How do you know how much to charge as a freelance translator?
When you're first starting out as a freelancer, it can be tough to figure out what rates to charge. This is especially true because once you settle on rates with a client, it's generally very hard to move them upward. The conventional wisdom is that if you want higher rates, you need to find different clients.
So it's pretty obvious that you don't want to set your rates too low at first. On the other hand, getting translation work generally means taking that work away from some other translator, and when you're inexperienced, price is one of the ways you can convince clients to give work to you instead of Tracy Translator.
One piece of advice I've heard is to charge 10-25% lower than the "going" rate until you've got as much work as you can handle, then progressively replace your cheapest clients with higher-paying ones. I'm not sure if I fully buy into this (what if you find a really great client at first; do you want to have to dump them in a year or two?), but it can serve as a rule of thumb.
How much other translators charge
The best way to figure out how much to charge is to find out how much other translators are charging. But such information can be hard to come by. Firstly, translators tend to be a bit coy about such matters, and avoid giving out rate information on the Internet. One reason is competitive advantage, but a big reason is probably that they charge different clients different rates, and they don't want that information made public.
Another reason why it's hard to find out what other translators charge is translation consumer interests. Perhaps unsurprisingly, in the United States the American Translators Association has run afoul of the IRS on this matter for antitrust violation, and ATA members are therefore not allowed to discuss rates amongst themselves.
One way to get at such information is to go to translator conferences (like IJET), and ask people face to face — perhaps prefacing any questions with "Are you, or have you ever been a member of the Communist Party ATA?" My first IJET was an invaluable source of information on how much to charge, and I've tried to share this information with new translators at subsequent IJETs.
Given the ATA's survey result that freelance translators make around $65,000/year on average, a back-of-the-envelope calculation says that freelance translators probably charge around US $0.11/word on average*.
* $65,000 / 12 months / 20 days per month / 6 hours per day = $45/hour; assuming 400 words/hour of output, that's $0.11/word
I'll go out on a limb here and say that for Japanese-to-English translation by native English speakers, rates are generally around US $0.10 to $0.30 per English word.
How much translation agencies charge
Another less direct way of finding out the going rates for translators is to find out what translation agencies charge. Many agencies don't list their rates, and you've got to keep in mind that even if rates are listed, the agencies will almost always negotiate specific rates for each job. But it's a good starting point.
This will give you an idea of what end-clients are paying for translation, as well as what agencies are paying. In my experience, about 50-75% of what agencies charge goes to the translator. So if the agency is charging $0.20/word, the translators are probably getting around $0.10-0.15/word.
Conclusion
Figuring out how much to charge is one of the toughest problems that new freelance translators face. Arming yourself with information on rates is a good way to figure out how much to charge so that you're a) busy enough and b) can feed yourself. Charging a rate that both you and your clients are satisfied with is essential for building a lasting business relationship.
Hi, I would like to add that
- Many many translators work not 6 hours a day, but a lot more. I wouldn’t say there is an average, but from what I know about translators all around the world, the community’s working hours are way beyond 6 hours. In fact, I think working long hours can be the a way to keep a good level of income for translators working exclusively with (greedy) agencies – if translators had more end-clients they would definitely learn to work less (and of course get more pay).
- Regarding the relation between what agencies charge from end-clients and what they pay their freelance translators, I’m inclined to think, from my own experience, that they don’t pay 50-75% to translators, but very often less than that. Here I’m talking especially about European agencies (Germany, France, Austria, Holland), who tend, by the way, to charge the end-client a per-line-rate and pay the translator a per-word-rate, which allows them to get much more value out their business (I mean, to get R-I-C-H in no time).
Anyway, in your comments I think you should always mention what country and what market you are talking about. Of course, we know you talk mostly about Japan and Japanese-English translation, but, as you know, there’s a great deal of diversity in the translation business which should be taken into consideration in any analysis.
That said, I just want to say that I like your blog (I’m a RSS reader)! I have my own translation blog (in Portuguese, English and German):
http://fidusinterpres.com
Hi Fabio: Thanks for the comment. You’ve got a cool-looking blog (especially now that I know who the guy in the header image is
). I’ve added the in English category to my RSS feeds.
Regarding working hours: I know that lots of translators work longer hours than that, but I was trying to count only “head-down,” productive working time, just to get an idea of how much translators were charging per word. I don’t think that 6 hours is overly pessimistic for that.. Maybe I should have just said “2,400 words per day” and left it at that.
You’re also right that my experience is mostly limited to Japanese-to-English translation, although the ATA’s figures are for freelance translators in general.
Actually, a lot of translators work fewer than 6 hours a day, too: for instance, I work generally no more than 4 hours a day, but I’m still making a full-time salary. It just kind of depends on your individual speed, the kind of material you get, your rates, etc., so you can’t really generalize too much. 2,400 words a day sounds about right for most people, however.
I personally don’t think professional translators should ever charge less than $0.10 per word–no matter the language combination. In some combinations, like Spanish/English, that is a cent or two higher than a lot of people charge, but I still feel strongly that $0.10 is the minimum rate at when the profession of translation makes economic sense.