ISBN 978-0-578-10735-6

First Edition, Copyright 2013 by Corinne McKay. All Rights Reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage or retrieval system, except by a reviewer who may quote brief passages in a review, without permission in writing from the author. For information, contact corinne@translatewrite.com.

Disclaimer: This book is published by Two Rat Press and TranslateWrite, Inc., who acknowledge all trademarks. All information contained in this book is believed to be correct at the time of printing. However, readers are advised to seek professional advice where necessary, as the information in this book is based on the author’s experiences. The author of this book is not professionally engaged in providing legal, financial or career planning advice. Please send comments or corrections to corinne@translatewrite.com.

Cover design: Sue Campbell

Layout and copyediting: Daniel J. Urist

Author photograph: Cameron Weise

Contents

Introduction

Acknowledgments and thanks

1 Getting started as a translator

1.1 How to get started as a translator

1.2 How to succeed as a freelance translator

1.3 Developing translation specializations

1.4 Marketing your services to translation agencies

1.5 Avoiding beginner’s mistakes

1.6 The chicken or the egg?

1.7 Finding your first translation clients

1.8 Freelance translation FAQ

1.9 Some thoughts on test translations

1.10 My favorite mistake

1.11 The ten essentials of freelance translation

2 Growing your freelance business

2.1 The importance of aiming low

2.2 Book review: The Entrepreneurial Linguist

2.3 Review your professional association memberships

2.4 My favorite non-translation business books

2.5 Tips for a successful translation conference presentation

2.6 Some thoughts on setting goals

2.7 When to seek professional help

2.8 Break on through

3 Translation technique and translation quality

3.1 Which English?

3.2 Keeping up your source language skills

3.3 Translators and proofreading

3.4 Some thoughts on gender-neutral language

3.5 I feel like I’ve read this somewhere before

3.6 A little bit of this, a little bit of that

3.7 Some thoughts on translation specializations

4 The freelance mindset

4.1 Shoshin

4.2 Are bad habits a form of self-protection?

4.3 Getting things done

4.4 The art of saying no

4.5 Twin Translations: A passion for languages

4.6 Finding the time

4.7 The second half

4.8 What types of incentives work best for you

5 Client relations

5.1 What to send clients and colleagues for the holidays

5.2 Easy versus cheap

5.3 Passing as “one of them”: the client Turing test

5.4 Getting the names straight

5.5 Dear Client

5.6 Using objective data to set your rates

5.7 Dispute resolution in the translation industry

5.8 Vetting prospective clients and job offers

5.9 When a client is dissatisfied

6 Translation technology and home office setup

6.1 Options for home office phone service

6.2 Why you need good web hosting

6.3 Staying comfortable in the home office

6.4 Why netbooks are better than smartphones

6.5 Home or away?

6.6 Why I use free and open source software

6.7 Translation memory discounts: yes, no, maybe?

7 Marketing and networking

7.1 LinkedIn strategies

7.2 Some thoughts on professional photographs

7.3 Tips for promoting your freelance services

7.4 Translation-targeted resumés

7.5 Moving on up

8 Money matters

8.1 How much do freelancers earn? Is it enough?

8.2 Putting 40 cents a word in context

8.3 Some thoughts on hourly and salaried pay

8.4 What about TM discounts?

8.5 Some thoughts on volume discounts

8.6 Supplier or demander?

8.7 Some thoughts on translation rates

8.8 Paid by the word or paid by the hour

8.9 Payments without borders

8.10 Tracking your freelance income

8.11 Some thoughts on financial management

8.12 ATA conference topic: low payers

9 Webinar questions

9.1 Small-diffusion languages

9.2 How many words per day?

9.3 Preparing for the ATA certification exams

9.4 Should I incorporate?

9.5 Does age matter?

Index

Introduction

In February, 2008, I launched the blog Thoughts on Translation www.thoughtsontranslation.com as a way to blend my interests in translation, writing and connecting with other translators. Over five years and several hundred posts later, it’s proven to be a lively discussion forum for freelance translators around the world. During that time, the translation blogosphere has grown exponentially, and any given work day features translators blogging about technology, their specializations, their clients and nearly any hot news in the industry. Thoughts on Translation currently draws approximately 500 visitors per day, and I have really enjoyed writing it as both a creative outlet and as a way to connect with other translators, project managers and word people in general.

