Probably my personal

experience wouldn’t make

a book. Therefore, I would

like to thank all my colleagues

who shared their knowledge

and understanding of Internet

freelancing with me. Next, I’m

very grateful to all translators

who attended my powwows

and training sessions: their

interest confirmed my initial

belief of the need for and

usefulness of the book. And

finally, a lot of thanks to

my wife who, surprisingly,

approved of my idea to

write the book from the very

beginning and helped a lot

along the way with brilliant

suggestions and constructive

criticism.
 5
Contents

Preface . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
Chapter 1. Introduction to General Concepts,
Structures and Terminology . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
1.1. What This Book is About and What It isn’t . . . . . . . . . . .13
1.2. Glossary of Terms . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .14
1.3. What is Freelancing Like for Translators? . . . . . . . . . . . . .19
1.4. Stages in a Successful Career of a Freelance
Translator . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .23
1.5. Psychological Factors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .31
1.6. Technical Prerequisites. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .32
Chapter 2. Launching Your Freelancing Career . . . . . . . . . . . . .37
2.1. Where am I? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .39
2.2. How Do I Go About It? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .43
Chapter 3. Stage I: Beginner . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .51
3.1. Experience . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .54
3.2. The Curriculum Vitae . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .56
3.3. Specialization . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .61
3.4. Where to Look for Your First Client . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .65
3.5. Initial Contact . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .69
3.6. Rates . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .70
3.7. Tests . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .82
Internet Freelancing: Practical Guide for Translators 3.8. NDA and Contractor Agreement . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 86
3.9. Invoicing and Payment Terms . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .89
3.10. The Job: Good Working Habits . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 96
3.11. How are You Getting On? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 104
3.12. Risks at The Beginner Stage . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 108
3.13. Useful Tips . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 112
3.14. How I Started . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 117
3.15. Summary. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 123
Chapter 4. Stage II: Established Translator . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 125
4.1. Aims and Targets . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .128
4.2. Room for Progress . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .130
4.3. Raising Your Rates . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .137
4.4. Risks at The Established Stage . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .153
Chapter 5. Stage III: Subcontracting . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .157
5.1. Aims and Targets . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 160
5.2. Description of Composition and Structure . . . . . . . . . 163
5.3. Risks and Their Minimization . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .170
5.4. Room for Progress . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .173
Chapter 6. Stage IV: Agency . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .179
Chapter 7. Miscellaneous . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 189
7.1. Internet Resources . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .191
7.2. CAT Tools and Trados Quick Start Guide . . . . . . . . . . . 202
7.3. Case Studies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .215
7.4. Non-payment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 225
Conclusion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 231
Appendices . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 233
6
Chapter 4. Stage II: Established
Translator
Internet Freelancing: Practical Guide for Translators

Chapter 4

4.1. Aims and Targets

4.2. Room for Progress

4.3. Raising Your Rates

4.4. Risks at The Established Stage

126
 127
How do we know that we are already at the established stage?
With me, it was when my wife stopped reminding me how
expensive the Internet was. One day you suddenly realize that
you think of freelancing as an ordinary job — trying to cal-
culate your revenues, knowing that you are to be online at
the time when your clients are most likely to contact you. You
are confident that your bank won’t deny you a loan because
your earnings are too low. That’s when the established stage
starts.
It’s less tidal than the beginner stage but stability will be lack-

Chapter 4. Stage II: Established Translator

ing as it always will be in freelancing. By now, you will probably
have learned to:
• schedule your work more effectively and precisely;
• measure your capabilities and see if they are sufficient to
do the job;
• say “no” to clients;
• stand your ground when discussing various issues with cli-
ents, from deadlines to quality claims.
Some of the aims and targets that were mentioned with re-
spect to the beginner stage will still be valid, some will lose
importance and some will undergo qualitative changes. For
example, the earning motive will always be present. Your
Internet Freelancing: Practical Guide for Translators specialization areas will probably have already been identified,
so most likely, this task won’t be valid any more. The interest
in new clients will persist, but you will be interested mainly in
good clients, or better paying clients, or less troublesome ones.
In short, you will be much more selective in your relations with
clients, and cautious in accepting jobs.

4.1. Aims and Targets

In my view, the primary difference between the beginner and

the established stage is that you can’t stop during the former
while the latter can be the final stage of a freelance transla-
tor’s career if you so decide. Well, you can stop earlier — “The
stress of it is not for me!”, or “I’d rather get less but regularly”,
but that’s dropping, not stopping, a career terminated without
actually starting.
As opposed to an early termination, you can really stop at the
established stage. The important thing to understand is that
further development may be:
a) intensive, when you
♦ increase your rate;
♦ select your clients;
♦ select jobs that you really want to do;
♦ streamline the process to optimize it and match your
other activities;
♦ deepen your specialization, etc.
b) extensive, when you
128

♦ accept invitations of co-operation from other clients;

 ♦ don’t stop co-operation with old clients;

129
♦ expand your range of specializations;
♦ offer additional services, like DTP, or additional language
pairs;
♦ accept jobs to be done by a team.
Choosing the first way, you are likely to stop at the established
stage. You will have some room to increase your earnings by
making your rates higher (or finding more generous clients that
will replace those with lower rates), but on the whole, a major
part of your activities will focus on supporting your business.
Opting for the second way, you inevitably head towards the
subcontracting stage. This way can be more profitable. At the
same time, the scope of your responsibilities will increase a lot
and change dramatically from translation and everything re-
lated to it, to translation plus management. And the risks will
be much higher.
As a result, your aim may be to:

Chapter 4. Stage II: Established Translator

• achieve a higher level of stability (if you decide to stay in
translation proper and don’t want to become a manager);
or
• move on to the subcontracting stage.
The targets for the first type may include:
• client replacement (for whatever reason, be it connected
with rates, problematic PM’s, belated or disorderly payment
practices, complicated invoicing procedures, type of jobs,
etc.);
• increasing your rates;
• streamlining the process — which will require regular hard-
ware and software upgrades and involve some training.
Internet Freelancing: Practical Guide for Translators As the subcontracting stage will be discussed in the next
chapter, the current one will be devoted fully to the estab-
lished stage in its “pure” form.
In short, during the established stage translators have to (a)
preserve the level already achieved, and (b) progress further.
Maintaining the achieved level is easy. All you have to do is
deliver high quality job and respect deadlines.

