| Pages in topic: < [1 2] | Agency wanting to negotiate - are these rates too low? Thread poster: Emily Scott
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| yes, I had read it's for 1000 words | Sep 16, 2018 |
scotters wrote:
David GAY wrote:
You wrote £58-80.
What does it mean?
Hi David, this means per thousand words 
Thank you for your advice everyone. So far, I've gone back to the agency and asked if those rates for specialist texts or more general texts. I'll see what they say... [Edited at 2018-09-16 16:28 GMT]
Sorry, I still don't get it.
Is it 58 or 80 or perhaps 58.80 per thousand words?
58 for FR>EN 80 for IT>EN?
perhaps 58 for general translation; 80 for specialized translations?
[Modifié le 2018-09-16 19:15 GMT]
| | | | Emily Scott 
United Kingdom
Local time: 05:46
Member (2018)
French to English
+ ...
TOPIC STARTER
David GAY wrote:
scotters wrote:
David GAY wrote:
You wrote £58-80.
What does it mean?
Hi David, this means per thousand words
Thank you for your advice everyone. So far, I've gone back to the agency and asked if those rates for specialist texts or more general texts. I'll see what they say... [Edited at 2018-09-16 16:28 GMT]
Sorry, I still don't get it.
Is it 58 or 80 or perhaps 58.80 per thousand words?
58 for FR>EN 80 for IT>EN?
perhaps 58 for general translation; 80 for specialized translations?
[Modifié le 2018-09-16 19:15 GMT]
What I understand from their email, their rates are from £58 to £80 for my language combinations. Whether this is for general or specialist texts, I do not know hence I have asked them, awaiting their reply.
| | | | | good starting point | Sep 16, 2018 |
Yes, I think it's better to clarify.
0.08 GBP is not too bad. It's more than the rate that my first clients
had offered me in GER>FR, which used to be 0.08 eur/w.
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First thing I would do is try to gather as much info on the agency as possible (including reliability and possibly some general info about their rates).
The minimum fee is a good thing, as the fact it was them who mentioned it. In my experience many agencies don't just offer low rates, but also refuse minimum fees.
That said, IMHO £0.08 is low, especially for highly specialized copy. As Dan was saying, unfortunately there's an endless host of lowballers out there, but ... See more First thing I would do is try to gather as much info on the agency as possible (including reliability and possibly some general info about their rates).
The minimum fee is a good thing, as the fact it was them who mentioned it. In my experience many agencies don't just offer low rates, but also refuse minimum fees.
That said, IMHO £0.08 is low, especially for highly specialized copy. As Dan was saying, unfortunately there's an endless host of lowballers out there, but there also are clients willing to pay decent rates. The trick is finding them (or better yet, having them find you), which can be easier said than done.
As for calculations, you often read posts here where people venture to conjecture that, at 0.XX per word, translating YYYY per day you're going to make ZZ,ZZZ per year... Well, the small problem with that is they somehow seem to disregard the fact that a freelancer is not an employee and doesn't have a steady and regular workflow on their plate to ensure YYYY per day, every day, and that alone invalidates the whole reasoning. Linked to the above, what a freelancer lacks compared to an employee in terms of uncertainty, social security, benefits, etc. should also be compensated as a premium as part of the entrepreneurial risk they're taking.
Lastly, in your calculations you should also take into account the taxes you'll have to pay and the expenses you'll incur to run your business.
Unfortunately this is generally not an easy market, where supply often exceeds demand and buyers have much more bargaining power than sellers (us). But that seems to vary quite a bit from pair to pair and field to field, so some specific feedback from people working in your pairs and (main) specialist field would be quite useful here (although they would be your direct competitors.... ▲ Collapse
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| We charge a minimum of £25 for any job, unless for a favoured client when it's a freebie | Sep 17, 2018 |
Sheila Wilson wrote:
Daniel Frisano wrote:
I've never had a minimum rate. It seems irrelevant to me. If I translate 8 words, I charge 8 words. Sooner or later some nice 50k appears.
