Training for Translators

Classes for translators and interpreters

Marketing


Corinne McKay

New podcast: Marketing tips for translators

Congratulations to English-Swedish translator Tess Whitty on the launch of her new podcast, Marketing tips for translators! Tess has a degree in marketing, and in each episode of her podcast she’ll be interviewing a guest about a niche aspect of marketing for translators. Tess has four episodes currently available:

Right this minute, I’m sitting in the New Orleans airport, listening to Tess’ interview with Anne about LinkedIn tips, and it’s really great material. I’m looking forward to listening to Marta’s interview on the plane! Tess’ hosting style is very natural and conversational, and she’s targeted guests who are very passionate about their topics. You can also subscribe to the podcast in iTunes (I just did this, so I can attest that it works). Thanks Tess for this great initiative, and here’s to a long and happy life for this new podcast!


Corinne McKay

Translation credentials: what are they and do you need them?

Here’s a very common question from my beginning translation students: “Do I need a…(Bachelor’s degree, Master’s degree, translation certificate, translator certification, etc.)” with corollaries such as “Am I better off getting a foreign language MA or a translation certificate?” “If I don’t have a Bachelor’s degree but I’m ATA-certified, is that OK?” and so on.

I can answer all of these questions with two words: it depends. There you go! That’s somewhat tongue in cheek, but it does really depend on your background, your goals, who you work for and what you do. And in this post, I’m talking about the norm, not the exception; I know a couple of self-taught conference interpreters who have tons of work, people without Bachelor’s degrees who are doing fine, and lots of people who are not ATA-certified and still make a squadrillion dollars a year. But here I’m talking in general, and I apologize in advance if this gets long!

Also, there are some very notable exceptions to these observations. For example let’s say that you want to be a court interpreter at the state level. In many U.S. states, the only pre-requisite to take the court interpreter exam is that you have to be 18 and legally eligible to work in the US. In theory, even a smart and motivated high school student could study for and pass the exam. And once you’re certified, everyone generally is paid the same rate. So in that case, and for that specific job, there may be absolutely no advantage to having a Bachelor’s degree.

Do you need a Bachelor’s degree? Yes, in most cases, I really think that you do. As with the court interpreter scenario above, of course there are exceptions. But at least in the US, I think that if you don’t have a Bachelor’s degree, you are seen as A Person Who Did Not Go to College; whereas whether you have a BA, MA, PhD, law degree, whatever, you are A Person Who Went to College. Corollary: if you’re not 18 and your parents aren’t going to fund this educational endeavor, is a Bachelor’s from an online university better than, say, a high school degree or an Associate’s, plus a certificate from a reputable translation certificate program? Honestly, I don’t really know. First, you’d need to find a reputable translation certificate program to accept you without an undergraduate degree, but that might be doable if your language skills are strong.

Are translation/interpreting MA programs worth the investment? You had to ask a tough one, didn’t you… Here’s my opinion: before you undertake a graduate degree, ask yourself, “What do I want to do, that I cannot do now, that I can do if I earn this degree?” If your answer is that you want a job as a staff translator or interpreter at a high-level entity such as the U.N., Department of State, European Union, etc. then yes, I think that a translation/interpreting MA, preferably from the top program in your country, is probably a good investment. If you are completely convinced that you want to do conference interpreting, ditto: go for the interpreting-specific MA if possible.

On the other hand, consider this: in the US, tuition, fees, meals and housing at a private university will run you about $50,000 a year; an MA will generally last two years. Schools in Europe generally charge less in tuition, but the cost of living in the European capitals will bump the total cost up significantly. And you also have to consider the issue of lost income, especially if your other option is to simply start freelancing right away. Statistics tell us that the average full-time freelance translator/interpreter in the US earns about $75,000 per year. So during those two years, you’ll forgo some $150,000 in income, giving you a total investment of about $250,000 in your degree. That’s a pretty big number by anyone’s standards, but it’s probably worth it if your heart is set on a staff position at a major international organization; hopefully you’ll get an outstanding education, you’ll be taught by highly experienced professors, you’ll make great contacts, you’ll probably have a leg up in terms of internships, and so on.

