ATA conference topic: low payers
Amazingly enough in this economy, my sense from the ATA conference is that most freelancers are very happy with their work volume and income levels. Especially as compared with the gloom and doom of the US economy (maybe even the world economy?), I think we’re doing quite well. 2011 has brought me as much work as I wanted and I’m happy with my income despite devoting a fair bit of time to the second edition of my book and my new webinar venture.
Still, low-paying agencies were a hot topic at the conference. Some freelancers feel that ATA should take a stand on this or somehow get involved (not likely to happen in any case), or that freelancers should come to some sort of consensus on how to handle these agencies. I don’t have the perfect answer, but here are some of my thoughts, and feel free to add your own:
- The best defense against low payers is simply to be too busy to even contemplate working with them. When I receive lowball inquiries from agencies, I either delete them without responding or respond and say “My minimum rate is X and I’m very busy at that rate, so I will have to decline. Please keep me in mind if you have any future projects with a larger budget.” Part of me feels that an agency looking for a professional translator for 6 cents a word doesn’t even deserve a response, while the other part of me feels that it’s a public service to communicate that professionals charge real money and that we are very busy dealing with clients who pay real money.
- There really is enough well-paying work to go around. Judy Jenner says this all the time, and I completely agree. There is more than enough well-paying work for all 2,000 people who were at the ATA conference and then some. Leave the low payers to their business model while you pursue yours: the market is there.
- Most translators charge what their work is worth. You know how every once in a while you have this horrible sinking fear that there are people out there charging a tiny fraction of what you charge and producing well-researched, beautifully-written translations delivered on or before deadline with a smile? Well, I would let go of that fear. As demonstrated by Chris Durban‘s “Mystery Shopper” experiment (described in her presentation at the ATA Translation Company Division conference), agencies that compete on price alone generally produce unusably lousy translations, using some combination of non-native speakers, people who aren’t actually professional translators, machine translation or all three.
- If you don’t want to deal with low payers, step away from the places they hang out. I’m not one to name names, but auction-style translation marketplaces are not the place to be if you want to earn real money. Instead, market to quality-conscious agencies: see my post on Using Payment Practices as a marketing tool for some ideas on how to do that.
- Don’t expect associations to get involved. It’s not really ATA’s place to disrupt the free market or set freelancers’ rates for them. Even if ATA were legally able to get involved in rates, who gets to decide what constitutes lowballing? If you currently work for 15 cents a word, 7 cents is lowballing. If you currently work for 45 cents a word, 30 cents is lowballing, and so on.
- Put your energy where it matters. I believe in fighting for what’s right, but you’re never going to put the Wal-Marts of translation out of business or convince them to quadruple what they pay their translators. So move on; let go. You know how they say that living well is the best revenge? Get your revenge on the lowball market by charging more than they will ever be able to!
In general, I can’t say that I spend a lot of time thinking about or dealing with the Wal-Marts of translation. They’re not my target market and I have more than enough work without them. Other thoughts?
Written by corinnemckay
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Great post, Corinne! I totally agree with you. It is time for people complaining all day about low-paying agencies and bottom feeders and simply position themselves in a different segment altogether.
No amount of indignation is going to change the market. There will always be someone willing to work for less than you; that’s just a race you can’t win. Then, again, who would want to?
Excellent take on the low-paying issue, Corinne. I cannot agree more with you and Nicolás.
I think the best action against low-paying agencies is for all respectable freelance translators around to stop working for them, because some of us are actually selling themselves out to this type of client. If qualified translator would stop working for them, the quality delivered by these agencies would drop from already poor to rubbish. After all, these type of agencies only exist because they find people to work for them, but the problem is that these people are not all swindlers and pseudo-translators. Some of them are qualified translators simply selling themselves out and killing themselves at work to make a living.
As a matter of fact, readers of this blog may also be interested in something that happened to me recently: while refusing my quote for a technical translation because of my rate, one of these agencies proposed me to provide them with a glossary so they can hire less qualified translator at lower rates and improve the output. You can find out more details here: http://www.sciencetranslation.net/2011/10/translation-patch-up/
In conclusion, I think that for serious freelance translators competing on price is suicidal. Our only option is to compete on quality and continuously educate clients to the quality/price ratio.