What would worry me in your case is the fact that you'd probably be spending far more time doing the file handling, emailing, bookkeeping, etc. than you'd spend on the translation itself. Those are all one-off overheads per job, so they become inconsequential if you're sitting translating for hours. For two minutes of translation, they're far from inconsequential.
| | | | Emily Scott
United Kingdom
Local time: 05:46
Member (2018)
French to English
+ ...
TOPIC STARTER | Reply from the agency | Sep 20, 2018 |
Thank you everyone for your feedback! I got a reply from the agency stating that the rate of £58-80 per 1,000 words would be for specialist texts. I'm going to stick to my rates and see what they say. They said my experience is desirable so maybe that'll give me a bit of power to demand a bit higher than they have originally suggested.
As for the hourly rate, I'm thinking I'll just go for the average (found on the rates section on ProZ). Hopefully I'll be able to charge per word mo... See more Thank you everyone for your feedback! I got a reply from the agency stating that the rate of £58-80 per 1,000 words would be for specialist texts. I'm going to stick to my rates and see what they say. They said my experience is desirable so maybe that'll give me a bit of power to demand a bit higher than they have originally suggested.
As for the hourly rate, I'm thinking I'll just go for the average (found on the rates section on ProZ). Hopefully I'll be able to charge per word most of the time.
For the minimum rate, I've been looking into this and thinking of something like £30. As I say, all this negotiating and translating for money (I have 4 years voluntary experience but no actual paid experience!) is new to me so I guess if I'm wrong I will learn from my mistakes ▲ Collapse
| | | | Yury Grinev (X)
United States
Local time: 23:46
English to Russian
| Minimum fee in my experience | Sep 21, 2018 |
Another thing they have asked for is for a minimum fee for texts that are less than 500 words - not sure on this either?
In my experience, a lot of people consider 250 words (one page) a minimum scope . Anything below 250 words is still paid for as 250 words. Anything above 250 words is paid based on the actual number of words. That is what I use too.
| | | | | Unlikely to get better end of the deal | Oct 3, 2018 |
Kay-Viktor Stegemann wrote:
Lincoln Hui wrote:
jyuan_us wrote:
At £80 per 1,000 words, if you can translate 4000 words a day, you will get £320. Is that income that low in your country?
[Edited at 2018-09-16 14:36 GMT]
It's not a great way to do the math, but £320/day and 20 working days/month comes out to a monthly income of £6400 and an annual income of £76800, which blows the average UK professor and accountant out of the water and edges out many lawyers with less than 10 years of experience, so I'm not sure what point you're trying to make here.
I think yuan_us asked a rhetoric question here.
But apart from that, a daily output of 4000 words in a pharmazeutics specialty field might not be realistic. And the £80 were obviously the upper limit of the agency with lots of room downwards. And then there might be deductions for fuzzies and whatnot. Doing the math is always a good idea, but you need the correct inital values for that.
Furthermore, I wouldn't expect an agency to offer someone who is relatively new the upper end of their limit.
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El Topo
Germany
English to German
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| 4000 words a day 😲 | Feb 16, 2019 |
Has anybody here translated and QA'd 4000 words a day? With a specialized technical subject matter?
When I'm in the zone and the flow is good I can manage maybe 2000 in an 8h working day.
To the OP: I would recommend charging a nice round 100 Genuine British Pesetas for 1000 weighted words. Unless you can't find any better paid work, in which case i'd take the 80 and stay on the lookout for better opportunities. And re-negotiate the rate if you notice the client is cont... See more Has anybody here translated and QA'd 4000 words a day? With a specialized technical subject matter?
When I'm in the zone and the flow is good I can manage maybe 2000 in an 8h working day.
To the OP: I would recommend charging a nice round 100 Genuine British Pesetas for 1000 weighted words. Unless you can't find any better paid work, in which case i'd take the 80 and stay on the lookout for better opportunities. And re-negotiate the rate if you notice the client is content. It's hard to notice though. A happy client very often is a silent client.
[Edited at 2019-02-16 23:19 GMT] ▲ Collapse
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