However, in my opinion, and I apologize if this verges on “rant” territory, most translation/interpreting MA programs do not offer nearly enough education in business and entrepreneurship, given the career paths that a lot of their students will take. Will some of their students work on staff at places like the UN for their entire careers? Sure. Are there enough of those jobs open every year to employ the majority of graduates? I would say not. So, realistically, a lot of people with translation/interpreting MAs, even from top-tier schools, will become freelancers.  A lot of people who earn translation/interpreting MAs want to be freelancers, whether in-house jobs are available or not. And if I invested a quarter of a million dollars in that type of degree, in an industry that is highly freelance-oriented, I would expect a top-tier education in language entrepreneurship in addition to my language skills education. Here’s an example: several top-tier music schools in the US have music entrepreneurship centers. The University of Colorado here in Boulder has one. So does Manhattan School of Music, with the lead-in, “In today’s marketplace, musicians need more than artistic excellence: they need the added edge of entrepreneurial skills to create opportunities and build successful, sustainable careers.” Substitute “linguistic” for “artistic” and I think you’ve got the idea of what our industry needs; and to my knowledge, none of the major translation MA programs in the US or Europe are really addressing this. (End of rant!)

How about certification? Being certified, by ATA or any other national translators association, will never be a negative. Compensation surveys tell us that ATA-certified translators earn more than non-certified translators.  I have also heard from several translation companies with government contracts that they are under more pressure to use ATA-certified translators whenever possible. If a client is browsing the ATA online directory, they will probably contact the certified people first. So I think that the ATA exam is absolutely worth attempting if it’s in your budget. However, translator certification, in any country, is not like the bar exam for lawyers or the CPA exam for accountants. Lots of people make lots of money without ever becoming certified. I would consider certification a definite plus, but not a must.

Translation certificate programs? Translation certificate programs are great, because they teach you how to actually translate. They’ll help you avoid the litany of mistakes that I, and lots of other beginning translators, committed early in our careers. They’re also a good deal less expensive and less time-consuming than graduate degree programs. Most translation certificate programs are taught by practicing translators and interpreters who teach in their areas of specialization, so you’ll get real-world feedback from the instructors. Caveats: expect to pay $700-$1,500 per class, and don’t assume that completing a translation certificate program will enable you to pass the ATA certification exam.

What about subject-area degrees or training? I think this is the cutting edge in terms of credentials in our industry. Subject-area knowledge has always been important, but I think it’s becoming more so. For example, translation now seems to be a popular option for career-changing lawyers: possibly because lawyers have some of the lowest job satisfaction rates and some of the highest rates of substance abuse and depression of any white-collar profession. Whatever the case, if you’re already established in the profession and want to take your credentials up a notch, subject-area training would be my pick. Whether you do free, online courses through an entity like Coursera or enroll in a full-on graduate program in your specialization, I think it would be energy well spent.


Corinne McKay

Expanding your book sales beyond your Facebook friends

Publishing has been on my mind a lot lately, as I gear up to get my next book out the door and start writing another one. Let’s say that you too have a book lurking inside your head, or better yet, a book lurking on your hard drive and waiting to see the light of day. These days, publishing the book is the easy part, if you do it yourself. Using the services of BookBaby, BookBrewer, Lulu and/or CreateSpace, I’ve seen authors go from idea to published book in under two months. But after that “Christmas morning” moment when you open the box or the PDF with the proof copy of your self-published book in it, you’re up against some tough odds. Various articles (such as this one and this one) note the similarity between the average number of copies that a self-published book sells (about 150) and the number of Facebook friends that the average person has (about 190). So, let’s look at some potential strategies for expanding your book sales beyond your Facebook friends. Many of these apply to self-published and traditionally-published authors!

You need a niche or a very targeted readership. My first book, How to Succeed as a Freelance Translator, has sold about 5,000 copies. Hopefully it’s a good book, but it also fills a very targeted niche (people who want to become translators; translators who want to improve their businesses) and appeals to a very specific kind of person. And no niche is too small; one of Lulu’s current bestsellers is about the 1940 census in Mendocino, California. Just make sure that you can complete the sentence, “The kind of person who would buy my book is…”

You need a platform. This wisdom comes from my good friend and social media guru Beth Hayden. At first, I didn’t want to hear it. I just wanted to be a word artist and forget the marketing stuff. But 5,000 books later, Beth was right. You cannot just put your book up for sale and expect that people will find it and buy it. “A platform” can take many forms: maybe everyone in your industry knows you from your previous writing (like Chris Durban, author of The Prosperous Translator). Maybe you create a whole new website, blog and seminars that complement your book (like Judy and Dagmar Jenner did for The Entrepreneurial Linguist). Maybe you go on a book tour and do tons of interviews in all kinds of media (like Nataly Kelly did for Found in Translation). But you cannot just throw your book at the Internet and hope that it sticks.

