I’m currently working on an e-book about finding, marketing to, and working with translation agencies. It’s nearing completion, and I’d like to add a section with reader questions. Here’s what to do if you’d like to submit a question for me to answer in the e-book:
-Write your question in the comments section on this post. I’d like them to go in the comments so that you can see if someone else has already submitted the same question you’re thinking of.
–Important! Let me know if it is OK to use your name. Write “OK to use my name” or “Don’t use my name” after your question.
-If I select your question for the reader questions chapter, you’ll receive a free copy of the e-book when it’s ready.
Thank you!
When I first start out as a freelance translator, I became a member of Proz.com and waited for postings to come up that I would like to work on and met my financial goals. However, as I became more specialized this endeavor became more frustrating because the agencies posting on that website were not willing to pay what I needed to earn in order to make a decent living. How do we go about targeting the right agencies to work for given our specialties and financial objectives?
Thanks, Rose! Is it OK to use your name if I use this question in the book?
Hello,
My questions would be :
1. Is there any way to convince a translation agency whose requirements include 3 years experience in the industry translation to work with you even though you only have 1 year experience in translation but many more in a key sector (like finance for instance) ?
2. How do you go about raising your rates with an agency you have been working with for over a year ?
3. What can you possibly do when, after taking a test, the agency tells you you have failed when in fact their proofreader has introduced errors where they were not ?
Thank you.
Fine to mention my name
Sorry, me again. Apologies for the typos and mistakes in my previous email. Getting late in France !
I’m wondering how to find and market to smaller boutique agencies? – Ok to use my name
1. How should you proceed when your longest-standing agency client says they can’t raise your rates and you still want to work with them because you value the projects they send you as well as their timely payment practices?
2. If an agency client pushes you to take on a project you’ve already kindly declined, how should you reply so as to sound determined but not blatant? Should you sound blatant?
Please don’t use my name. Thank you, Corinne!
Anton Filinov has already asked my primary question, how to find and market to smaller boutique agencies, but I have another one as well, that’s only semi-related to that one:
As I struggle with the constant downward pressure on rates from agencies that deal with my specialization, I’m looking to broaden my field of work to include areas that I used to work in when just starting out, but am less specialized in. Do you have any suggestions on how to parlay my existing agency contacts for work in areas I have put aside, so I can increase my specialization in those?
To be specific, I have a certificate in legal translation and I have also translated general mechanical engineering and environmental impact studies, RFPs, etc.
Thanks, and you may use my name.
First – sincerest thanks priceless Corinne for your mails, blog posts and upcoming book! I hope you make hundreds of thousands with the wisdom, talent and heart you’re sharing! By the way, thanks for all the questions already posed! 🙂
In your opinion, how pivotal is to create one’s own brand and find a “purple cow” in the translation business?
The majority of translation agencies look for the freelancers with the lowest rates and fastest delivery time, sometimes at the cost of quality. Naturally, they aim to profit as much as they possibly can.
How would you describe your dream translation agency to work with and what requirements should be met for you to even consider translating for the agency, since you may be well equipped to find your own clients and customers and generate full benefit!
Running a small business isn’t a piece of cake (not to mention a cookie), yet how much time (in a day) do you spend for translating, searching and editing, and how much for marketing, administrative works etc.?
How do you choose your clients? And how to develop a situation when you don’t need to look for the clients and double-check their background, but utilize means of inbound marketing to attract proper clients when you are sought…
It’s okay to use my name – now – working on a book project and building up my new website – in 5 languages.
Take care,
yours sincerely
Siret Entson, M.A.
Thanks for everything – you’re inspiring so many!
Yours sincerel
I am English to Arabic translator for more than 13 years, my passion is the technical and IT fields which are very specialized ones, the strangest request I encountered during my career is asking by many Translation agencies to undertake a free test, although I am already certified,and when I tell the agencies that I would prefer to provide samples of my relevant previous work, they reject, my question is:
Is undertaking the free tests considered to be a real marketing tool to gain more clients, we as a freelancer translators should take the risk? How we can avoid this? or at least how to persuade the clients the free test does not reflect the real abilities of the good translator.
Hi again Corinne, I forgot to say it is OK to use my name, thanks.
Some agencies require an unpaid translation test to work with a specific client of them. As a result, this could potentially prosper into a great relationship with a steady affluence of work and fair pay for the translator… or not. Offering a sample is not always an option, so what can we do to minimize the time and effort we invest in these tests and still be considered for the jobs?
