Pedregalejo, Malaga, Spain, a trip I took as a freelance translator/tranlsation agency entrepreneur
photo copyright 2007 all-texts.com
Earn $75,000.00 annually as a freelance translator (?)
Slow down there. It takes a while, years in fact.
Saw these ads throughout my years as a freelance translator. The guy's e-book was selling for about $50, and considering that there are millions of freelance translators (especially in Spanish!) worldwide and beginning translators, and people who assume they are translators because they are fluent in two languages, and lots of people who want to work at home, and millions of others who think they can do it; this guy probably earned thousands of dollars just telling others how!
Remember, the more this publisher earns, the more readers follow his leads and advice, then the more translators there will be in an already glutted market and every agency he lists will be inundated with translator CV's and resumes!
It is sort of like those travel books that point readers to secret spots, and then those secret spots are not secret a year or two after the book is published.
Most translators probably earn about $25 to $45K. It all depends on how much you charge and how good you are and your work tracking down jobs and applying to agencies, and sending your CV /resume to thousands of agencies and companies.
If you start an agency, you will be saddled with start-up and running expenses(web site domain, translator payments, new computer, software, Internet connection costs, quality printer, ribbons, paper, phone costs and bills, dictionaries, postage and notary costs, tax preparation, etc.) and may not see much of a profit for all your time and work devoted that first year. It takes a while. The more time and money you spend and the smarter you run the business, the more you will earn.
People call me up and ask about translation jobs available and how to become a freelance translator online. I tell them that it is a long, hard road; and that the best thing they can do is apply to as many agencies as they can, title their resume or CV clearly with name and language combination so it can be filed easily in agency databases (e.g., "Jon Smith_German_English"), offer a very competitive per-word rate, provide translation samples, write a clear, concise resume /CV that lists relevant experience, and on that curriculum vitae, list exact full address, email, and all phone numbers where he or she can be reached. Also important is flexible payment method: translators who accept checks and/or use PayPal are preferred.
Translation samples should be proofread and edited to make them nearly perfect. Only 200 words is necessary. Provide source and target texts.
60 days for payment?
A client from the translation department of a major international and USA pharmaceutical company wanted me to do a large translation, around $675.
Said they couldn't comply with my 2-week payment terms.
They wouldn't give me a tax ID# or passport or driver's license number, which I demand unless client pays in advance.
In the end the dude just snapped and cancelled the invoice before we started.
Sure, we could have negotiated for a 45-day payment terms, possibly 60(which would entail me paying my translator out of my own savings);but 14-21 days is much better for us. Most of my translators do not like to wait more than a month to be payed.
I anticipate more translation service payment issues in the wake of this Wall Street crash, yet more business as American companies realize that exporting may save them, and this will entail more investment in translations from English to French, Spanish, German, Chinese, etc.
On a lighter note, got off my stressed translator's rear end and went surfing. Hardly any waves, but I caught one and finally stood up(I was rusty from a quarter-of -century hiatus from surfing). The ocean waves wash away all the miles and miles of texts, words, glossaries, invoices, emails and a mind oversaturated with reading translation business issues, French and Spanish legal documents, etc.
Mind and body relaxed from my little surfing session, I went back to the office, ready to read up on Gooogle Adwords for my advertising campaign this fall.
Terminological Resources for translators
I have a great secret spot, a database of glossaries in 30 languages or more, where I can find almost everything I need when doing a tough translation, whether legal, technical, medical or business(site has 100 fields to choose from).
Another spot I used to use, but not as much anymore, because I can find almost all words for a translation in the secret spot, is http://www.wordreference.com/. It has a great forum, too, where helpful translation colleagues will answer question for you on tricky phrases and words.
I started out with IATE when I first became a translator in the late 90's
http://iate.europa.eu/iatediff/SearchByQueryLoad.do?method=load
IATE (= “Inter-Active Terminology for Europe”) is the EU inter-institutional terminology database. IATE has been used in the EU institutions and agencies since summer 2004 for the collection, dissemination and shared management of EU-specific terminology. The project partners are:
§ European Commission
§ Parliament
§ Council
§ Court of Justice
§ Court of Auditors
§ Economic & Social Committee
§ Committee of the Regions
§ European Central Bank
§ European Investment Bank
§ Translation Centre for the Bodies of the EU
November 5, 2008
Yoo-hoo! Obama has won! I think this will be a boost for the translation industry as well!
