Rates and guidelines for writing and translation

Translators are often obsessed with size, in this case the size of the fee that can be charged for work. It's understandable: we all have to eat and most of us have to pay for at least part of the food and perhaps the roof over our heads. And insurance, software, equipment, electricity, water and more things than I care to remember. For reasons I fail to grasp completely, many translators have a hard time figuring out what to charge for their work and look for comparative data, then argue about whether it is even relevant. When I talk about rates in Germany as reflected in the BDÜ Honorarspiegel, some scoff that these are obvious lies, because nobody can get that much in today's global economy, while others (perhaps financial translators) snicker at the thought of qualified colleagues prostituting themselves for pennies (albeit a lot more pennies than you'll see offered in a typical ProZ job post).

This afternoon I followed a link from a discussion thread to an interesting page from the Society of Authors in the UK, which offers some guidance on pricing for translations of various kinds. From there I ended up somehow on another page with suggestions for minimum freelance translation rates for various language categories. So the next time, dear Reader, when you are tempted to take that fantastic opportunity from a UK agency for twenty quid per thousand words, have a look at these pages (which do not show particularly high rates) and think again. Oh yes... hourly charges are discussed as well, albeit rather low ones. For those who don't think in GBP, have a look at xe.com and convert the numbers to your preferred currency.

Language Service Provider Network

A week ago at the ProZ powwow in Berlin I had a chat with financial translation specialist and outsourcer Ralf Lemster, a colleague known for his integrity and no-nonsense business acumen. He knew that I have been searching for some time for a good solution to our internal administration problems, which aside from my preference for translation work and copywriting over writing invoices arises to a large extent from the fact that I have yet to discover a networkable solution for project management and billing that is affordable and would work well for a partnership of two freelancers with an assistant to sort paperwork and wash windows so we can see that there is indeed a world outside our office apartment. For years the software we used has resided on my hard drive and is not accessible to my partner. (We tried putting it on a third machine, but this had severe drawbacks too.) This has led to "disconnects" in communication and tracking of jobs, and the processes we have used involve unnecessary steps that become quite burdensome with the rapid pace at which this office frequently runs. Even my sanity-saving folder organization system breaks down sometimes, because inquiries come in too quickly to keep things sorted before the next query comes.

Ralf mentioned that a partner company of his in Berlin is about to release an excellent solution for online management of a freelance translation business or small LSP. He has invested a lot of time in his own management systems, and when he mentioned the intention to switch to this provider my attention was fully focused by this surprising comment. Some people will chase after any chimera or change systems like Twiggy once changed clothes. (Sorry, I don't follow fashion, so I have no idea who the top models are these days.) I don't think he's one of these people. So I gave the company a call and had a long, friendly chat with the CEO, who described a system which sounds like my dream for the past few years. It's scheduled for release in January, but there is a pilot phase planned to start in October, and it may be possible for interested parties to participate and "kick the tires" for free. After that the monthly fees will be something like € 29 per login, much less than for other online solutions like Worx or BeeFlow. So I signed up for the pilot at LSP.net, and as of October (or whenever things get off the ground) I'll try to run our business using it and report here on the triumphs and tribulations. I would encourage others with similar needs to have a look at the web site, learn about the available features of the system and give it a try if it sounds interesting.

Curiouser and curiouser

The ProZ censors are at it again, and to be quite honest, I can't see what for. Today I received the following message for a post made some time ago, which was purged today:

Dear Kevin Lossner,

This message is to inform you that your post "Really?" has been removed from public view because it was not in line with site rule http://www.proz.com/siterules/general/2#2

Site users are expected to treat each other with courtesy, whether posting publicly or making direct contact.

Thank you in advance for your understanding and future cooperation.

Regards,
Jared ProZ.com moderator.


Since there was no link given I had no idea what the allegedly objectionable content was, so I filed a support request to ask. Jared kindly responded and copied the text out along with the following message:

Text of removed post

Dear Kevin,

I'll copy the text of the post below. Note that, in the case of removed posts, no links are sent since the posts are no longer visible.

Really?

Samuel Murray wrote:
Exactly. That is why the system isn't a quoting system -- it's a bidding system. But someone at ProZ.com thought that "bid" had a bad ring to it, so they called it a quoting system.

Is this firm knowledge or speculation? Doesn't sound bad to me either way. In an RFP, which in a sense is what many of the job posts could be considered, the terms "proposal", "bid" and "quote/"quotation" are really equivalent, and I think my friends on the big island off the coast of France are fond of "tender" as well. (That might come from all the tenderizing that is said to have gone on in the public schools in days presumably past.)

As you know, some people claim that these job posts are like slavery and ought to be banned from ProZ. I vehemently disagree. I think we should encourage slavery in the profession and therefore I herewith propose to Henry and the staff of ProZ that programming resources be dedicated to creating slave auctions. We won't need dental X-rays and beefcake photos of those up for sale - a summary of their qualifications and a commitment for a unit of capacity within a specific timeframe is all that would be needed. (Sorry, this is only part-time slavery... those who want it full time will have to look for a day job.) Outsourcers could then bid - quite publicly - for the advertised capacity for a specific translator. Those on the block could even specify the starting bid level to make it "fair" :-) Whatchy'all think?

Regards,

Jared
Member services and support

The "rule" allegedly violated reads as follows:

Mutual respect, professionalism and fair play are expected. Site users are expected to treat each other with courtesy, whether posting publicly or making direct contact, and are advised to act under the assumption of good faith. Harassment of, or attacks on, individuals or groups, of any form, as well as discouragement of another's use of the site, will not be tolerated. No action aimed at gaining unfair advantage in KudoZ, the directory or elsewhere, whether taken alone or as a group, will be tolerated.

Perhaps I'm merely getting old and senile, but I fail to see the connection here. But as Barney Frank would say, trying to have a conversation with some people is like trying to talk to a dining room table. Jared is a nice fellow, but I think he's off in the Twilight Zone here with his RuleZ.

I was actually serious with the slave auction proposal in any case. I think it would be fun, and it would be revealing in a lot of ways. I remember years ago too that this used to be a popular fund-raising method for churches and youth clubs in the California town where I grew up. The other good thing about this proposal is that the bidding structure would move prices up and reveal to some of the bottom feeders what others are willing to pay. Instead we have the usual system where hungry translators in some language pairs compete to see who can work for the fewest calories per day. Better to be open about that slavery thing, because real slave labor has more value than what many ProZ outsourcers are willing to pay.