Job Discussion Forums

[Moore]

quote "you're counting based the original rather than the completed document, right?"

When you agree to a translation job, the client (often an agency) should send you a purchase order, with the job reference number, the word count, taxes and the deadline all specified. The word count for the final translation is usually slightly higher but not that much.

In terms of a fair quote, it really depends on the text: when I first started I was caught out once with a job that was so ridiculously specialised that it took me a week of scouring the internet for obscure vocabulary to finish a job where the actual word count was pretty low. Now what I do is to ask the client to send me the whole text if possible, or at least a significant sample so I can take the time to look through it carefully before giving a quote.

How much you charge depends on what languages you translate, what people generally charge in the country you're in, and how complex the text is. I live in Spain and translate French to English and Spanish to English: generally I can charge a bit more for the French, but translators rates here are very low, I assume because there are so many people doing it. You can make a lot more money if you work directly for the company who want the translation, but obviously it takes time to build up a list of clients.

[Stephen Jones]

It's normal to charge for the number of words in the original, as otherwise you'd be paying yourself extra to produce verbiage.

[shuize]