4.2. Room for Progress

Some time ago, when all clients suddenly disappeared for a few
days giving me time to catch my breath, (which I was quite hap-
py about), I decided to see how long my working day was and
what it consisted of. Analysis and calculations revealed the follow-
ing picture. An ordinary working day, that is, the time between
switching the PC on and off, was rarely less than 10 hours, some-
times reaching 16 hours, and 12 on average. This time included
short breaks for meals or walking the dog, etc., although I didn’t
leave my computer unattended for more than half an hour.
This period of 12 hours consisted of the following activities:
• Receiving mail — about one hour. I was working via a mo-
dem connection then, and the time it took me to get con-
nected to the Internet and receive incoming e-mails was
indecently long. The average number of messages received
daily varied from 100 to 1,000, and these were notifications
from translation portals and specialized translators’ forums.
KudoZ accounted for a large percentage of e-mails (there’s
a section about it on ProZ.com if you don’t know what Ku-
doZ is). Receiving incoming mail with files for translation
took from 20 minutes (for quickly transferred MS Word
docs) up to several hours. If a client directed me to an ftp
130

site it automatically meant the file was too large to e-mail,

 and I would have to sleep less (to avoid interrupted down-

131
loads). Every Mb deprived me of 5–6 minutes of sleep, and
to download the largest file of about 80 Mb, I had to stay
up until the next morning.
• Reading messages — half an hour. Spam was killed merci-
lessly, forum posts were scanned, with irrelevant informa-
tion immediately deleted and those of interest or impor-
tance, read in full.
• Communication with clients — up to half an hour. As a rule,
business communication is limited to discussion of busi-
ness issues, so e-mails related to jobs are generally pretty
short and targeted (unless it’s something specific requiring
detailed explanation). With jobs as simple MS Word docu-
ments, the entire correspondence would often be limited to
“Here’s a file for translation to be delivered on this date” —
“Confirmed” — “File attached please confirm receipt” —
“Received thank you”. Sometimes clarification of all details
of a small assignment would take up as much time as the
translation itself, but those were exceptions.

Chapter 4. Stage II: Established Translator

• Review/analysis of files for translation — not more than half
an hour. I have a nasty habit of starting a translation with-
out having read a file. Of course, quite a lot of them are
from regular clients, within the same specialization areas, of-
ten for long-standing customers… I know that’s the wrong
way but I can’t change myself.
• Internet activities — about 2 hours. I spent some time an-
swering KudoZ questions, checking proper translations of
terms via google, bidding on jobs posted, reading forum
posts if a thread was of interest. Idle surfing was out of
question as the Internet was very expensive.
• Translation proper — not more than 6–7 hours. Such were
the mean values. Of course, when the number of messages
Internet Freelancing: Practical Guide for Translators was small, and important e-mails were few, jobs arrived in
easily downloadable formats, the texts didn’t require verifi-
cation of terminology via relevant web sites, I… still spent
the same six or seven hours on translation. Only my work-
ing day ended a bit earlier.
Then, there were items to add to daily expenditures, like main-
taining accounting records, invoice preparation, etc. The con-
clusion was obvious: the efficiency of my working day didn’t
exceed 60 %! Well I told myself that the remaining 40 % wasn’t
exactly wasted. It’s freelancing after all, where one has to do
everything, and a proportion of time has to be allocated for
general business issues, not just translation. One factor that
spoiled the statistics was lousy Internet connection, and
I couldn’t help it. I live on the outskirts of a large city, and
civilization in the form of fast Internet reached it only recently.
Anyway, I didn’t like the revelations. Was there any way of im-
proving? To cut down on lost time, I unsubscribed from fo-
rum messages and notifications about KudoZ questions (fewer
temptations to log on to the site and give an answer, fewer
connections, less time wasted). The statistics got somewhat
better. However, I still suspected I could work more efficiently.
I decided to scrutinize the translation process itself. It turned
out the process involved reading a part of the text, its mental
translation (with simple texts and well-structured sentences,
translation comes automatically without any explicit effort,
in no time at all), and typing the translated text. Additionally,
looking up strange words in dictionaries, both installed in the
computer and paper ones, took some time, especially the lat-
ter, as the interface with paper dictionaries is usually not user-
friendly.
In my view, typing was one of the weak spots. First, I typed,
though fast, with six fingers never using little fingers or thumbs.
132

Second, I looked at the keyboard while typing. I made up my

mind to master the ten-finger blind typing method. It took me

133
about two months. I didn’t use any training programs which
could probably facilitate the process and make it more effi-
cient, but controlled the finger movement instead making sure
the keys were pressed with proper fingers, not just any “free”
one. I ended up with the typing speed increased by 30–40 %.
There was another benefit, too: I stopped keeping my eyes
on the keyboard looking for the necessary letters. As a result,
I could follow the translated text, noticing any typos and cor-
recting them on the spot. The resulting translation contained
fewer errors, thus reducing the editing time. Additionally, I got
the impression that the mental process of translation became
more consistent and smooth; fingers typing the translated
phrase, eyes reading the next one, brain processing it.
Of course, typing speed can be a great asset with simpler texts
that require little brain effort, with no specific terminology or
complicated style. With such texts, time for translation is about
the same as time needed for typing the text at somebody’s
dictation. I can’t really say the percentage of texts of this type
is high, but they do occur. Presently, my typing rate is about