Have a lovely day!
P. S. It is OK to use my name.
Do you have any thoughts or recommendations for translators on the use of platforms such as Fiverr, etc.–which aren’t actually translation agencies, but rather, platforms for seeking diverse freelance work opportunities–to get translation work?
–It’s perfectly OK for you to use my name
What to do about this:
(1) you have been translating for over 4 years to a well-known translation agency with great success. They rate you more than once as “excellent” and “very satisfied” in ProZ WWA program and send you complimented remarks after translation delivery. You decide once to mention the successful work you do with them (without mentioning their clients’ names or trademarks or translation confidential content) in your portfolio. They contact you forbidding you to mention you work for them, and when you ask why not, they escalate this discussion from the PM to the executive management. Next day you are simply informed by mail that they no longer need your translation services because they have already enough translations in your language pairs (in my case two language pairs!)…
(2) You work with BR Portuguese as target language but you do not live in Brazil, you live in Europe. The difference between European currency and Brazilian currency is huge: 1 euro = 3.3 BR Real. European translation agencies contacting you for BR Portuguese jobs then expect you to charge the same (lower) rates per word (due to their less strong currency) charged in BR by local Brazilian translators, despite you live in Europe under another (stronger) currency, and where all EU translators charge an average rate three times higher than Brazilians do. How making a living under this misconceived (but quite convenient for them) reasoning? Thanks. Please DO NOT mention my name.
Hello, Corinne,
With my specialization (pharma&medicine), it is difficult to find direct clients, as they are usually huge companies with large-scale translation projects (too large for one translator). So, I work with agencies, and it is OK for me. But one of the problems when working with agencies is the difficulty in receiving testimonials. Most of them just refuse to give any publically available feedback. I guess, it is because of some commercial considerations (competition and so on). But what can we do? Clients’ recommendations are so important in our business! And a translator working with agencies looks inferior to a translator working with direct clients: we just have no evidence of our successful career.
(It is OK to mention my name if you choose my question.)
I have the same question as Tatyana and hope it’s one you address in your book or a future blog post: is it realistic to hope to get testimonials or references from agency clients? Any tips on how to approach this? This is an important issue when you’re just starting out.
When applying to agencies, how do I determine my “translation agency” rate per word? How can I stay away from being too low or too high? My language pair is Eng><Span. Thank you!
Ok to mention my name.
Hi Corinne,
I mostly work with Agencies, and my question is similar to the one Carolina mentioned above. Why we are always requested to do sample tests (sometimes not too short) only to find out that our “standard” is not the one the Company is looking for. I mean, our work is not subjective and depending on the “likes or dislikes” of someone else´s opinion. We work on this for a living. This is not subjective at all. We value our time, and our good quality work. So, usually after the Conference, when I asked some Agencies to see the “errors” mentioned on some tests, they simply refuse to send them or send the document with “none of the errors mentioned”. This is not professional and I am really very disappointed with this process taken by many of the so-called good Companies. You can surely use my name. Thanks for your Happy Translating!
Bonjour. Effectivement, je me demande comment il faut faire pour ajouter des références dans son CV comme traducteur. Personnellement je traduis de l’allemand vers le français et rarement du français vers l’allemand, et même du kirundi (langue parlée au Burundi-Afrique de l’Est) vers l’allemand. Je traduis depuis une quinzaine d’années principalement avec trois organisations. Dois-je leur demander une autorisation écrite ou explicite pour publier officiellement que je travaille avec elles? Je donne également des cours d’allemand dans la ville de Bujumbura, au Burundi. Dois-je aussi demander aux différentes personnes qui ont assisté à mes cours une autorisation ou un consentement explicites pour publier mes références et renforcer ma crédibilité? OK to use my name.
Hi Corinne,
My question would be: How do I deal with translation agencies that I don’t want to work with anymore? I have been a freelance translator for 1.5 years now and at the beginning of my freelance career I applied (literally) to hundreds of agencies. Now I have a solid client base (only agencies so far) that I really enjoy working with. However, since I have applied to so many agencies, I regularly receive inquiries from agencies, that I actually don’t want to work with anymore, since they have a way of working that I don’t like (impersonal or mass mails: “Dear translator” or “sorry for the mass mail, but this is a very urgent project”). Should I keep them in my contacts just in case my regular clients don’t have work for me anymore, or should I contact them directly to ask them to delete my data from their system? And if so, how do I phrase the e-mail in a professional and polite way? You can use my name.