This book represents a compilation of most (but not all) of the 406 blog posts that I wrote between February, 2008 and January, 2012. All of these posts are still active on my blog, so if you’d like to contribute your own thoughts, just click over to www.thoughtsontranslation.com and add a comment!

Acknowledgments and thanks

My blog and thus this book would never have come into existence without the advice and encouragement of my friend and blogging guru Beth Hayden of Blogging With Beth. Thoughts on Translation was just a vague idea in my head when I took Beth’s “Introduction to Blogging” course in early 2008, and she has continued to be an outstanding source of advice and inspiration since I started my blog.

A blog exists as part of the blogosphere, and I’m very grateful for the worldwide community of translation bloggers and authors of which I’m a part. Big thanks to Lisa Carter (Intralingo), Sarah Dillon (There’s Something About Translation), Chris Durban (The Prosperous Translator), Sara Freitas (Les Recettes du Traducteur), Judy and Dagmar Jenner (Translation Times), Kevin Lossner (Translation Tribulations), Tony Rosado (The Professional Interpreter), Riccardo Schiaffino (About Translation), Jill Sommer (Musings from an Overworked Translator), Michael Wahlster (Translate This!) and Tess Whitty (The Business of Translation) for their comments, suggestions, fabulous posts, links and retweets and to my invaluable colleague Eve Lindemuth Bodeux for almost a decade of professional collaboration and friendship. My husband, my daughter and my parents are my anchor in the craziness of life, and for that, no thanks will ever be enough.

1 Getting started as a translator

1.1 How to get started as a translator

For beginning and experienced translators alike, there is often no way around the need to cold-contact potential clients. Beginners need to find those crucial first few clients, and those of us who are established in the industry may want to look for better-paying work, work with direct clients or work in a new specialization. As in any profession, a warm or hot contact is always the most attractive; a personal referral from a colleague or current client has a much higher success rate than an e-mail, phone call or letter out of the blue. However, there’s no denying that cold contacting works when you want to launch or grow your translation business. Here are a few cold contacting techniques and some tips on how to apply them.

• Phone calls are of limited use as a first point of contact with a potential translation client. I think that a phone call is appropriate only in response to a job posting that lists a phone number, or if a potential client’s other contact information (e-mail, mailing address etc.) is not available and you’re simply making the call to get that information. If you make a phone call to a potential client, be like e-mail: introduce yourself, get to the point (“what would be the best way to send you my resumé?”), and then let the client go.
• Mass e-mail campaigns are another cold contacting technique that I would discourage. Although it’s tempting to write a “dear agency” e-mail, attach your resumé and blast it off to a few hundred translation companies, this technique may a) be perceived as spam and simply deleted and b) appeal to the type of clients you don’t really want to work for: low payers or clients who do not focus on quality.
• Personalized e-mail forms the backbone of most translators’ initial marketing campaigns. Most translation companies have application instructions right on their website (look for a link to “contact,” “freelancers” or “employment”), whereby you use either the agency’s online form or send your application materials to an e-mail address that the agency provides. If you are sending a cover letter by e-mail, keep it very brief. Something along the lines of “To the attention of X translation company: I am a freelance X to X translator, and I am interested in offering my services to your agency. My specializations include X, X and X, and I have X years of experience working with X types of clients. In addition, I (am certified by X translators association, have a PhD in biology, am a CPA, worked in international trade for 10 years, etc.). My resumé is attached for your consideration and I look forward to speaking with you about how we might work together in the future.”
• Postal mail is a technique that I think can work well with direct clients. When you’re applying to a translation company, you don’t have to convince the company that they need your services, but with a direct client you may. So, you may want to give the client more information than is appropriate to send in a cold e-mail; for example samples of your work, a brochure about your services, etc. Online printing services have also made it much easier to create professional-looking marketing postcards, and these are fast and inexpensive to create and send out to potential clients.

