How to set your translation rates (4 tips for novice and veteran translators alike!)

Posted on 10. Jul, 2010 by Ashleigh in Blog

1. Charge what you’re worth. This means not allowing yourself to be negotiated down to work for less than your regular translation rates. This means not agreeing to work for less than your regular rates in exchange “for the promise” of a higher rate in the future. This never happens. More often, the client company asking you to reduce your rates understands that you will reduce your rates forever and always if they even hint at the possibility of larger, more lucrative projects in the future, and you will never again be able to successfully charge the client your standard translation rates.

2. If you have a unique translation specialty, charge more. This is especially relevant if you are able to translate documents from a unique specialized field like practical philosophy or the mating habits of Red Hills salamanders. Charge even more if your unique specialty is highly sought after.

3. If you translate highly technical documents, charge more. Your specialized expertise and knowledge of technical terminology, phrasing and formats have taken you YEARS to refine and perfect. Why give this value-added experience away for free?

4. If you offer additional design sensibilities or capabilities for laying out documents or performing desktop publishing work on documents that combine text with graphics (e.g. technical manuals, product specifications, and similar types of documents), charge more. You’re putting in additional time to design the layout of a translation, so you should be charging additional fees for that extra work.

Have another tip for charging proper rates as a translator? Share it with us in the comments!


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