Chapter 4. Stage II: Established Translator

350 keystrokes, or 50 words a minute. Even with the time for
reading the source, its comprehension and mental translation,
it easily allows to translate up to — well, arithmetic won’t really
do here, so 20,000 keystrokes or 3,000 words are unrealistic —
up to three pages of a very simple text in an hour.
My next step was to replace the dictionaries installed on my
PC. Obviously, dictionaries are to be selected individually, tak-
ing into account the languages you work with, specialization
areas you work in, and interface friendliness. Currently, I have
a single dictionary installed with a set of languages that meet
my requirements, a good choice of specialized dictionaries and
suitable interface. Sometimes I go to the web version of this
dictionary in the hope of finding a wider range of translations
as the web version has more entries.
Internet Freelancing: Practical Guide for Translators Analyzing the time spent on translations from different fields
I discovered that the progress of translation when working on
a text from a well-known domain is almost twice as fast com-
pared to that of a translation of a text from an area I’m more
or less familiar with, and three times higher than in the case
of a translation from a strange field. That is to say, the same
amounts can be earned in an hour (specialization areas), two
hours (familiar fields) or three hours (new domains). With equal
rates, the amount earned in a unit of time is much larger if
I work with fields where I specialize. Viewed from a somewhat
different perspective, even a slightly lower (say, by 10–20 %)
rate on a job within a well-known area allows to earn more,
owing to a quicker turnaround, than higher rates for translation
in areas you don’t feel comfortable with. Aha! So the rate is
an important, but not the most important consideration even
for earning! It’s more profitable to reject a project at a higher
rate and accept one with a smaller budget but from an area
I’ll have no problems with (simultaneously reducing the risk of
delivering a translation of inferior quality).
The next conclusion was reached after a discussion about
the deadline with one of my regular clients. There was a time
when I translated 15 pages a day irrespective of the area, or
format. The day might well last beyond midnight, but I didn’t
care about that. So I hardly ever said no to a client. But in the
situation I’m talking about, I was fully booked up and couldn’t
even accept a half-pager. However, the client contacted me late
afternoon with the 4,000 words which was needed translated,
proofread and delivered the next day, EOB. They mentioned
that their customer was a very important one and needed the
translation urgently, preferably next morning, but the word-
count was not that small, and they had agreed to wait until
the end of the next working day. I replied saying that I would
finish my current project in two days, and that was the earliest
134

I could start working. In fact, I was torn between the desire to

accept it (the rate was very tempting!) and understanding that

135
with a workload this intensive, there was a chance of missing
the deadline. So you can imagine how surprised I was half an
hour later when the client e-mailed me with a confirmation of
a new deadline: the delivery was scheduled for the fourth day!
My suspicions got their confirmation later, after several discus-
sions of deadlines in similar situations. As it turns out, urgent
translations often stop being urgent after you mention a sur-
charge for rush jobs. One should understand that sometimes
clients want the translation ASAP, and sometimes they really
need it. In the latter case, when it’s 20 pages to be delivered
tomorrow or translated over the weekend, clients usually agree
to rush/weekend rates without arguing. But on most occasions,
clients opt to shift deadlines as soon as the rush rates are men-
tioned, which helps me to manage the workload better and
distribute jobs over time in a smoother manner.
The next problem I had to face was normal physical fatigue
and pains — in rigid fingers, aching wrists, pains in the back
and neck, headache close to the end of the day. The imme-

Chapter 4. Stage II: Established Translator

diate consequence was worse efficiency and turnaround. But,
when these phenomena turned from occasional into regular,
I got really worried about my health. After consultations with
specialists, including doctors, and Internet searching I under-
stood that to a great extent, these problems are caused by
a poorly arranged work place. Not all of us have apartments or
houses with a study, and we work where we feel most com-
fortable, often trying to create at a distance from the family
activities. Any place can be used as the working place, and the
dining table can serve as a desk. A friend of mine likes working
lying on the sofa, using a cordless keyboard and large LCD TV
as a monitor.
I purchased three items: a computer desk, which I didn’t buy
earlier only because I couldn’t make up my mind about where
Internet Freelancing: Practical Guide for Translators to put it, a fully adjustable computer chair, and an ergonomic
keyboard. Pretty soon, I found the most convenient adjust-
ments: fatigue eased and, which made me sigh with relief,
pains in the back stopped. From my personal experience, the
keyboard deserves a special attitude. When typing on an or-
dinary keyboard one has to bend hands up and slightly out-
wards, thus keeping them in an awkward unnatural position.
When working with an ergonomic keyboard divided into two
sections, hands practically stay in their natural position. In ad-
dition, I made a keyboard support which holds it tilted not
towards me, but in the opposite direction. As a result, I don’t
have to bend my hands up, they are in the most natural, al-
most hanging position. Certainly it took me a while to get
used to typing on it, and now the number of typos shoots
up when I have to switch between the main PC with its er-
gonomic keyboard and the notebook with the ordinary one.
Nevertheless, pains in the wrists have disappeared and never
returned. I do feel tired by the end of the working day, but
the after-effects related to the poor working conditions were
successfully removed.
Now, let’s sum up what has been said. We don’t always spend
our work time efficiently and for things related to work. A thor-
ough analysis of the time expenditures during a working day
will help identify non-productive and distracting aspects which
should be eliminated or reduced to a minimum.
With regard to translation, our rate and turnaround depend on:
• the level of our knowledge of the area — we translate
much faster if we know the area well;
• workload distribution — ups and downs are stressful, spurts
are tiring, intensive loads require longer recovery periods;
• typing speed;
136

• the physical conditions at the workplace.

Hence, to increase the efficiency, it is necessary to:

137
• improve our knowledge in the specialization area(s). If
there’s a possibility to choose, accept jobs within our range
of specializations, even if they are offered at a slightly lower
rate than jobs in fields you don’t specialize in or aren’t very
familiar with;
• adjust the workload by setting deadlines which are more
convenient for us — on most occasions, clients will be
ready to shift deadlines instead of paying rush rates;
• improve our typing skills;
• organize our workplaces properly; it reduces fatigue and, on
the whole, helps us to stay healthy.
We discussed the possibilities of progress referring to your
knowledge, skills, etc. Another area where progress is possible
is your rates.