Thank you!
Hello Corine,
I love the idea of a new book about working with translation agencies 🙂
I have a question: are there any good translation agency directories out there ?
I have found one online that contains hundreds of agencies, but only about a third of the agencies listed are worth the time spent applying to them. The others don’t even have a professional website and the rates they are asking for are just laughable. It ends up being a waste of time. Any suggestions ?
Thank you, you can use my name if you want to use my question.
Hi Corinne,
First, thanks for your ever-inspiring blog posts and eBooks. “How to Succeed as a Freelance Translator” was the first book I read on this profession when I started my career. My questions are:
1. In your opinion, which element distinguish a “good” from a “bad” agency? Is it the rates, the deadlines, the quality of PMs? Which are the best practices that good agencies share?
2. Which pieces of advice would you give to someone starting out as a literary freelance translator? What are the do’s and dont’s? More and more translation agencies market themselves as doing literary translations too, which is a very specific kind of translation. And the quality of such translations is often very low. Should young literary translators stay away from those, and if so, to which agencies should they market their services? Or should they directly write to publishers?
Thank you! It’s OK to use my name.
Hi Corinne,
I would love to know how to make my agency application stand out from the crowd (besides the basics of correct spelling and including all the necessary information in my resume). Can I do this with some creative writing, for example by stepping out of the typical “language combo, specialization” email format? By calling them to see what they’re looking for? Thank you!
Feel free to use my name.
Hi Corinne,
I have the same question as Molly and would also be very interested to see your feedback. Thank you so much!
Hello Corinne!
As a relatively newbie translator, I would like to know how to react when the “negotiations” with agencies are one-way negotiations? I often get contacted by agencies who seem interested in working with me. We begin talking and they state that they want me to lower my rates, or use this specific machine translation tool, or this or that. I answer as tactfully as possible and make sure that they understand that I am open to negotiations but that I want compensations when I agree to one of their demands… and usually, they just stand their ground and want me to make all the efforts. So I end up refusing to work in theses conditions and being frustrated because there is no possible discussion. How can I negotiate more efficiently with agencies? Thank you for your amazing blog, it’s a gem! – You can mention my name.
I mainly work for direct clients, but I have been trying to work with agencies as well in order to have a more constant workflow when direct clients seem to “disappear”. Nevertheless, I have noticed the rates of many translation agencies are pretty low, and it is quite tough to find agencies offering medium-“high” rates. In specializations like mine (one of which is surfing), you have these huge sports corporations (for instance) working through agencies as far as translation services are concerned (easier to deal with a certain number of foreign languages all at once) and the agencies apply the above-mentioned rates. The question is: is it a good working strategy to have, let’s say, two or three medium-low-paying agencies with a pretty constant workflow, even though you do not get what you usually would or is it better to refuse working with them and concentrating on more remunerative clients? And, where are the fair-paying agencies? I personally like the tasks I am given (e.g. related to surfing), and I like working with them and this leads to an improvement of my skills in the fields I work with. Nevertheless I still have this doubt hunting me. It is OK to mention my name. thank you, Martina
When writing a cover letter to cold-contact an agency, who should you address it to? In some cases it’s very easy to find names and email addresses of various members of management, so should you address it to the CEO, COO, Managing Director of Translation Services, or Human Resources Manager? Who would be most relevant?
Please don’t mention my name. Thank you so much, Corinne!
Hi Corinne, here’s a question that might be useful:
What should I do if I have already contacted one million agencies with my CV? Why don’t they respond? How can I convince them to hire me?
OK to use my name
Patrick Weill
Hi Corinne,
This e-book is a great idea! Can’t wait to read it 😉
Some very interesting questions have already been asked.
Here’s another one. I’m a French native speaker. I translate from Spanish and English to French. In my résumé you can read that I’ve a Bachelor’s Degree in Spanish, and I worked in Spain for many years, in a multinational company. French, Spanish and English have been my working languages for more than 15 years. I’m also a member of the ProZ.com Certified PRO network, in the language pair Spanish to French. I guess that when you look at my résumé, it looks that I’m more reliable in Spanish than in English! Indeed, I get much more translations from Spanish than from English into French. I know that my English is not perfect, but I’ve worked on my résumé and cover letter with a native English teacher.
So, my question is: How can agencies trust me? What should I do to get them believe in my competences in translating from English into French?
OK to use my name.
Thank you!