One element of cold contacting that translators often overlook is requesting a personal interview with local clients, or with clients who are in a city that you will be visiting. Especially if you are just starting your business but present yourself well in person, I think it can work very well to e-mail a potential client and ask if you can “stop in for a few minutes to learn more about their business and how you might fit in.” Take a small gift and treat the meeting as an informational interview, where you are not so much trying to sell yourself as trying to find out what the client’s needs are.

1.2 How to succeed as a freelance translator

I get a lot of e-mails from people who want to become translators. A typical contact is from someone who is bilingual and either doesn’t enjoy his/her current job or because of necessity (i.e. a spouse whose job is repeatedly transferred) wants to find a profitable work-from-home job. Based on my own experience, the experience of other translators I work with and the students I’ve taught in my course for beginning translators, here are a few basic tips on how to become a translator and maybe more importantly, how to figure out if you really want to become a translator:

• Realistically evaluate your language skills and experience. Translators must have near-native command of their source (“from”) language(s) and excellent writing skills in their target (“into”) language(s). Unless you truly consider yourself a native speaker of two languages, don’t try to translate in both “directions” and stick with translating from your non-native language into your native language.
• Realistically assess your ability to run a home-based business. The translation industry in the U.S. is heavily geared toward independent contractors, and the few in-house positions that exist are often intended for experienced translators only. Be honest with yourself about whether, in addition to being a good translator, you can be an effective marketer, customer service rep, accountant, office manager, etc.
• Plan for your startup phase. I’ve met translators who had a full-time freelance business up and running in just months, but these people mostly had strong contacts in the industry or worked in very in-demand specializations or language pairs. For the rest of us, a startup phase of six months to a year is more realistic. Plan ahead for how you’ll support yourself (financially and mentally!) during this phase of intense marketing.
• Be ready for a marketing marathon. As I tell every student in my online course, I contacted over 400 potential clients during my first year as a freelance translator, and it still took 18 months until I was replacing the income from my previous full-time job. Be ready to pound the electronic pavement until you develop a stable of regular clients.
• Check out the competition. The best and easiest way to find out what other translators in your language pair charge, who their clients are and what specializations they work in is to hit the web. Do a search for translators in your language pair and see what they’re up to (and what you can do better!).
• Enjoy it! By any measure, the translation industry is booming, and the demand for qualified translators far outstrips the supply in most language combinations. There are various compensation surveys for the translation industry, but personally I feel that with assertive marketing and highquality service, income of at least US$75,000 a year is realistic. Given the job’s flexibility, intellectual stimulation and growth potential, it’s an outstanding field for bilingual people.

1.3 Developing translation specializations

Here’s a great question that I received from reader Dorota Krysinska. She asks: “… could you explain in your blog how it happened that you started specializing in legal, corporate communications and public health/international development translations? Did you have any background in these fields? I have been wondering how someone like me, who has done her degree in linguistic studies can begin to specialize as a translator in areas that she hasn’t studied at all. Also, how do I go about sending out my resumé to translation agencies and not having any particular field of translation specified there?”

The issue of specializations seems to come up a lot in our industry, so I’ll offer my answer here. When I started translating, I was in pretty much the same boat as Dorota; I had a Master’s in French Literature and had used French in my job (teaching high school) for eight years so I was reasonably confident about my language skills. In addition, I’ve always loved to write and I had done sideline work writing for magazines and had even worked in the editorial department of a book review publication in the summer. However, I didn’t have an obvious area of specialization. I think that this can be a plus and a minus: in one sense, I really envied (and still sometimes do!) people who became translators after having worked in banking, law, pharmaceuticals, engineering, etc. because they are immediately able to jump in to a very specialized field. On the other hand, I think that someone who starts out as a generalist has a lot more opportunities to experiment with various specializations than someone who is fairly locked in to a certain field.

