In the “small but mighty developments” department, the FR<>EN translator’s friend, the Grand Dictionnaire Terminologique now offers a search box for your browser toolbar. It works in Firefox 2.0 or IE 7.0, and you have to select whether you want to add the FR>EN or the EN>FR box. And while you’re on the site, you can spend almost an endless amount of time reading the GDT’s specialized glossaries: scrapbooking, hockey, Carnaval, blogging, and more!
Choosing a pricing currency
For translators who work with clients outside their home base countries, choosing a pricing currency can be an important business issue. For the past year or so, pricing in euros (or if you’re European Central Bank President Jean-Claude Trichet, pricing in “euro”) has seemed attractive for those of us based in the U.S. When the euro was pushing US$1.60, it wasn’t hard to decide which currency was more attractive for pricing.
For better or worse, the dollar has been steadily rising, and today’s mid-market exchange rate is at to US$1.33 to the euro, meaning that the 2,000 euros that you charged a client three months ago would have resulted in a payment of about US$3,140 then and about US$2,660 today. So, is it better to price your translation services in your currency, your client’s currency, or some other variation?
A complicating factor is that when the dollar was doing poorly against the euro, for example back in March when the euro was at US$1.57, many translators decided to offer their services to European clients at attractive rates, in euros. As the dollar seems to be regaining strength, it brings up the question of who should absorb the difference; should the client pay the equivalent of what the translator was earning in dollars, or should the translator continue to earn the same amount in euros? And of course there’s the overarching issue of where the dollar is headed in general, with many economists predicting an almost worldwide recession in 2009.
It’s a tricky situation, and one that is probably best served through diversification and translator-client communication. As many other translators have commented lately, the more choices you have about who to work for and how much to charge, the better off you are when the economy is unpredictable; a good mix of clients in your country, other countries, agencies, direct clients etc. is the best protection against economic fluctuations. Likewise, it’s definitely acceptable to tell clients, especially new clients, that your rates and/or availability may change depending on the currency situation, i.e. “Right now, that rate in euros would equal my base rate in dollars, but if the dollar continues to rise against the euro, I might not be available at that rate in the future.”
Feel free to contribute your own suggestions as well!
Volunteering your translation services
Many beginning translators would like to volunteer their services in order to gain some experience before applying to translation companies and/or direct clients. This is a great idea because it benefits both the translator and the client, and pro bono projects are often less stressful than projects for a paying client; for example the pro bono client may be able to give the translator a much more extended deadline than a paying client would.
If you’re interested in volunteering your translation services, you can either go through an established service that matches volunteer translators with clients, or you can seek out work on your own. If you’d like to use a service, the two main portals I’m aware of are:
–Translators Without Borders works mainly with international humanitarian organizations. Prospective volunteer translators go through an application and testing process, and TWB’s main languages seem to be English<>French.
–Translations for Progress is more of a job board for volunteer translators, with a wide range of languages. They include a disclaimer that the translation must be for not-for-profit purposes. Once you create an account, it seems that you can directly contact the non-profits that are looking for translators.
If the options above don’t appeal to you or your languages are not represented, consider finding some volunteer translation work on your own. Obvious possibilities include legal aid agencies, public health clinics, NGOs, international development organizations, etc. Really, almost any small business might be interested in a high-quality pro bono translation, and I think it’s acceptable to ask up front whether the business would mind serving as a reference for you as long as they are happy with your work.
Upcoming session of "Getting Started as a Freelance Translator"
For about the past three years, I have been teaching a six-week online course, called “Getting Started as a Freelance Translator,” for people who are already bilingual but want to learn how to run a successful freelance translation business. We cover topics such as writing a translation-targeted resumé and cover letter, finding and keeping well-paying clients, choosing translation software and pursuing translation specializations. The next session starts on November 3, all of the details are here.
Link: So you want to be a literary translator
Masked Translator has a very insightful and much-needed post for people who want to become literary translators. We’ve all heard the discouraging advice (literary translation doesn’t pay, Americans don’t read literature much less literature in translation, publishers don’t want to use newbies, etc.), but MT gives some very helpful and concrete tips on how to break into the literary translation world.
A few tips that I would add:
–Think about publishing your literary translation yourself. One great tip that MT offers is to consider translating a work that’s in the public domain and thus not subject to copyright restrictions. For example in France, most works of which the author has been dead for more than 70 years are in the public domain, so most of the French classics are up for grabs. Once you’ve done your translation, publish and market it yourself, using a print on demand service like Lulu. This is the service I used for my book on how to become a translator and I’ve been extremely happy with it, and the book has sold almost 2,000 copies with just my (mediocre!) marketing efforts, so your literary translation could probably sell quite a few copies too!
–Don’t count yourself out just because you’re a first-timer. Sandra Smith (who will be speaking at the upcoming ATA conference) has won numerous awards for her outstanding translation of Irene Nemirovsky’s novel Suite Francaise and it was the first book she ever translated. Hopefully Sandra will let us in on some of her secrets at the conference, but there’s definitely hope even if you’re a first-time literary translator.
MT’s post really says it all, so if you’re interested in literary translations, click on over and give it a read!