4.3. Raising Your Rates

We gradually progress, speaking in sporting terms, from gener- Chapter 4. Stage II: Established Translator
al fitness to specialist training. It’s not acrobatics yet, but we’ve
moved a long way from morning exercises.
Here’s the main principle: to charge high rates, you should de-
serve them.
The issue of rates and their increase can’t be viewed separately,
without any reference to the environment and conditions of
our operations. If we try to identify as many factors as possible
that determine both the average rates and those set by each
individual translator, we’ll find the following dependencies:
• Language combination. Certain languages are simply more
complicated than others. As a consequence, the rates in
Internet Freelancing: Practical Guide for Translators a pair involving a “difficult” language will generally be high-
er than in other combinations with “simple” languages. It’s
almost objective. (I wonder if, when choosing a language
to study, you tried to assess it as a “cheap” or “expensive”
one. I didn’t.)
• Client’s country. We’ve already emphasised that “richer”
countries will pay more than those belonging to the “not so
rich” category. How much more though? This factor is also
partially objective. Then again, jobs in certain languages
may originate from virtually anywhere in the world. 99 %
of jobs involving translation from Spanish come from Spain
but requests for translations from English arrived from more
than 30 countries, including Poland, Korea, Italy, Israel, Malta,
Cyprus and Hong Kong.
• Specialization. Complexity of the field (in increasing order:
generals texts — general knowledge of the language would
be enough to translate them; special fields, where a knowl-
edge of the language alone would not do, you’ll need, at
least, an understanding of the field or science, and expe-
rience of working with it; specific areas requiring special
education in addition to knowledge and experience) and
nature of requirements to translations and translators are
reflected in the diversity of rates. It’s a subjective factor. Ex-
pansion of specialization areas or changes in specialization
are possible, though they would require lots of time and
effort on your part. Ideally, to become a specialist in a nar-
row filed, you’ll need a second special education which is
not always possible in reality.
• Market situation. Just like any other sector, the translation
industry has its periods of feverish activity and relative
stagnation. To a great extent, the activity in the translation
market will depend upon relations between the relevant
138

countries; e. g. relations between Germany and Russia will

 affect the situation in the language combination involving

139
Russian and German, relations between Ukraine and the
US, UK plus the rest of the world will have their impact on
the situation in the English-Ukrainian language pair, and so
on. Fluctuations in the currency markets influence the cur-
rency exchange rates and make importers and exporters
behave more cautiously. This lowers the level of economic
activity and, as a result, there are fewer translations sourced
out by players in the commercial and investment markets.
Or take for example the prices and demand for energy
sources: there are lots of translators who spend years on
oil-and-gas projects, and volumes of translations in this
field seem to be inexhaustible or, at least, equal to the oil
and gas deposits on the planet. Here, very little depends
on us.
• Subjective factors such as experience, expressed both as
the number of years you’ve been translating, and specific
experience in a particular field supported by completed
jobs, onsite work, etc.; achievements (educational degrees,
awards, diplomas, certificates, memberships of professional

Chapter 4. Stage II: Established Translator

organizations, publications, etc.); marketing skills — your
ability to promote yourself, be attractive to potential clients,
negotiating skills.
• Clients. If the client’s philosophy is to get maximum profit
on every job, and they always choose the cheapest transla-
tor, negotiating higher rates with these clients is out of the
question. But do we really need such clients?
• Many other aspects we aren’t even aware of.
Let’s have a closer look at some of these factors.
We’ll start with clients. Like translators, they are very different,
setting various aims and targets for themselves and using their
own strategies and practices.
Internet Freelancing: Practical Guide for Translators Newbie clients — like a beginning translator, they don’t have
any specialization, or are in the process of finding it. They often
work with several language combinations and their rates are
diversified and depend basically on the rates of their custom-
ers. As with any fledgling business, they strive generally to earn
as much as possible (money needed for development). Hence
the budget distribution — usually in favour of the client.
Greedy clients — they select translators using only one crite-
rion: rate. “Please submit your best rate” — the phrase sounds
familiar, right? They rarely work with the same translators, and
most jobs go out for open bidding. Customers, language com-
binations and fields are unpredictable because these clients
try to get hold of every job in sight and then start looking for
someone to actually do the job. Very often they are freelancers
or former translators that promote themselves as agencies, or
real agencies with a tiny staff. Typically fault-finding, and using
every error as a pretext to reduce the payment already agreed
upon.
Multifunctional clients (MLV, multi-language vendor) — they
tend to work with a large number of language combinations
providing a wide range of services. The level of rates offered is
directly related to the end customer’s price and thus can vary
a lot. At the same time, they usually set a minimum level for
themselves and don’t like going below it. The fields are quite
varied, as customers are not necessarily from the same country
as the client’s. These clients usually send more requests than
others but not all of them result in real jobs. Occasionally, there
may be payment delays because of overloads, or mix-ups in
accounts (related to the large number of jobs and different
rates used). They like working with multifunctional translators,
that is, translators with extensive and diversified experience ca-
pable of handling jobs in different fields. I regard this as a dis-
140

advantage.
Serious clients — the aims and targets these clients set for

141
themselves make them very attractive for co-operation. They
do their best to create and maintain their high reputation,
and so they are always punctual about payments. They un-
derstand it would be impossible to guarantee the efficiency
of operations without good translators, and whilst being very
demanding in the process of selecting language service pro-
viders, they generally offer high rates for them. These clients
are choosy about their customers and won’t accept a job un-
less they have subcontractors already available who will handle
the translation. They often expand their databases on a regular
basis, rather than for specific jobs. If it’s an agency, then it was
founded by a good and experienced translator.
Specializing clients (this category includes direct clients) — the
most attractive type. Extremely demanding in selecting trans-
lators and during co-operation, frequently assigning the entire
scope of work with a job (translation, editing, quality control/
review). They work within a narrow field (if it’s an agency, they
have a well-defined specialization, and direct clients’ jobs cover
their range of products manufactured or services provided).