One of the best pieces of advice I’ve heard about specializations came from Jill Sommer (www.translationmusings.com), who said “Pick an area that you enjoy researching.” In that vein, I’ve always had a secret (or now not so secret!) desire to go to law school. For whatever reason, I just love reading legal documents and deciphering the jargon in them. “Party of the first part… “ “notwithstanding… “ “pursuant to… “ “aforementioned… “ I don’t know, I just enjoy it. Similarly, I enjoy reading the business news so corporate communications was a good fit for me, and I read a lot about health topics as well, hence my translation focus on public health. On the contrary, hard science has just never been my thing. I like science as an idea, I like listening to science stories on NPR, I enjoy translating “lighter” science documents about health and wellness, but give me a chemical patent and my eyes glaze over almost immediately.

So, I think the number one rule if you start out as a generalist is to pick documents that you enjoy reading and researching. Also, I think it can be helpful to identify some of your non-specializations as well. When I work with direct clients who have a wide range of documents, I sometimes tell them what I don’t do (patents, anything having to do with engineering or technical specifications, heavy financial documents) so that they know if I am a good fit for them.

When it comes to contacting translation companies, I think it’s best to be completely honest and differentiate between specializations in which you have experience and specializations in which you are interested. I don’t think there’s anything wrong with telling the client that although you’ve never translated in the area of X, you are very interested in X topic in your own language and you know a lot about the terminology (this once landed me a job translating the script for a promotional video about rock climbing ropes). Also, I don’t think there’s anything wrong with saying “I’m just starting my business so I’m open to working in a variety of specializations; some of my areas of interest are… ”

1.4 Marketing your services to translation agencies

Whether to work with direct clients, translation agencies or both is a personal and business decision. I work with both types of clients and I feel that this mix keeps my work volume and income up while giving me a wide range of projects to choose from. Paula Dieli’s blog (editorial note: this blog is no longer active) has an insightful interview with Peter Berends, the primary translator recruiter at LUZ, Inc. (a medical translation company). It’s well worth a read if you’re looking for agency clients. Here are some additional tips!

• Target your marketing. As Peter comments in the interview, there’s no bigger turnoff than a generic, carbon-copied email asking for work. The more personalized your e-mail is, the better. For example, something like “Your agency’s focus on the translation of annual reports caught my eye; during the 2010 annual report season I translated all or part of five companies’ annual reports and I would love to help you with similar types of projects” is much more attentiongrabbing than “Dear Sir or Madam, I would like to offer you my services.”
• Don’t lump all agencies together. Yes, in general agencies pay less than direct clients and also add a middle layer between the translator and the client (which can be a plus or a minus depending on the project and the client). However, top-quality agencies pay respectably and can save you some of the administrative overhead that comes with working for direct clients. Just as in every other business sector, there are agencies that operate on the Wal-Mart model and agencies that operate on the Mercedes-Benz model.
• Charge real money and earn it. I think that a lot of translators eschew the agency market because they think it’s all eight cents a word and 5,000 words for tomorrow. Insider tip: it’s not. I think that quality-conscious agencies know that quality-conscious translators save them money because their work needs less editing and they help keep the agency’s own clients coming back. Give some metrics of your quality: you proofread a hard copy of every translation (no missing text, no untranslated text); you compile a list of queries and send them all at once, allowing time to get the queries resolved before the deadline (no endless stream of e-mails to the already-busy project manager, no file submitted right at the deadline with queries still outstanding); you always meet or beat your deadlines (no panicked project manager having to make excuses to the end client).
• Focus on high-margin projects. For example if you actively seek out projects on which you can produce 500 finished words per hour and you charge 15 cents per word, you’re earning $75 per hour. I think that it’s also fine to let your agency clients know that you are most interested in medium to large projects, for example $500 or more. High-margin projects can also come in unexpected places, such as translating official documents. Each invoice might be small, but on most official document translations I make at least 50 cents per word.
• Use the objective data that is available to you. Don’t market to agencies as if you’re throwing spaghetti against a wall; pick some agencies that mesh with your business goals and market just to them. For example, search the Payment Practices (www.paymentpractices.net) database to find agencies that are rated highly by other translators.
• In general, target small and medium agencies. Not every big agency is a sweatshop, but I think that in general, large agencies are geared toward the high volume, low margin market. In addition, you’re more likely to find small and medium agencies that work primarily or exclusively in your specializations.