November 10, 2008
Feelin' good- Obama is getting ready for the transition to the White House and already talking to international leaders. We hope for renewed international business with the USA, and thus more need for the quality translations(French, Spanish, Italian, German, etc.)that we provide.
Special offer, $10.00: Put your freelance translator resume/CV on this blog!
Put a banner and link to your translation agency on this blog: One-time fee, $75
Contact me for details. Put "CV blog posting" or "Banner link" in email subject.
Certified translation: Notarized Statement of Accuracy
A lot of you have asked about certified legal translations. A certified legal translation in the USA is a translation with an attached notarized statement of accuracy. The is a legally-binding document that holds the translator or person reading and signing the statement responsible fo its content and accuracy. Below is an example:
This statement of accuracy is used on all certified translations we issue.
This is a legally-binding document in the U.S.A. for certifed translations
STATEMENT OF ACCURACY
I, (Name of Translator or person fluent in both languages who has proofread text), a qualified translator fluent in French and English working on behalf of (Name of Agency) (address), declare that to the best of my knowledge, the attached document in English is a true and accurate rendering of the attached document in French (....).
Dated:____________
Signed:____________________________
(Name of Translator or person fluent in both languages who has proofread text),
State of California
County of________________
Subscribed and sworn to (or affirmed) before me on this____day of________, 20__, by
__________________________________, proved to me on the basis of satisfactory evidence to
be the person(s) who appeared before me.
Signature_______________________________(Seal)
11/12/08
Horror story: Chose an apparently , and actually, inexperiened, supposedly "native" French translator, a "copywriter" on the east coast, who did a poor job. The client wants to be reimbursed, plus I have to pay $600 to have the project re-translated.
A French Canadian native French-speaking group of colleagues of the client all judged the translation to be very poor.
The "translator(?)" was defiant and would neither reimburse in full or partially what we paid her, nor re-do, nor proofread, nor edit the translation!!
I had to order an entirely new translation at full price from one of my legitimate experienced translators.
Moral of the story: Never be in a rush, when understaffed, to take on a tranlsation project and give it to someone who says they have experience without thoroughly checking their CV and samples.
Haste makes waste and Festina Lente ("Make haste carefully)!
Advice to translators: Never take on a job beyond your capacity, experience and skills and do not exaggerate your qualifcations and CV/resume! Simply being a native speaker of a language and fluent in a second language DOES NOT QUALIFY YOU TO BE A PROFESSIONAL TRANSLATOR!!
Actually, the client who purchased the poor translation is not entitled to a refund, only a re-translation/correction, free of charge:
5. Corrections
5.1 The translator will correct the following errors free of charge: omissions, grammatical and spelling errors, not using approved glossaries. Nevertheless, if the corrections are based on the client’s preference of a particular style and/or terminology, or in the event that there is more than one way to interpret the meaning of a source text, Translation Service will not be obligated to correct mistakes or errors free of charge, unless preferences of style and/or terminology have been communicated to Translation Service before commencement of translation or project.
5.2 The client recognizes that the translator will not bear any responsibility or obligation for possible errors of translation, unless such errors are indicated in writing within seven (7) days of the delivery of the final material to the client.
5.3 The translator's responsibility will be that of correcting the final material free of charge within time limit.
This is a sticky issue, especially when the client waits 3 months to complain about the original translation. Some clients may want a refund plus a new translation. Under the terms and conditions, we are not obligated to provide a refund.
Here is the letter I emailed to the client after we delivered an entirely new translation, in order to clarify that we would indeed not offer a refund:
Dear Sir/Madame,
We have recently delivered the translation(retranslation/correction) of the initial translation you purchased on 7-30-08, and thus, have fulfilled our part of the contract.
Refund, either partially or in full, is not in accordance with our terms of service(see below), which are standard and universal in the translation industry.
Please realize that your complaint about the translation was made 3 and ½ months after the initial delivery (7-30-08) of the translation.
(Though not pertinent in this case, we must remind you that payment for the first translation was one(1) month late, and we did not demand any late payment fee.)
2.5 Translation errors or corrections cannot under any circumstances be accepted as a reason for a payment reduction, delay or refusal, or to instigate proceedings with a view to claiming damages and interest.