Chapter 4. Stage II: Established Translator

They are ready to offer the highest rates, but in return they
expect you to deliver a flawless translation.
As you can see, some clients are more interesting to co-oper-
ate with than others. Even the greedy ones are OK to start
with, but specializing clients are the target source for jobs.
One of the most often used terms in the previous paragraphs
is specialization. Look at what we get: trying to be as universal
as possible, we increase our chances of getting assignments
and… decrease the possibility of obtaining high rates!
Imagine yourself a unique translator because you know every-
thing about — well, repairs of 18th century charkas. It just so
happens that the women in your family have been working
with charkas for ages while the men repaired them. You know
Internet Freelancing: Practical Guide for Translators all that could be known about them but, unlike generations
before you, you chose a different profession. The probability
of getting a job related to repairs of charkas is close to nil. Still,
when a client pops up who really needs a translation of an ar-
ticle on charkas, you as a monopolist will be able to negotiate
the most favourable terms, including the financial ones. The
main problem is to find such a client, which is not easy at all.
Basically, it should be clients looking for you, not vice versa, so
make sure they can find and contact you. We’ve already talked
about how to do it — primarily, through Internet presence.
And what’s the prevailing picture in the translators’ communi-
ty? The majority of young translators don’t have any specializa-
tion and state “general” translation as their field, with the most
naïve and self-confident claiming they can do any area. The
more experienced ones do specialize more often, but even
among them, there are many who try to be omnipresent. In
many cases, linguists gradually begin to specialize in an area
where the number of translations they did is so large that they
actually start understanding the area. As the number of multi-
functional clients is quite large, many of us have to work with
diversified fields, and with time these fields become so familiar
that we dare to declare them as specialization areas. I have
never been to a pipeline construction site in my life nor ever
seen huge pumps used there, but after having translated a few
dozen manuals with detailed descriptions, drawings, charts and
illustrations, I probably have the about same level of knowl-
edge as an average inexperienced engineer.
Now, let’s get back to the topic shown in the title of the chapter.
Can inexperienced translators bargain for higher rates? Not really.
Can they give real reasons, acceptable to clients, in order to sub-
stantiate their intention to charge more? Hardly any. Can experi-
enced translators increase their working rates? Yes, but not the rates
142

in general, rather, rates for translation in particular specific areas.

Meanwhile what do we have in reality?

143
Newbie clients often don’t know how the translation indus-
try operates. Sometimes we have to explain to them, like little
children, the ABC of the translation business, including the fact
that jobs of different complexities should be charged differ-
ently. If you have enough time and patience for mentoring you
can teach these clients what you know yourself in the hope
that, when matured, this client will turn into a serious or spe-
cializing one. Still, it’s a long process with no guarantees on the
final outcome. Nevertheless, even on separate projects it’s pos-
sible to negotiate higher rates, especially when it’s still at the
“potential” stage. To do it, one has to have good negotiating
and convincing skills to make the client accept your viewpoint,
and be able to forget about your fear of losing a job (and help
you client to get rid of the same fear!).
Greedy clients won’t hear anything about raising rates. As soon
as the issue is touched upon, they threaten to use another
translator (and often do so). Generally, we work with this type
of client only when really desperate or, at the initial stage of

Chapter 4. Stage II: Established Translator

our careers, when access to jobs and clients is more important
than their quality.
Multifunctional clients are to be brought up, taught and trained.
Often, they try to simplify the co-operation with translators by
introducing a single rate for all language combinations or fields.
Well, accepting it would certainly be a disadvantage, especially
when this provision is confirmed in writing in a supplement to
the contract — you’ll have to keep your word and stick to your
contractual obligations! Did I mention a PM who described the
process of finding translators for particular projects in their da-
tabase? Specialization plus lowest rate. With such clients you
can state your basic rate and emphasise that you reserve the
right to charge other rates for specific projects or formats. I’m
not sure it will work, but it’s worth trying.
Internet Freelancing: Practical Guide for Translators Serious clients are ideal in terms of rates. As a rule, they know
the translation business and situation in the market very
well — related both to language combinations and specializa-
tion fields. These clients will know there are lots of translators
working in field A, a few in field B, and placing an urgent job
in field C would be quite a problem as translators specializing
in it are rare, and they are usually booked well in advance for
weeks. Taking the above into account, serious clients identify
the rate even better than us — both when offering their serv-
ices to the end customers and when subcontracting translators
for a job. The possibility of raising your rates with these clients
is high and will directly depend on the quality of your work,
specialization, consistent reliability and a few other aspects, in-
cluding your personal relations with the PM’s.
Specializing clients. No need for additional explanations if we
talk about agencies that specialize in certain areas: they are
absolutely “in the know” and probably know everything that is
worth knowing about the situation, rates, etc. These clients will
find you themselves if they need your services, and pay the fair
price. If it is a direct customer, problems are possible. Some-
times, direct customers are unaware of the translation market,
don’t know the rates or make conclusions based on occasional
jobs they outsourced (“Hey, a month ago we hired a freelance
translator who charged half of what you want!”) So it’s training
again, teaching, your ability to bring your ideas home, make
PM’s hear and accept your arguments…
Let’s have a look now at the other party involved in the proc-
ess: translators. Everything is obvious with experience, spe-
cialization and similar parameters. Trying to raise your rates
without experience and specialization is like trying to win in
a lottery; chances do exist though they are extremely slim. But
frequently, we see translators with extensive experience and
144

complicated specialization working for peanuts… Why?