Best,
Thanks Jeremy! Wow, the agency that asked you to provide them with your terminology resources is a new one…that takes courage! But I agree, competing on price alone is a losing battle: if you look at the rates on some of the online translation marketplaces, you can never compete with them even if you wanted to. And really, if you want to place blame (I’m not a big blamer, but…), it’s more logical to blame the translators who accept really low rates than to blame the agencies that test the market by offering low rates. Thanks for your comment, lots of good food for thought there!
Dear Corrine, I just want to thank you for your encouragement to translators, to keep looking around for sufficient, respectable rates. I work in Rome, where the common rate seems to be .04 euro cents a word (little more than .065 USD cents per word), and it is not easy to find higher paying clients, though I am beginning to. The rates you mention (15, 30, 45 cents) seem like a dream, and perhaps they require quite a bit of experience, specialization, schooling, or more. I am not sure. I try to do good quality work, and am completing my doctorate in philosophy at the Lateran University here, so I’m not exactly unschooled, and have worked for four years in Italy as a freelance translator, so I have some experience. But I have yet to find agencies paying much more than .04-.05 euro cents a word. Your post is an encouragement to me, and I will strike out into different waters (perhaps “set out”) to see what I can find. I agree that the translation world is vast, and there are, if I am not mistaken, thousands of agencies out there. So surely there is someone paying in the mid-to-upper echelons of the pay scale. I will keep you posted. No pun intended.
Peter Waymel
Thanks Peter! Glad you enjoyed the post! And yes, there is lots of work out there at 3-4 times the rates you’re seeing in Italy. I would advise purchasing a membership to Payment Practices if you don’t have one already: search just for the agencies rated 4.5 or higher and you’ll start finding the good ones. Also in general I think that small and medium-sized agencies are a better fit for very good translators because those agencies have a more personal relationship with their own clients. I think that if you set a goal of applying to 5-10 new, higher-paying agency clients per week you’ll see a huge increase in your income!
I agree wholeheartedly with your post, Corinne, and certainly didn’t formulate my reaction all that articulately at the ATA event.
Here are two related points that strike me from exchanges with translators over the past few months.
1. It’s surprising how often you hear sweeping claims about “the market,” — with those in segment X, Y or Z insisting that it’s the only choice. Right now I’m thinking in particular of the gloomy “all clients ever care about is the lowest price” argument. But let’s say one day the penny drops, scales fall from eyes… and these translators realize that other, far more attractive segments exist. Whoa! Great! Here it’s essential that they invest time to scope out the new markets *before* changing course, since habits acquired in price-driven markets can sink your boat once you move up market. Examples on request. 🙂
2. Translators who take their profession seriously should be members of their regional or national professional association, full stop. Membership of an online commercial platform can be entertaining, but despite those platforms’ efforts to cash in on certification issues, codes of ethics and the like, it is simply not the same as being in a genuine professional association. Dare I say here, too: examples on request? 😉
Dear Chris,
Greatly enjoyed your post and would like to request an example, or examples, of the first issue you brought up: old-market, price-driven practices having an a negative effect on a translator switching to a new market, and unwittingly (the effect, not the switch).
Thanks for the help,
Peter Waymel
Thanks Chris! I think we all did fine on the panel, but it’s so much easier to formulate an articulate response when you don’t have hundreds of people staring at you 🙂 Great point that the habits of price-driven translators are totally incompatible with the premium market: all the more reason to get out of the lowball market as quickly as possible. And thanks for your comment about professional associations; good time to re-evaluate those since the start of the membership year is coming up!
I agree with all of the above and would just like to add that it is our responsibility as translators not to accept work for ridiculously low rates. If we all do, this will eventually weed out these offers. We do not have to work for low rates since there is plenty of work at reasonable or even high rates if you are just out there looking for it.