5.2 The client recognizes that the Translation Service will not bear any responsibility or obligation for possible errors of translation, unless such errors are indicated in writing within seven (7) days of the delivery of the final material to the client.
5.3 The Translation Service's responsibility will be that of correcting the final material free of charge within time limit.
7. Revision of Translation-Related Deliverables. The Client agrees to promptly review the translation-related Deliverables upon receipt thereof and to notify the Translation Service within fifteen (15) business days of any errors or omissions in such Deliverables.
Translation Service agrees to rectify the following without charge within a reasonable period of time: outright mistranslation, omission, typos, grammatical mistake, or non-adherence to any approved glossary (“Non-Subjective Errors”). Translation Service’s sole obligation with respect to such Non-Subjective Errors is the obligation to correct the Deliverable at no cost to Client, provided that the Client gives notice of such errors to Translation Service within fifteen (15) business days of Client’s receipt of the Deliverables. Failure to raise an objection within this period shall be considered as approval of the work as delivered.
Regards,
Patrick, Project Manager
WordReference.com is a good general resource when you are tired of opening a conventional dictionary and search around with a magnifying glass(depends on how long you have exhausted your eyes as a translator). It sometimes picks up obscure phrases, which it indicates as being in the forum, at the bottom of a long list of definitions for the root word. This is great because you can see if someone else asked a question about this; and on the forum, helful translators often post an answer, or at least an attempt, pretty quickly.
WordReference's forum is now set up with these languages:
Spanish: English to Spanish
Spanish to English
French: English to French
French to English
Italian: English to Italian
Italian to English
German: English to German
German to English
Russian: English to Russian
Russian to English
English Only: English definition
Grand dictionnaire terminologique
Le grand dictionnaire terminologique
Le GDT est une banque de données terminologiques, il rassemble les termes appartenant à des domaines de spécialité; il ne s'agit donc pas d'un dictionnaire usuel. Ainsi, pour toute question sur des mots ou expressions de la langue courante, sur des verbes ou sur d'autres aspects du français, nous vous recommandons plutôt de consulter un dictionnaire de langue générale, la Banque de dépannage linguistique (BDL) ou les liens utiles du site de l'Office québécois de la langue française.
I used to have this as my primary online terminology resource when I started. I thought it was the best online, and it is a very good translators' resource. Nevetheless, compared to Eurodicautom and my other online terminological database(which I will let the readers find through serendipity), Le grand dictionnaire terminologique is often incomplete.
November 16, 2008
The current worldwide economic crisis has indeed cut into our profits, and translation customers are less likely to accept a quote and start a project without shopping around for the best price--but I doubt they will find another agency so easily that provides such quality translations and such a reasonable per-word cost.
Perhaps it is wise to delay translation projects until the economy at least seems to be getting better. But, who knows? We thought after Obama's election things would immediately improve, and international concerns would again have confidence investing in the USA (and need translations from and into English); we were a bit overconfident.
Things haven't gotten better. Actually the market seems to fluctuate so wildly(can we blame online trading?), almost like the attention span of many residents of industrialized "First World" nations, that one can never know if it is a good time to go ahead with projects, spend money, expand.
Maybe the best time to avoid business stagnation is now. Hug randomness. Randomness is a lack of order, purpose, cause, or predictability. Toss the coin. Get pro-active. Get moving.
If any translation client wants to check out our reputation, we happily refer them to our client testimonials page. That, coupled with our 15% discount over other tranlsation agency prices, is sure to convince them.
In Dec. 2007 we bought a new computer, an HP Pavilion Slimline. Within 3 months, the DVD/CD drive had broken down. We had to install Pioneer external DVD drive, instead of waiting 3 weeks for Best Buy to get it repaired. Now, 6 months laster, the MS Office software we had installed is not working, again. We will have to re-install it.
The Pioneer external DVD(and CD) drive refused to burn music CD's. Burning DVD movies has consistently, worked until we had to stop using Windows DVD Maker. Now, it only burns DVD movies with Xilisoft DVD Creator.
Weekly the Pioneer external DVD is used to make a date DVD back-up, but often I have to use a brand new DVD.
MS Word is now working , sporadically. We did a system restore,but it didn't help much. We'd been noticing problems when closing MSWord docs.