Fear. Fear of losing a job — “What if the client thinks my rate

145
is too high? Maybe it’s better to get a job at a moderate rate
than to lose an assignment at a high price?” There’s some logic
in it, and it often happens — and not only due to the rates!

A client contacts me with a potential job. The

PM asks me if I’m available, requesting me to
review the attached fi le and offer my rate. I’m
not busy at the moment. I look at the text: the
area is tough but familiar… I have done a lot of similar
jobs, though the field is quite specific… do you follow the
course of my thinking? Have you ever been in the same
situation?
I quote high. A bit later the client writes back to inform
me that their customer couldn’t afford the rate. Well, I feel
a little disappointed. Not for long though, because in a few
hours I get another job at a rate lower than quoted but the
text is much simpler, the assignment exceeds 40,000 words
and the deadline is lax.

Chapter 4. Stage II: Established Translator

Another day passes, and I receive an e-mail from another
client with a similar request — to review the attached
fi le and quote on the job. I open the fi le and yes! It’s the
same translation I was offered a few days ago. The only
difference is that I am busy, though not fully booked: the
wordcount of the tough job is not too large and I can ac-
commodate it easily, postponing the deadline for the cur-
rent job for a few days only. I tell the client I will take the
job and quote the rate two eurocents higher than the rate
I give on the first inquiry. And in a couple of hours there
is an e-mail with the green light signal: “rate & deadline
confirmed, please proceed.”
For the purpose of the book, it might just as well be the
end of the story. In reality, it had a continuation. Two days
after I delivered the translation to the client, an enquiry
Internet Freelancing: Practical Guide for Translators
arrived in my e-mail account from yet another client (all
of them were from the same country). They asked me if
I could accept an editing assignment. As you probably have
guessed already, it was my translation. I had to refuse the
offer explaining that I could hardly be an objective editor
of my own translation.
I’m not going to analyze the example. Whether the fi rst
client wanted a too large percentage for himself or not,
I don’t and can’t know. You draw your own conclusion. I’ll
just emphasise that the possibility of raising your rates will
always depend on the particular situation — type of client
you deal with, end customer’s budget, and your readiness
to risk losing a job.

Yes, we regularly have to weigh up all the pros and cons

when making a decision, and pragmatism often takes prec-
edence over hopes and intentions. Remember: pragmatism
is good for maintaining your current status and position but
may be a barrier in reaching new heights in your professional
career.
The next factor is your confidence, in terms of rates, and in
other aspects, too. This quality will grow together with your
knowledge in the field you work in, and freelancing experi-
ence. Essentially, a potential job involves bargaining between
the three parties: the end customer with their scheduled
budget; the translation agency as the primary contractor and
intermediary; and you as a subcontracted translator. Your aim
is to get the highest rate possible. The end customer’s aim
is predictable too: to get the best quality possible and pay
the existing market price for it. Of course the end customers
would be happy to pay less, but rates are not the critical fac-
146

tor (after all, when going out to do our weekly shopping we

know the approximate amount we’ll spend and don’t count

147
on sale prices). The financial interest of the intermediary is to
get as much as possible from the end customer and pay as
little as possible to the subcontracted translator. With some
agencies, financial interests will be the leading parameter
taken into consideration. Others will cater for their financial
interests but they don’t top the priority list. I do suspect that
the first client’s financial interest became a prohibitive factor
in the above example. As far as I know, the agency’s margin
may vary between 30–60 %, with occasional higher or lower
values quite possible, of course. It’s frequently determined
by the scope of work the freelancer is charged with. If the
freelancer’s only responsibility is translation, the agency will
perform the editing and quality control which costs money. If
a freelancer is to provide the entire TEP package (translation,
editing and proofreading), the agency’s input is close to zero,
and the margin can be determined based on the taxes and
overheads. Returning to the above example, I believe the rate
I offered to the first client was contradictory to the expected
profit from the job.

Chapter 4. Stage II: Established Translator

Here’s another illustrative example. I turned
down a job from a regular client because first,
it was quite specific and not exactly in line
with my specializations, and second, due to a
mismatching rate (high, but not high enough for the job
in question). A few days later the client e-mailed me again,
this time asking for proofreading / editing services. In ad-
dition to the usual requirements, the client asked to check
the terminology against the glossary. The fi le to work with
was a bilingual fi le, translated using Trados. I accepted the
job and insisted on per hour rates (without first looking at
the translation). My rate is high enough. The client tried
to set the rate based on the wordcount but fi nally gave up.
Internet Freelancing: Practical Guide for Translators
In a quarter of an hour I sent an urgent message to the
client telling them the quality of translation is so poor that
the fi le was uneditable. I informed them that they would
go bankrupt after the editing as virtually every phrase had
to be changed. Besides which, there were quite a number
of critical errors, and that meant retranslation. The client
was desperate; their customer was very important and de-
manding, and delivery could not be postponed. There were
few other translators capable of handling the assignment
within the time remaining, and trying to find them would
mean additional time spent with probably the same result
i.e. somebody ready to accept the job at a similar rate. The
client asked me to accept the job at a lower rate — other-
wise they would inevitably exceed their budget. I stood my
ground: the budget problems were theirs, not mine, and
hiring a translator whose qualifications were insufficient
for a complicated job only because his or her rate was
“within the budget” was the client’s mistake, in the fi rst
place. To cut a long story short, these were my terms and
you either accepted them or not (incidentally, half an hour
previously the client had confirmed them with a PO). I was
finally given the green light and got to work.
The gist of the situation was revealed later. The project was
not just unprofitable for the agency. As the PM admitted, it
broke all statistical records because the proofreading and
editing procedure was three times (!) more expensive than
the translation proper. On my part, I invoiced the minimal
amount understanding the client’s position, and tried to
complete the job in the shortest possible time.