Thanks Tess! That point is very needed: if you want to lobby someone about low rates, lobby other translators to quit working for those rates. As someone else pointed out, part of the problem is that low-paying agencies are (currently) finding enough good/decent translators to work for them at low rates. If that stopped happening, low-paying agencies would have to adjust their business model. And I agree completely: there is tons of well-paying work out there for anyone who markets assertively!
Thank you for this post, Corinne! And everyone’s comments as well. As a young translator slowly moving from the pro-bono, experience-earning market to the money-earning job market, it’s encouraging to hear that I’m not being picky or throwing opportunities out the window by refusing to work for less than my hard work and serious research efforts are worth.
Thanks Carolyn! I agree, starting out as a freelancer takes a lot of perseverance; but I do think that once you start on the low-rate treadmill, it’s hard to get off. At very low rates, you have to be working all the time in order to earn a decent (or even halfway decent) income, so you never have time to market to better-paying clients. Much better to do as you’re doing and only work with clients who will pay your target rate.
@Peter
Two examples:
• During the same panel discussion, someone asked about free test pieces — do them or not? Corinne pointed out that if the request is from an agency you can always ask to be paid.
There was then some talk about doctors, plumbers and lawyers never being asked for free samples (harrumph, harrumph :)), but this reminded me that with direct clients, offering to show a prospect what you can do with a couple of key paragraphs of a brochure or website is an excellent way to clinch the sale.
But for best effect, I figure the offer has to come from you, and you have to slide into it with confidence.
Eg., you’ve been talking in general about the client’s needs and how you think you’re a good match for them. But they’re still a little uncertain, perhaps a little taken aback by your much higher price, too. So you say cheerfully “Hey, how about this: let me take the two paragraphs on page 1 and redo them they way I think they should be translated. It will let you see what I can do for the rest of your document, and give me a chance to sink my teeth into one of your texts. Cool texts, btw, and I like the layout. No, no charge; this will be a good way for both of us to see if we’re a good fit.”
In this context, any hint of hesitating or bristling or being borderline insulted at the idea of showing what you can do for free (which might be understandable if it was a low-baller who’d initiated the request) would be totally out of place. Would defeat the purpose of your offer, even.
• Pricing: the difference is generally so enormous between bulk prices and good direct clients (say 4x) that you should be very careful to chat with other non-bulk suppliers before announcing a price. Because once you have, you’ve shown them your pain threshold — and it will be very hard to move up significantly. If you really have no idea, you can always suggest making this first job a “test piece at special price, just so we can each get an idea how the other works and see if we’re a good fit”. That gives you some extra time to ask around and decide what price you should be charging for the second job. ☺
@Tes : I had an interesting exchange with a Lionbridge rep at a meeting in Brussels last month. Chitchat, pleasant, but it eventually led to confirmation that I, as a specialized freelancer, am in a far stronger position than his company for the simple reason that I can decline jobs that don’t fit my skills or interests. Whereas L’bridge (and others, too, in my experience) will *always* say yes (and then start casting about for a “highly skilled linguist” to work on the job). They “have no choice.” Food for thought.
Chris,
Thanks so much for your quick reply and helpful comments. I’ve never had a problem providing a test translation – for agencies I’ve been dealt with this never amounted to more than a paragraph or two – and generally I get the feel they are not using these translations for their final clients. The idea was great, I think, that you mentioned (sorry for the unconventional syntax, it’s been a long day translating) about suggesting a sample translation, like of a brochure, or something to that effect. Even more curious is that it sounds like face-to-face dialogue, which my marketing skills have never brought me to do. Perhaps some day. And your comments on the rate difference between bulk and direct makes my mouth water. Incredible difference. Though in my experience, the direct clients regularly offer steady work; once every few months, at best. Anyway, it’s something to think about, and I thank you.
alla prossima,
Peter
It’s been 2.5 years since the posting date, but I wish to say I agree wholeheartedly. Actually, I believe samples are the best marketing tool we can have. Most translators are better at translating than at marketing or copywriting or handling business relationships, negotiations etc., and in any case a sample doesn’t take as much time as the other things would. Plus, a good sample can help you break price barriers even when you are, in fact, in a bulk market. While a stellar sample can’t put a translator above the agency’s ceiling, but it can certainly put a newbie translator right there. Besides, negotiating is much easier when they’ve seen a sample graded A or A- by their editor. For this last reason alone, I think even forcing a free sample on them is a good investment.
