that interest me.
So I appreciate your extended post-grad pilgrimage as well 🙂 In the end, it’s not about charging any amount or even making a certain hourly income once your basic needs are covered. It *should* be about whether you enjoy the life you have and whether you can provide adequately for your dependents, yourself and your future. If you can do that charging three cents per word, go for it 😉 I won’t be affected 🙂
@Kevin
And now Japan has even more serious problems than the entrance exam hell and kid suicides.
All of a sudden, the image of endless parades of upwardly mobile young professionals crossing Ginza while talking business on cell phones were replaced by images of scared old people being saved from the rubble left by the earthquake and high school gyms full of refugees, mostly old people and mothers with young children.
It reminds me of the aftermath of hurricane Katrina with a few exploding nuclear reactors thrown in for good measure.
But I think that if any nation can handle disasters like earthquakes and tsunamis, it’s Japan.
At least I hope so.
Thank you to all contributors for the insightful discussion. I’m thinking about the “respect” portion that Chris and RobinB mentioned. I believe I am respected because of the value proposition I provide my clients, as RobinB suggests is the case. However, I think there is a rate threshold, and only above that threshold can you be respected to any great degree. I think that threshold is the ‘typical range’ for your service in your pair in your field in your market. It seems to me that anyone who has moved above that range gets a certain level of respect, and that the level increases as other value propositions become clear.
I agree, Karen.
And your comment reminds me that I’d meant to get back to RobinB over his little joke (in which he seemed to imply that I’d said that a high rate alone generates respect, in stark contrast to his own reliance on a superior value proposition. (Ah, noble sir!… :-)) This worries me slightly, since it makes me think that I am not writing clearly enough when I contribute to this type of discussion. My apologies all around.
Because it goes without saying (and good goddess, this is a constant in everything I’ve written over the past 30+ years) that unless you have seriously good translation skills, all of the sales courses & marketing gimmicks & availability & creative flair in the world won’t get you anywhere. Well, not for very long, anyway. I also think that serious investment in specialization is absolutely essential. Those are the utter basics, can we agree on that?
Earlier I was simply pointing out that below a certain rate even a red-hot value proposition rings hollow. Clients notice that, but it seems to me that many LSPs (both freelancers and agencies/companies) don’t, largely because they are basing their prices on what they see (or sometimes imagine) their competitors charging.
Not to stir the pot, but I’m also convinced that freelancers need not commit to the massive overheads described in some posts to charge rates at the high end of the figures quoted here.
But that comes with a condition attached: anybody who takes this business seriously should be prepared to put his/her/its name on the line (by signing work as a matter of course). There is simply no better way to temper the bullshit factor.
Finally, @Vikas: I’m not sure I understand your point. If it is that clients will sometimes pay high prices for the sake of convenience or out of ignorance, well, no doubt that happens. But I think anyone in the market for the long haul — and let me say very clearly (I hope!) that that is my case — is not relying on the occasional ignorant client knocking on the door. The creative (or not) nature of any given text is not really the point.
Being in a position to provide really good work means a far greater investment in continuing education and availability than many vendors are prepared to make. Which brings us back to Corinne’s post, ah! Have a nice day everyone!
“Excuse me, I don’t shake at advising a CEO. I don’t want to waste my time talking to some dumb white collar criminal. That’s not what I like to do. I like to translate, that’s why I am a translator.”
That’s the most beautiful thing I’ve ever read on a translation blog.
@patenttranslator, you’re invited to come to Brazil whenever you want.
Well, here’s another take on how to top (and exceed 40 cents/word: Provide something to your translation that is so value added that you can charge significantly more than “just” translation rate. For example, I provide on-page and off-page SEO (search engine optimization) services for website translation. Since this is a very specialized service, i can charge *much* more than what I charge for a typical technical translation.
Currently it sounds like WordPress is the top blogging platform available right now.
(from what I’ve read) Is that what you’re using on your
blog?