Does it mean that experienced qualified translators with ob-

vious specializations will easily be paid higher than average,
with little effort from their side? Definitely not! We’ve said that
financial interests are often at the top of the list of priorities
148

with most outsourcers. Finding a balance between these and

quality is a subtle matter, and, to my regret, for a vast number

149
of clients the price issues are much more important than those
of quality.
One of the “symptoms” of your reaching the established stage
of your freelancing career is that the client hunting — some-
thing you spend a lot of time on when starting — loses its
importance. You either stop looking for new clients or look
for specific ones — better paying, more reliable and punctual,
etc. At the same time, clients start finding you, with requests,
enquiries and offers arriving in your e-mail account with grow-
ing frequency. There are a few stones to be unturned here, too.
View yourself through the eyes of a potential client. Who are
you? Are you a real person with a name — or just a genderless
Internet nickname? Guess who it’s easier and more comfortable
to deal with — a real person or someone hiding behind an
alias? The answer is obvious.
Therefore, try to be a real live person. This person should:
• have a name. Trust me, an impersonal nickname instead of

Chapter 4. Stage II: Established Translator

a real name stops quite a number of clients from contacting
you! How are they supposed to greet you in the e-mail mes-
sage? Hi zajka? Dear English-to-Russian? Estimado señor(a)
Total Recall? Be a person with a name. Moreover, your name
can be a real asset as it will be associated with your reputa-
tion (provided you want yourself to be associated with the
earned reputation). Work to create your reputation, let it be
passed from one client to another (“A colleague of mine
recommended you as a specialist in…” — that’s one intro-
duction to many long-term and fruitful partnerships) and
evoke only associations of excellent quality and reliability.
• have a face. And don’t give a damn about your looks! Ask
your friends — do they care a single bit about your ap-
pearance? Besides, don’t forget that we are working in an
Internet Freelancing: Practical Guide for Translators international environment with diversified grammar, and
the form of your name doesn’t always help to identify the
gender often needed for an official title (Mr/Mrs, Señor/
Señora, etc.) So don’t create additional problems for poten-
tial clients.
• be available. It’s amazing how many translators supposed-
ly looking for jobs and dreaming about numerous clients
don’t show their contact data or have only an electronic
mail address (sometimes checking it once a day or even
less frequently)! With me, co-operation with many clients
started with a phone call: “Hallo! Can I speak to Oleg Ru-
davin?”, and then we talked for half an hour about speciali-
zations, quality control procedures, editors, possibilities of
doing rush jobs, rates and things like that. As I see it, the
purpose of a phone call is not only to discuss the potential
of co-operation but also to check the level of the language
spoken (good speaking skills don’t guarantee high quality of
translation, but…), make sure I know what I’m talking about
(co-operation with LSP’s who are not aware of the stand-
ards applied in the translation business may be a disaster).
So give a potential client all the data required to contact
you at any time and in a convenient way.
• be plausible. Have you ever seen taglines like follows:
“Translation of texts in any field” (musicians playing all in-
struments), “You set the delivery time” (splitting a job into
pieces to translate 100 pages overnight is possible of course,
but will the final document be anywhere close to good
quality translation?), “So-and-so thousand words a day”…
While we are here, don’t try to attract new or more clients
by exaggerated turnaround. Otherwise, your professional
credentials will resemble a commercial, advertising jobs for
people without any training or education and promising ex-
orbitant earnings. Be realistic, and state the turnaround you
150

will be able to keep to on a sustained basis and guarantee

 in any situation — usually, within 2,500–3,000 words.

151
A higher turnaround will look like boasting, an exaggera-
tion, or a lie.

A phone call woke me up almost at midnight.

It was a PM from an agency I actively co-oper-
ated with on large-sized, serious projects. She
was in despair. One of their freelance transla-
tors accepted an 18,000-word job and a few days later sud-
denly said he wouldn’t continue with it. The PM asked me
to tell her what portion I would be able to translate within
the next 24 hours (the fi nal fi le was to be delivered to the
customer in 27 hours). I reviewed the fi le quickly and told
her I would take all of it. It took me a while to convince
her; I knew I could do it, but the wordcount of 18,000
made her think twice. After all, it was about 60 pages!
Yes, the text was very easy for me — description of po-
litical situations in different regions of the world. I had
done a lot of similar translations under projects from that
agency. I guessed there was no need to consult a diction-

Chapter 4. Stage II: Established Translator

ary at all — general vocabulary, no specific terms. But the
sheer amount of it! I admit I was on the verge of breaking
up, typing the last pages off in a robot-like state. Simulta-
neously, my family was proofi ng the translation of a five
year contract that my agency signed for provision of trans-
lation services, and quality problems were likely to lead to
the termination of the contract. I did finish it on time, but
after that I promised myself there wouldn’t be any more
rush jobs that big — I needed a week to catch my breath
back after the 24-hour translation marathon.

So if you exaggerate your turnaround abilities, first, there’s

a chance of missing a deadline, and that’s one of the best
ways of losing a client. And second, a serious client will most
Internet Freelancing: Practical Guide for Translators likely treat it as an exaggeration and be sceptical about the
truth of it.
The above example is illustrative in yet another way: having
helped my client out of a critical situation I was “promoted”
from “one-of-the-translators” to the status of a lead transla-
tor with the advantage of first choice. That is, I was e-mailed
huge projects, took whatever portion I could digest and the
rest was split between other translators. A bit later the client
suggested that I took the projects in full (giving me the right
to subcontract) but warned that the quality must remain at
my level.
The conclusion is clear: help your clients to overcome difficult
situations. It’s not easy to find the proper balance with your
role as a monopolist and refrain from dictating your terms to
the client who has no one else to resort to, so, don’t overstep
the mark. Yes, the client is in a fix and it’s an opportunity to
charge high and earn a few (hundred) bucks extra. The cli-
ent will have no choice but to agree to your terms, but the
impression created will not be lost. And one of the possible
consequences is the job flow changing direction towards
another translator. I believe financial considerations should
sometimes give way to the ordinary human feeling of mu-
tual assistance.
One more thing to mention. Do you often congratulate your
clients on their national holidays? Do you know the birthdays
of your PM’s? Their interests? I bet you don’t (neither do I, in
most cases). However, it’s a great way to cement real human
relationships, which are very pleasant and can never be re-
placed with Internet communication, no matter how active it
is. Add a bit of humour and humanity to your business com-
munication, and you will often see that solving operative issues
becomes much easier, the job flow increases, and the client
152

accommodates your terms and rates more easily.

