Training for Translators

Classes for translators and interpreters


Corinne McKay

Dear Client…

Interestingly enough, I’ve been asked more than once, “How does a freelance translator fire a client?” Although “part ways with” might be a better term than “fire,” this phenomenon definitely exists, and is a customer relations issue that translators have to deal with. I think that there are a few reasons for this: the supply and demand situation in our industry means that highly skilled translators may be interested in raising their rates and leaving their lower-paying clients behind; raising rates often means looking for new clients, and unfortunately there are translation clients out there who are very problematic to work with. To be fair, we’ll agree that the same is true of freelancers, and that clients are also sometimes forced to sever the relationship with translators, but in this post we’ll look at when and how to politely write a Dear Client letter.

To me, the primary rule of client interaction is “act with class.” Regardless of the issue you need to address, remain professional; don’t get personal, don’t get nasty, don’t sling mud. At the same time, I think that it’s fine to tell the truth about your reasons for severing the client/translator relationship if you want to, and that it’s also fine to say as little as possible, this is really a personal decision. Always keep in mind that the translation industry is a small one and is also very word-of-mouth driven; avoid burning bridges whenever possible. Let’s look at a few scenarios and possible ways to communicate with your client.

Scenario: A new client contacts you with an offer of a project. You look them up on your favorite translation client rating list (you have one, right? and you always check it before working with a new client, right?) and find that they are a known non-payer or late payer.

Possible responses: 1) Very brief “no thank you” message, not addressing the issue 2) I’ll admit that although I don’t give specific information in this type of message, I do let the agency know why I’m declining the offer, for example “Translation industry ratings of your company are such that I must decline to work with you at this time unless you are able to pay in advance by wire transfer or credit card.”

Scenario: You have raised your rates beyond what a long-time client will pay, but the client continues to contact you with offers of work at your old rates; let’s assume that other than the rates, you enjoyed working with this client. For what it’s worth, this is the scenario that I’ve been asked about more than any other.

Possible responses: I would address this politely but directly, for example: “Thank you for your message. While I do appreciate your ongoing offers of work and have enjoyed working with you in the past, I have, as you know, raised my base rate to X cents per word.  Please feel free to contact me if you have any projects for which you have a budget of X cents per word and I will be happy to take a look at them.”

Scenario: A client has become very problematic to work with. We’ll assume that this client doesn’t owe you money, but that you no longer want to work with them in any capacity.

Possible responses: 1) Brief and to the point: “Effective immediately, I no longer wish to be considered for assignments from your agency. Please remove me from your list of available freelancers.” I wouldn’t advise this unless you really, really don’t want to ever hear from this client again, but it gets the point across effectively. 2) Addressing the issue in some way while remaining professional: “Due to some differences between your work style and mine, I have decided to focus my translation work on other clients. Please remove me from your list of available freelancers. Best regards, etc.”

Scenario: A client that you otherwise enjoy working with cannot pay you more than what you are currently charging, and you have decided to raise your rates.

Possible responses:  To me, this is the hardest type of situation to handle, especially if you have been working with the client for a long time. In this scenario, I would always leave the door open for working with the client in the future; emphasize that you are terminating the relationship at this time, but that you are open to renegotiating in the future. For example, “Although I have always enjoyed working with your agency and hope to do so in the future, I understand that my new base rate of X cents per word is outside the range of rates that you are able to pay at this time. If in the future you are able to consider higher rates, please let me know and I will be very interested in working with you again.”


Corinne McKay

This blog's banner photo

I’ve received several e-mails from people asking about the banner photo on this blog. I purchased it from iStockphoto, and the photographer is Hanoded Photography. Those of you who have traveled in the Himalaya will recognize this as a Buddhist Mani stone, bearing the inscription “Om mani padme hum,” often translated as “Hail to the jewel in the heart of the lotus” (but also translated as many other things, and often deliberately not translated at all). The photographer’s description of this photo is “A Mani stone (prayer stone, inscribed with the Buddhist mantra: ‘om mani padme hum’) in the Bumthang Valley in Bhutan.” Hanoded Photography has a large collection of beautiful photos on iStock, I purchased this one because it reminds me of one of my favorite places, Nepal.


Corinne McKay

The new ATA compensation survey: some interesting statistics

The current issue of the American Translators Association‘s Chronicle includes an article on the results of the most recent ATA compensation survey, which uses data gathered for the year 2006. The survey is interesting enough that I’m thinking of purchasing the full report ($45 for ATA members, $65 for nonmembers), but even the summary that appears in the Chronicle contains some really useful information.

When taking a look at the results, it’s important to remember that this represents a very compartmentalized snapshot of the translation profession; 979 out of 8,700 people who received the survey responded (ATA’s current membership is about 10,000) and the ATA is certainly not representative of all working translators, even within the U.S.

