At last year's American Translators Association conference in San Francisco, I overheard a few conversations about how the translation industry would be affected if translators started billing by the hour rather than by the word. In some cases and for some jobs, translators do bill by the hour, but … [Read more...] about Paid by the word or paid by the hour?
The art of saying no
Recently, several newly established freelance translators have asked me about how and when to say no to clients who are offering translation projects. It's a delicate topic, since as freelancers we need to accept work in order to stay in business, but we also need to decline work in order to … [Read more...] about The art of saying no
A new header image
WordPress' MistyLook theme makes it very easy to change your header image, here is a new one from iStock. This is called "Way to Everest," by iStock member "weareadventurers." It reminds me of one of my favorite places (Nepal) and also that sometimes, translation feels a little like climbing … [Read more...] about A new header image
A helpful post on blogs and feeds for translators
Here is a useful post, from Translator Support, about RSS feeds and some translation-related sites that offer feeds. For a long time I was mystified by feeds (and I've now publicly admitted this!), but Blogging With Beth removed my feed-based shame and confusion, and I'm now a devotee of Firefox's … [Read more...] about A helpful post on blogs and feeds for translators
The first step in translation quality: a qualified translator
Last week, I was visiting the website of a certain country's embassy in the U.S. (yes, I'm deliberately protecting their identity because they've promised that the issue is being rectified!) and just out of curiosity, checked to see if they had any information about translation, since this country's … [Read more...] about The first step in translation quality: a qualified translator