• Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar

Training for Translators

Online courses for translators and interpreters

  • Blog
  • Classes for translators
    • Consulting
  • Resources for translators
    • Translate HSFT!
  • About/Contact
    • Privacy Policy
  • Cart

Apr 19 2019

Tracking your translated words

File under: food for thought. A colleague and former student e-mailed me this morning and asked how many words a year I translate, and whether I track it. I haven’t tracked it–until now–and I guessed 300,000 words. My reasoning was: conventional wisdom holds that “the average” (whatever that means) full-time translator produces about 500,000 words a year. I translate about 60% of the time and work on my books and classes about 40% of the time, but I also focus on higher-paying translation work that allows me to work at a non-breakneck pace.

Then, as I was translating away this morning…I had to know. I figured we’re only a quarter and a little through the year, so it wouldn’t take that long to add it all up. True: after about half an hour of fiddling with a spreadsheet, I came up with the following stats. Because I do a lot of official document work where word count is kind of irrelevant, I broke those out into their own category. The Q1 (ish) totals:

  • 80,621 words of projects billed by the word or by the project
  • 61 pages of official documents billed by the page. I originally had 53, but then I immediately delivered 8 more today.

Is this a little? A lot? Who knows, but there you go. If you keep stats, what are yours?

Digiprove sealCopyright secured by Digiprove © 2019 Corinne  McKay

Written by Corinne McKay · Categorized: Translation technique · Tagged: translation output

Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. palomnik says

    April 20, 2019 at 1:02 am

    For me, it’s hard to come up with a solid figure since translation software makes it not so easy to arrive at – i’ts easier to back into it from my receipts. I get a figure somewhere in the realm of 550,000 words per year, after deducting out for editing jobs.

    Reply
    • Corinne McKay says

      April 20, 2019 at 6:28 pm

      Interesting, thanks!

      Reply
  2. Peter Winslow says

    April 24, 2019 at 12:32 pm

    For some time, I tracked the number of words translated by month and by year. When I was translating full-time, I translated somewhere between 350,000 and 400,000 words per year, give or take. That figure does not include the number of words reviewed or the time expended on other projects and down time during the less busy cycles.

    I no longer track any of those numbers, because I no longer translate full-time. I must admit, though: ignorance is bliss. I don’t miss the “pea counting,” as they say in German.

    Reply
    • Corinne McKay says

      April 24, 2019 at 3:33 pm

      Very interesting, thanks!

      Reply
  3. Nadine Mondestin (@ProteanIntl) says

    May 7, 2019 at 6:53 pm

    I’ve been using a spreadsheet to tally pretty consistently since 2010, but I do multiple pairs and directions so have been lazy about the breakdowns. It’s fluctuated between 100-150,000 per year.

    Reply
    • Corinne McKay says

      May 7, 2019 at 7:07 pm

      Interesting, thanks Nadine!

      Reply
  4. Marina Pigeau says

    May 16, 2019 at 12:04 am

    I started tracking my translation (time taken, rates, target-source langues [I translate Russian-English, but sometimes I undertake English-Russian projects], proofreading times, word count etc). I have an entire excel book with like 10 sheets of statistics. I noticed I do about 250-350 thousand words a year, since I only translate about 50% of the time. I was so proud to hit 1,000,000 words in mid-2018 🙂

    Reply
    • Corinne McKay says

      May 17, 2019 at 5:20 pm

      Thanks, Marina! Very interesting statistics and I’m glad you enjoyed the post.

      Reply
  5. Marie LE GUITTON says

    May 21, 2019 at 1:32 pm

    Since I started working in the translation business in 2016, I am tracking all my projects (word count, type of project, etc.) because one of the agencies I am working with asked me every 2 years a very detailed resume (they have specific categories and they want to know estimate volume of word translated in each category).
    Reading your post and the comments, I am quite glad of my stats 🙂 I did around 300-350 000 words the last 2 years. I reduced it this year because I went back to university. I hope to be able to reach back my average by the end of the year.

    Reply
    • Corinne McKay says

      May 21, 2019 at 4:19 pm

      Really interesting, thanks Marie!

      Reply

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

Primary Sidebar

Become a better translator: join our mailing list!

Learn from our blog:

  • Speaking of Translation: Self-care and mental health in the pandemic
  • Interview with Oliver Dirs, author of Good Words Fast
  • March Marketing Madness starts Monday
  • The Translator’s Little Book of Poetry
  • Upcoming online courses for translators
  • Guest post: Join the educational interpreting movement!
  • Marketing to direct clients using a touch point system
  • Medical terminology and Online presence roadmap: Classes start Monday!

The original career how-to guide for freelance translators. Over 12,000 copies sold!

Search the Training for Translators blog

Copyright © 2021 · Training For Translators · Log in

This website uses cookies to improve your experience. We'll assume you're OK with this, but you can opt-out if you wish. To view this website's privacy policy, click About>Privacy Policy. Accept Read More
Privacy & Cookies Policy

Privacy Overview

This website uses cookies to improve your experience while you navigate through the website. Out of these, the cookies that are categorized as necessary are stored on your browser as they are essential for the working of basic functionalities of the website. We also use third-party cookies that help us analyze and understand how you use this website. These cookies will be stored in your browser only with your consent. You also have the option to opt-out of these cookies. But opting out of some of these cookies may affect your browsing experience.
Necessary
Always Enabled

Necessary cookies are absolutely essential for the website to function properly. This category only includes cookies that ensures basic functionalities and security features of the website. These cookies do not store any personal information.

Non-necessary

Any cookies that may not be particularly necessary for the website to function and is used specifically to collect user personal data via analytics, ads, other embedded contents are termed as non-necessary cookies. It is mandatory to procure user consent prior to running these cookies on your website.

SAVE & ACCEPT