 153
4.4. Risks at The Established
Stage
In practice, the established stage is the most comfortable and
peaceful in your whole career. As you remember, one of the
characteristics of this stage is your being satisfied with the in-
come level, even if your earning figures haven’t reached the
scheduled values so far. You can work without overloading
yourself, steadily gaining experience, finding new — presum-
ably more interesting — clients and sharpening your speciali-
zation. There are few, if any, risks at all.
Well, not exactly so, but the risks are insubstantial, indeed rare,
and only on the odd occasion result in serious consequences.
The first danger is excessive self-complacency. With all the
(relative) stability of this stage freelancers should always un-
derstand that their position can never be firm enough. Clients
change priorities, specializations and language combinations,
contracts expire, politics can suddenly stall business activities
and economic co-operation, ups and downs of the currency

Chapter 4. Stage II: Established Translator

exchange market make exporters and importers wait for trends
to develop, and so on and so forth. Self-complacency borne
out of the feeling that you have already done everything can
be the reason for the thinning out of your clientele ranks. But
frankly, I have the impression that for many translators, free-
lancing is not only a method of work, but also a way of life.
The search for new clients turns into a kind of exciting hunt
or competition. If this is so, excessive self-satisfaction is hardly
a risk that can inflict material damage on your business when
it’s at the established stage.
Self-complacency can have another by-product: the quality of
your translation gets worse. When translation becomes a chore,
when deprived of the novelty and excitement of our first years,
we tend to relax and are less demanding in our own work.
Internet Freelancing: Practical Guide for Translators Well, why shouldn’t we be? If I translated a dozen manuals for
industrial machines in the past few months and all of them
were accepted by clients without a hitch, can I really fail when
translating another manual? And if my proofreader returns my
files without a single correction during the past few weeks,
perhaps I could skip the proofreading and save some money?
The first symptom of this relaxation is the increased rate of
claims from your clients. As a rule, the very first claim works as
a yellow card and makes you change your attitudes. Again, it’s
a minor risk — primarily, because the punishment for a single
failure is rarely serious. Most clients understand that translators
also have the right to err. One exception is greedy clients but
we have emphasised that working for this type of client is not
much of a pleasure, and their finding faults is exactly what you
can expect.
Yet another risk — or rather, an undesirable development of
a freelancing career — is turning into a workaholic. Workahol-
ism is mostly characteristic for people whose feeling of duty
and responsibility is way above normal, unable to say no. These
translators would accept all the jobs they are offered, and ini-
tially manage to handle them by extending the working day
and cutting off their sleep time. But in the long run they find
themselves overloaded, overstressed, miss a few consecutive
deadlines and lose one client after another. Yes, we don’t like,
and are somewhat afraid to say no to a regular client (what if
they find another provider?), and the workaholics all too often
tell themselves that a single sleepless night won’t do any harm
and allow them to earn a hundred or two currency units more.
But appetite comes with eating, and this may eventually turn
into gluttony.
Indeed, there’s another type of risk — when the financial aspect
becomes the only incentive for your work. This by-product is
154

more typical for freelancers from the relatively poor countries.

No need to explain why: freelancing on an international scale

155
can be a source of high income, with six-digit annual revenues
not unheard of. Sometimes the income a translator starts get-
ting is surprisingly high, but getting used to it doesn’t take
long, and, having sampled the good life, the next thing you
know is money, money and money again, with all other things
abandoned or postponed. First we tell ourselves we should
provide a decent standard of living for the family, then buy
a good car, start dreaming of a bigger house…
It’s important that you remember: this road is endless. “I only
want to earn enough for” (a new house/car/fancy holiday —
choose anything that applies to you or add anything of your
choice!). This type of argument is self-deception, because
there’s no limit to “improvement”. Any house may seem too
small, any car too old, any trip — too trivial. A friend of mine
says there are two approaches to handling situations when
your income can’t satisfy all your needs. One is to try earn-
ing more, which is often difficult, sometimes impossible and
always hard. The other is to reduce your needs and learn to
enjoy the things you have. Sounds simple. At the same time,

Chapter 4. Stage II: Established Translator

we are under enormous pressure: the media feeds us with the
details from the lives of the rich and famous, and their way of
life is presented as an example to follow, dream of and strive
for. Commercials insist that a successful person must drive a car
of a certain brand (did they mention the price?), wear clothes
of a certain brand (paying tenfold only for the world-famous
name), as well as telling us where to spend holidays and what
cosmetics to use.
Those of the older generation are often able to withstand this
informational pressure, while the younger generation is less
resistant. It’s even more difficult for them because they really
have to solve practical problems — getting one’s own place
to live, creating good living standards for their families, etc. To
complicate the situation further, with your income increasing,
Internet Freelancing: Practical Guide for Translators the list of affordable items you may be interested in grows, too.
A car, a yacht, a house, a house at the seaside…
Good medication for this disease is the understanding that
every thing passes, and material things in life are just that,
things, no more. Life should never be turned into a chase for
things, their quantity, or even quality. We do need things to
make our life more comfortable. But there’s a difference be-
tween “I’d like a car”, “I want a better car” and “I need the best
car” — do you feel it?
Well, the topic of “How to become rich without negative con-
sequences for oneself” is too wide and not closely related to
freelancing, so we won’t dwell on it. I hope that freelance ca-
reers of most translators will develop without adverse side ef-
fects. And one day you will find that you can’t handle all jobs
single-handed.
156