Now we seem to have a problem with the Pioneer external DVD(and CD) drive. God, we have burned a dozen data DVDs before they were even full of data! We continually have to use a new DVD
In spring 2007 we bought an HP Pavilion Entertainment PC Laptop. This has always taken about 15 mintues to fulling boot, and frequently runs out of space, apparently. Also, when recharging or anytime using the power cord, it heats up intensely. Once while in Spain, room temperature about 95F, it completely burned out. Had to buy a new one.
Also, the HP Pavilion Entertainment PC Laptop has a tendency to reject software installation and then not allow uninstallation /removal! Crazy.
DVD drive just f--ked up again.
So, after spending over $2,000 on the HP Pavilion Entertainment PC Laptop and HP Pavilion Slimline, not to mention another $150 or so for MS Office Software 2007(it rejected old MS Office software), we are left with rather mediocre computer performance and lots of problems. The HP Pavilion Entertainment PC Laptop is really a piece of shit.
November 17, 2008
Copies of translations/Zip files
Today I have been trying to set up a translation project with a client. She sent me 9 diffferent attachments of her transcripts and diploma, unzipped and unrared!!
I told her to zip or .rar the files so we could download it more efficiently. None of the files she sent could be opened, either zipped or separately.
She wants 2 extra copies of this certified translation to send to a total of 3 different universities.
I wrote her this email to explain:
"You are applying to 3 universities, so I assume you need 2 extra copies of the translation(with a separate notarized statement of accuracy for each copy) . I do not assume you will send just a statement of accuracy (with no translation documents) or make a photocopy….?! They wouldn’t accept that as far as I know..they must be certified and signed by translator... "
"A certified translation is: the printed up translation and the copy of the source(FRENCH) document. Attached to the top of all these pages is a notarized statement of accuracy. This packet of documents you will send to each university. "
"Each copy of the translation is printed up approx. 18 pages (includes the source document of 9 pages and the translation, around 9 pages) . The charge is $25.00. "
"You will need a certification(notarized statement of accuracy) for each copy. "
First certification is $35.
Each additional cert. is $20
I have not seen your documents, but it will probably cost from $35 to $50 each page.
So, you have the cost of the translation and first certification:
$360.00 (9 pages X est. $40 per page—could be $35, but I have not seen documents)
$35(certification)
and:
2 copies of the translation/source text: $50(total of 36 printed up pages)
2 extra certifications for each copy: $40.00
Postage $5.00 "
Nov.19, 2008
U.S.A. IMMIGRATION DOCUMENT TRANSLATIONS
French translator translations
Spanish translator translations
Translation of immigration documents: marriage certificates, birth certificates, transcripts, diplomas, divorce certificates, etc. Spanish and French into English.
I have several years of experience translating French and Spanish documents into English for certified translations that are accepted at government institutions, for U.S. immigration, when applying to schools, universities, etc.
Customers can email a clear scan into an image format or fax the documents. We do not need the originals, just a copy.
We use online terminological databases to make sure every word is accurate and have a network of legal translators to consult with on special issues.
November 24, 2008
Skype and Blackberry for translation offices
Thinking of buying a BlackBerry® 8830 World Edition smartphone . This would allow me to hook up to my laptop without having to search for WiFi signals as I travel abroad and run my London and Los Angeles translation agencies.
Skype: This has proved an excellent tool for keeping in rapid touch with my translators locally and abroad. The chat function allows me to quickly send translation project specifications (and files) to translators who also have skype, and I can call them for free, if they are Skype users.
Nov. 27, 2008
Sending Resumes
NOTICE TO ALL TRANSLATORS: Any attachment document(i.e., a resume or CV) not titled with language combination and full name will be deleted.
I will not download, re-title and file any attachment of a CV or resume that is not titled with language combination and full name.
Most translators just send an attached MSWord file(I receive about 30 to 40 per week )with the title "Joe Smith CV", "resume", "Maria eng.cv" or something asininely non-descriptive like that, and expect me to add their name and /or language combination to the file when I save it. What a time-wasting hassle!!
This is what I consider and acceptable title: "CV_Maria Perez_Spanish_English"
Some interesting translation blogs:
http://alltextscom.blogspot.com/
http://londontrans.blogspot.com/
An article on the translation methods of a freelance translator here.
Are you an experienced freelance translators already? Register here for jobs here at my agency.
My translation agencies in London and Los Angeles
Italian translations page-Italiano
German translations page-Deutsch
French translation page-Français
FREE SPANISH AND FRENCH TRANSLATION GLOSSARIES