1.5 Avoiding beginner’s mistakes

Today is the first day of the winter session of the online course I teach for beginning translators. It’s an occasion that always prompts me to remember the first day I thought of myself as a translator, and what I did correctly and incorrectly during that stressful and exciting first year as a freelancer. I’ve been mulling over some of the best and worst decisions I made when I first started freelancing. Here I’m mainly including advice for people who are in their first year of freelancing, but some of these tips apply to experienced translators as well.

DO keep a record of all of your contacts. During the first year you’ll be doing a lot of marketing; at times during my first year, I was doing about 80% marketing and 20% translation. Trust me; a lot of this effort is wasted if you don’t have a good system for tracking who you’ve contacted, what the response was (if any) and how you followed up if there was a response. This could take the form of a computerized contact management system, a spreadsheet, or even a Rolodex-type file, but make sure you save this information.

DO NOT take on work that you know is wrong for you just because you need work. This is a mistake that I made several times during my beginner days. For example, at one point I let a client convince me to translate into French and then have my work proofed by a native speaker. This resulted in a lower hourly rate for me since I write very slowly in French, and also in a lowerquality end product than what the client would have received from a native French speaker. At the time I remember thinking “… well, if the client thinks it’s OK… “ whereas now this is one of my non-negotiables no matter what the client says; I translate into English only.

DO ask prospective clients in your local area for an informational interview. To give my beginner self some credit, this is one thing that I think I did well. I e-mailed a variety of prospective clients in the Boulder/Denver, Colorado area and asked if I could come in to learn some more about their business and how I might, at some point, fit in. I think that this took the pressure off the prospective client because I wasn’t aggressively pumping them for work, and I also correctly theorized that I presented myself better in person than on paper. Of the five or so prospective clients I visited, I ended up getting work from three of them soon after.

DO NOT contact agency owners directly. Of the beginner mistakes I made, this one was probably the worst; I used the local translator’s association directory to find local agencies, then I phoned up the owners. Now I realize that although association directories and client websites are a great resource, wasting someone’s time is a very poor first impression. Always use the general contact information provided on a prospective client’s website, and avoid cold phone calls in nearly every situation.

DO ask for very specific instructions on your first few projects. Unless you’ve misrepresented your experience, the majority of your clients will realize that you’re a beginner and won’t mind doing a little hand-holding. So ask them: what do they mean by “reproduce the formatting exactly"? Should you do something special with handwritten text? What if something is illegible? What if there are abbreviations that you don’t understand?

DO NOT set your rates suspiciously low. I think that especially in a down economy, many beginning freelancers are tempted to set their rates markedly below the going rate for their languages. I still cringe at some of the rates I accepted when I was first starting out. In one sense, I think that offering attractive terms can help get your business off the ground; in another sense, I think that lowball rates attract bottom-feeding clients who are looking for high-quality work for minimum wage. Personally, I think it’s a better idea to sweeten your offer in other ways; maybe offering night or weekend work without a rush charge, or being available on holidays when other translators aren’t working.

DO set reasonable expectations for the growth and success of your business. Of all the advice I give beginners, I would tag this as the most important. I’ve been contacted many times by beginning translators who say that they’re “so discouraged” because they’ve sent out 25 applications in the last month and they still have no work. In my own case, I contacted over 400 prospective clients during my first year in business and it still took about 18 months until I was replacing the income from my previous full-time job. I think that for most people, it takes at least a year to get your business to the point where you are working more than you are looking for work; once you break through this point, you will hopefully have a freelance business that becomes like a regular job, except that you have a great deal of control over your schedule and income.

1.6 The chicken or the egg?

I’ve noticed that for many beginning translators, getting those first few clients is a chicken and egg issue; most agencies, which form the bulk of most beginners’ client bases, aren’t eager to work with translators who are very inexperienced. But if clients won’t work with you, how do you ever get enough experience to make your business viable?