That being said, I found that some of the statistics corroborated my own theories about trends in the industry, while others really surprised me. For example, my own hunch about the level of education required to enter the translation industry turned out to be correct: only about 7% of the survey’s respondents have less than a Bachelor’s degree (so much for Parade magazine’s touting translation as a “no college degree required” profession!) and over half have a Master’s or higher.

I was surprised by how much the average full-time freelancer’s income has risen (to slightly over $60,000, a figure that I think is quite achievable by translators who have excellent language skills and are willing to market aggressively), but also by the fact that translation company owners earn an average of slightly over $67,000, which seemed low to me when offset by the added responsibility and constraints of running an agency.

The highest and lowest-paid language combinations were also interesting; English>Arabic and English>Danish topped the list, while English>Italian and English>Portuguese came in last when ranked by per-word rate, and Chinese>English and English>Chinese commanded the highest hourly rates.

In addition to the yearly average earnings that the compensation survey cites, I would be interested to know how those earnings break down in terms of the hours that the individual works each year. For example, when looking at the average earnings of full-time in house and freelance translators (approximately equal, with in-house translators earning a little below 60K and freelancers a little above 60K), my assumption is often that the in-house translator has to work more hours for essentially the same money. Admittedly, this is based on my own tendency to take at least four completely work-free weeks of vacation each year and at least two additional weeks where I might work a couple of hours a day. In addition, my average work week is probably closer to 30 hours rather than the 45 or 50 that most in-house employees are probably working.

However, it’s likely that many freelancers work that much, say 2,000 hours a year or more, which then  makes the in-house and freelance earnings figures much more comparable. It’s an interesting topic, and I’m looking forward to learning more from the full report.


Corinne McKay

Getting things done

When asked why they failed at freelancing, many former freelancers say that they simply couldn’t deal with the unstructured nature of the freelance day and ended up working out/watching TV/cleaning the closets etc. instead of working. Succeeding as a freelancer (translator or any other freelance job) requires that you be able to meet tight deadlines with very little external supervision. So, how do you avoid becoming one of those people with really clean closets and an empty checkbook? Here are some time management strategies that I use on a daily basis, which can be tailored to your work style and personality. For what it’s worth, my closets are very messy, but I’ve never missed a freelance deadline!

  • Enjoy what you do. This seems obvious, but when you look forward to your work, the temptation to avoid it in favor of other things decreases, and the reverse is true as well.
  • Use visual reminders of what you have to get done. When you sit down at the computer with no visual cues in front of you, it’s all too easy to check e-mail at a leisurely pace, read the news, get that second cup of coffee…and by that time you’ve convinced yourself that there’s nothing very pressing for you to do anyway. If you have a visual reminder of a task, whether it’s a to-do list, post-it notes or pop-ups on your computer screen, it’s much easier to force yourself to act on it.
  • Don’t interrupt your work to perform small tasks. For most people, momentum and uninterrupted work time are key to completing projects. When you remember that you need to send an invoice, follow up with a client, check if you received a wire transfer, etc., don’t interrupt what you’re doing to perform the task. Instead, record it on your prioritized to-do list (see below!).
  • Use a prioritized to-do list. I force myself to do this because the low priority items (“look for other translation-related blogs; research possibility of work-related trip to France”) are much more alluring than the high priority ones (“fill out W-2 forms; photocopy 2007 payroll taxes”). Although I’d much rather be doing the low priority items, having a category labeled “must be done today” makes me complete the high-priority tasks first.
  • Keep a list of quick jobs where you can see it. I think it’s very tempting to waste time in small increments, because you can ignore the fact that 10 minutes here and and there adds up to a lot of time over the course of a day or week, and it’s not as if you just spent two hours trolling Craigslist. So, I keep out a list of jobs that take 5-10 minutes and aren’t too onerous; entering business-related receipts into my accounting program, writing a check-in e-mail to a client, responding to a non-urgent e-mail that’s descended to the bottom of my inbox, etc. and when I feel like taking a break from translating, I do one of those things.
  • Give the day some structure. This depends on your work style, but I find that it’s important to break the day in the home office up into chunks and set some goals for each chunk. For me, this avoids the “it’s 4PM, where did the day go?” phenomenon.
  • Take exercise breaks when you need to think. This might brand me as a resident of America’s second fittest city, but I do think it works. When you have something you need to mull over, get out of the office and move instead of staring at the blank screen. If you want to be really productive about it, carry a digital voice recorder with you and talk into it while you exercise, then transcribe your thoughts when you get back to the office (refreshed!).


Corinne McKay

IBM's new English>Arabic translation device

Here is an interesting article from the Seattle Post-Intelligencer on IBM’s new English>Arabic translation software and hardware, with an interesting comment from ATA public relations guru Kevin Hendzel. I actually found the most disturbing part of the article to be the statistic that of 1,000 employees at the newly constructed U.S. Embassy in Baghdad, only 33 speak Arabic and only 6 of those are fluent. Here’s a thought: what about allocating some of the $75 million that the Pentagon spent on translation research last year for foreign language education? Just a thought!