Alexandra Le Deun – HISPAFRA
Hello,
My question is:
How can I, as a beginning freelance translator, show the agencies my skills and make them inclined to work with me? What is the best way to catch their attention and stand out from all the offers they receive?
it is OK to use my name.
Hi Corinne,
A new ebook—what an excellent idea. I have never worked for agencies, only for direct clients, and most of what I hear other translators saying online and in person about agencies has put me off the idea. You are one of the voices of dissent on the matter and have always spoken highly of working with the right kind of agency. That has piqued my curiosity. My overarching question is whether it really is worth it if you already have a good base of direct clients. Specifically, aside from the possibility of a more regular stream of job offers, what are the other benefits of agency work? Do you feel that working with the right sort of agency is a good way to build up experience in a certain subject area? Does your work get edited and has this been a positive experience? Has working with agencies helped you build the quality of your work? In your experience, how much lower (in percentages) should I expect good agency rates to be in comparison with direct clients? Does it really imply less nonbillable time than direct client work? How much less? OK to use my name!
Are there certain types of clients you can generally only access via agencies? For example, if I want to translate for US government agencies (on a freelance basis), are translation agencies the only way to go? I imagine there are various other types of clients that generally only purchase translation services from agencies for one reason or another.
Please don’t use my name in the book.
Hi Corinne
My question is how to find a central contact in a large agency when you deal with many different project managers?
I’ve found it difficult to get a good flow of work – it’s either all on or all off – so having a central contact could be useful.
It’s ok to use my name!
Angela
Hi Corinne,
I have a question which is relevant when just starting out as a freelance translator and you have no or close to no experience; How do you actually make an agency try your work, even for a test translation? How do you market yourself and your skills when you are new, without prior record or references – except studies? Marketing your work for free may not be a good idea, if you would get a job or several jobs it might be hard to start charging at some point?
PS. It’s OK to use my name!
Ann-Charlotte
Hi Corinne. I work virtually exclusively with agencies out of choice. When I took maternity leave obviously the PMs had to turn to other translators and I had a slow year when I went back to work, until they gave me the same level of work as before. I was wondering whether you had any tips for standing out and ensuring that the PM will always think of you first (apart from top-notch work of course!) You’ve talked about gifts and handwritten notes to direct clients but is there anything you would recommend for agency PMs? For example, would you recommend going to see them in person to say HI if in their area? I work with an agency in Prague and went on holiday there but wasn’t sure if I would just be getting in the way by visiting them. A big thanks for all your posts!
You can use my name.
Hi Corinne!
I’m a few days late with my comment, but I just wanted to ask whether you think it’s necessary to have your own website if you’re only really interested in marketing to agencies. It’s fine to use my name.
Thanks!
Hello, my name is Antonio and I’m a professional freelance translator for about a year now. I work basically with agencies and before you have a solid client base, its hard to choose wich agencies are good to work with or not (even with the Blue Board on ProZ) and to deal with the 60 days to payment you usually have to wait.
My question is: What should I do if the agency do not pay me after the job done?
That is something that NEVER happened to me but I would really not know what to do if it would happened.
Late payments are normal, but usually the agencies do not tolerate a 30 minutes delay in the translation deadline. How can I protect myself in order to not accept delays in the payment?
Sorry, there is two questions.
It’s ok to use my name.
It’s ok to use my name.
Hi, if you’re still accepting questions…
I’ve taken your initial course and been reading your blog for a few years. I certainly get the impression from you that a translator looking for agency work MUST go through the Work for Us/Careers page of the agency’s website and never ever write them directly. If you’ve combed through the website with a fine-tooth comb and know that they have no such section, is it ever OK to write them at the email address on their website? (Especially if you see via Proz and Payment Practices that they’re active and working with translators from all over.) I’ve noticed that some agencies just don’t have this open call on their websites, even over a period of years- maybe forever (while others don’t temporarily, and then add it or add it back later, maybe depending on their need for freelancers). Should this be interpreted as their not wanting to hear from translators, or is it worth trying? And if you do write them, should you just send your CV and cover letter like normal without apologizing for your boldness, or should you first ask if it would be OK to send those materials?
Thank you.
Hello Corinne,
Yesterday I got a phonecall from a PM of a potential new client. She asked me what my rate was for the services she required and I said X. She then asked me whether I could initially work for 50%-75% of X and in my head I flipped. I politely replied that no, there was no way I would agree to that.
Without berating the client for their mindless cheekiness, how could I tackle such a situation in a more positive way in the future? (OK to use my name.)