What’s humiliating and scoffworthy is when agencies think that, somehow, being tested by a rank-and-file reviewer online on a simple sample outweighs or adds anything on top of having previously passed difficult high-profile proctored exams administered by governments and associations. However, even that’s mostly due to excessive caution or lack of reflection, or both, rather than condescension. This said, condescending attitudes on the part of agencies are a problem these days. While exceptions exist, somewhat boorish manners are progressively becoming the standard.
Amen!
Thanks Terena!
I think it’s worth responding to a low-balling agency. When a company tried to recruit me at a low rate I responded saying that I could not consider their offer of XX per word since I got plenty of work at my regular rate that was 6 cents a word higher. They then responded without blinking an eye that they would be happy to pay my regular rate and they have now become a regular client at the higher rate. Sometimes I think they are just seeing what the market will bear..
Karen,
This is enlightening. Thank you for sharing the story: I will be sure to use the tactic with my next agency query.
🙂
Peter
@Karen — good point!
This reminds me of my mom’s good friend Ellie, who loved to travel around the country to antique fairs. She once explained very seriously to my lower-key mother that *wherever you choose to stay over* (5-star Marriott or family-owned B&B) your standard phrase on striding up to the front desk should be “Is that the best you can do?” (well, immediately after “have you got a room for tonight?”) It cracked me up at the time as just terrifically American, but certainly worked well for Ellie.
I’m convinced that at least some of the lowballers are just pulling an Ellie, but from the bottom up (as it were).
Thanks Chris! Love the Ellie story…as you said, only in America, and undoubtedly some clients are using this tactic!
Thanks Karen! That’s a very constructive way to respond; I think that the “I have plenty of work at this rate” element is crucial. I do think that we can’t blame clients for testing the waters to see if we’ll bite, and I also agree that it’s one thing to say “I charge X” and another thing to say “I have more work than I can handle at X cents per word.” Good work 🙂
In many cases a negotiating party will simply say something stupid that has a low chance of actually working but a high return if it does. Besides, I suspect agencies are trying to define the new normal by simply handing down those new, lower rates. Quoting big is the best defence against that sort of tactic. Those which are either really uninformed or in need of a reality check could finally shake off their current state the second, third or fourth time they hear an old-school quote (and you will possibly never even know).
I am in full agreement with each thought expressed here. Thank you, Corinne, for writing about this hot but important topic.
In my opinion, as freelance translators, we must understand that we run a business, so it is necessary to have a business plan and a marketing strategy in order to avoid working for agencies whose only interest is to have the translation done and that don’t care about quality, specializations, etc.
Thank you, Chris, for your valuable insight!
Fernando
Thanks Fernando! You’re absolutely right that far too many translators seem either unwilling or unable to admit that they are businesses. That is a great tip about having a business plan; makes it much easier to ask yourself “is this client/project” in line with my business plan?
After some time agencies anyway evaluate quality and they understand that they cannot get good quality work for low prices. Totally agree with your article. Thank you a lot, enjoyed reading it.
Really enjoyed this post, thanks for sharing guys.
A nice set of tips to help avoid the epidemic of low payers that seems to be spreading at the moment. I believe companies think that because of the economic conditions they can ask for cheaper prices.
I often find it mildly insulting when people will try to reduce rates. If something is in a shop for a certain price you wouldn’t expect to go into that shop and lower the price, it should be the same for a professional translators service.
Thanks again.
Great post, Corinne!
I’ve been trying to make it clear to these clients that I’m not available to work for them because of their rates. I believe that if everyone just ignores emails, those who make decisions in these agencies/companies will never know for sure the real reason why they can’t find good professionals (what they consider “good” is another story…). They might suspect, but there are so many other possibilities: emails got lost in the cyberspace, the translator forgot to reply, s/he accidentally deleted the email, s/he’s too busy right now (but might reply later), and so on.
Am I going to change the world? Probably not. 🙂 But I think it’s the least I can do, and it only takes 2 minutes of my time.
Great post, Corinne!
I’ve been trying to make it clear to these clients that I’m not available to work for them because of their rates. I believe that if everyone just ignores emails, those who make decisions in these agencies/companies will never know for sure the real reason why they can’t find good professionals (what they consider “good” is another story…). They might suspect, but there are so many other possibilities: emails got lost in the cyberspace, the translator forgot to reply, s/he accidentally deleted the email, s/he’s too busy right now (but might reply later), and so on.
Am I going to change the world? Probably not. 🙂 But I think it’s the least I can do, and it only takes 2 minutes of my time.
(Sorry for posting the same reply twice… Something doesn’t look right in my profile above.)
I really enjoyed reading your post Corinne and I feel you have really covered the majority of the arguments for an against low payers.
When asking for rates, I think that customers often have to consider a translators experience in a particular field or industry as well. When someone is being asked to translate a very informal email to a friend, you’re not going to ask a professor of medicine to translate it as their skills are far more advanced than necessary and perhaps a student who needs a bit of extra cash would be suitable for a lower rate on this job.
At the end of the day, there will always be market rates for different languages which are discerned by the cost of living in that country and if a freelancer doesn’t particularly have good business skills they may not have the luxury of telling a customer they want more if they have bills to pay. Also, someone who translates into Norwegian may be able to do pretty well on $0.08/word if they are living in somewhere such as China where things cost a lot less.
I own a translation agency myself and as such I see both sides of the coin. I can totally understand the frustration of highly qualified, experienced translators being asked if they’ll work for 5 times below their normal rate 3 times a week but there are plenty of situations where lower paying work is acceptable.
I have a few ideas of how to approach this issue but I’ll end up writing a longer post than you have posted yourself so I’ll let some other people get a few words in… 🙂
Hi Corinne! I completely have the same opinion with your information in the post. But all are not agreed. I may be wrong but since I am into this profession I have seen that everytime the payer does not go for low paying mode just to get their own share of profit. Many times it is due to low budget assignments for which they have to pay the translator in a low paying mode. So everytime not agreeing the rate can result into your stupidity. Although denying and accepting a project is absolutely your decision but during rejecting take up the right decision considering the name of the concern and their way of execution.
Hi Madhushewata,
OK, count me curious. What is your language combination (or combinations)?
Corinne: nicely put list, good points of discussion. However, sometimes you get a good client from one of those auction-style sites. I know I did, and I got well paid too. Yet your advice stands. With a modicum of Economy 101, one should realize that the auction-style site’s business model is skewed in their favor. Still, for the purposes of learning about the market (this is for recent graduates), such sites have probably some value.
Jérémy: in your piece, you mention something of a strategy used by some low-balling agencies to hire low-rate linguists, that of paying for a terminology list or glossary. Add that to the pile of misconceptions about what constitutes translation. In the minds of many, translation means knowing the specialized terminology, damned be writing skills. In my experience, it’s the other way around. Writing skills are paramount, a sine qua non requirement to perform as a translator in any language with a written alphabet.
Thank you for bringing up your example.
Dear Corinne,
Thank you very much for this post and for all the tips and the knowledge you always share. I’ve just finished reading your book (great!) and usually read your blog.
I’m about to launch my freelance translator business, but this question of prices is something I haven’t figured out yet. I know we should value our work and “stand up for our rights”, but do you think I can start charging relatively high rates from the beginning? I mean, I’m not very experienced and haven’t got any major field of speciality. What’s your opinion about this? I appreciate your time and your advice in advance.
Thanks!
Dear Corinne,
I was very interested in the “Mystery Shopper” experiment, but clicked on the link and merely got an advertisement got a book- is the experiment in their book? I tried searching around the web, but returned empty handed.
Thanks,
Michael