Your book has to actually be good. This might seem obvious, but it isn’t. Stereotypes of self-published books exist for a reason: lots of them read like a stream of consciousness that the author banged out at 3 in the morning, saved as a PDF and printed. Many seem not to have even been spell-checked before printing. It takes time, money or both to create a professional-looking book.

You have to get good, unbiased reviews of your book. Your mom and your Facebook friends are guaranteed to love your book, and that’s how you’ll stall out at 150 sales, unless your mom buys them for all of her friends, and then maybe you’ll sell 200. I’m being a little harsh here, but part of what will sell your book is the opinion of people who matter, or people who rave about you in an unbiased way. There’s a big difference between your college roommate writing an Amazon review that says “This book is awesome and everyone should read it” and someone you don’t know writing “I was about to call an attorney to help incorporate my freelance business. This book showed me exactly the steps to follow, in a way that I could understand. Right there, I saved over $1,000.”

Once the book is out, you have to promote it. Send out review copies, do signings, blog blog blog, Tweet Tweet Tweet, package the book with an hour of your consulting time, ask your local bookstores to feature it, flog it to your college alumni magazines, and anything else you can think of. When you’ve exhausted your bank of ideas, read John Kremer’s 1,001 Ways to Market Your Books and steal some of his ideas. Think way outside the box, like this Brooklyn novelist who opened a “Novelade stand” and offered free cookies to anyone who bought her (published by Houghton Mifflin) novel.

You have to believe that you can do this. Here in Boulder, we’re all about “putting it out to the universe” and other techniques that may or may not work. But the older I get, the more I believe in the power of a mindset. The indie author wave (and by “indie” I mean both self-published and traditionally-published authors; basically anyone who isn’t Janet Evanovich or David Baldacci) isn’t just coming, it’s here. A couple of months ago, Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos reported that 27 of the top 100 Kindle books were self-published. Hugh Howey, author of the hugely successful self-published science fiction series Wool, reports that his Kindle Direct royalties often top six figures per month. My book certainly isn’t in that category, but the royalties (normally $400-$600 per month) have paid for some sweet vacations.

So, now that you feel inspired, get it done! 2013 could be your year to break beyond the publishing averages; if you have other tips for authors, please add them in the comments!


Corinne McKay

Is it better to market by e-mail or on paper?

Over the past six months or so, I’ve been experimenting (sometimes with my translation partner and sometimes on my own) with cold-marketing to potential direct clients. Because a great deal of our work is in a very targeted subject area (international development), it’s not hard to find potential clients but it’s often hard to know how to contact them. Here are some thoughts on whether you’re better off making the initial contact by e-mail or on paper; I’m not even going to touch cold-calling because I am the worst phone salesperson ever. Ever. Really. But if you’re interested in low-stress cold calling, The Freelancery has some excellent scripts that you can work from.

The great thing about e-mail marketing is that:

  • It’s fast. If you’re reading a business news article and see a tidbit that shouts “potential client” to you, you can fire off the e-mail right there.
  • It’s less formal. You can get away with “Just wanted to tell you that I loved staying at your inn this summer; if you’re ever inclined to translate your website/marketing brochure/menu into English, I’d love to talk,” whereas it would seem a little weird (at least to me) to print out a paper letter with that sentence and pop it in the mail.
  • The recipient can easily forward the message. I’d say that at least half the time I cold-contact, I don’t hit the right person on the first try. Especially with larger entities, it can be hard to tell who hires freelancers for the kind of work we do. But your prospect can quickly forward your message to the right person.
  • It’s cheap. If you’re looking at a paper marketing campaign to a few hundred prospects, the paper, envelopes, business cards, stamps, etc. add up over time.

But then again…

  • Unsolicited marketing e-mails always feel a little spammy. The person might just delete the message, or might receive so much e-mail that they just don’t have time to respond. In some countries, sending unsolicited marketing e-mails may be technically illegal, and it’s never fun to break the law to find new clients.
  • If you don’t personalize your e-mails in some way, the recipients may assume that they were auto-generated, or that you’re just sending the same blanket e-mail out to thousands of potential clients. And if you do personalize them, it takes time.

So what about good old paper? On the plus side:

  • In an era when most people’s postal mail is 95% ads and bills, a lot of people respond really favorably to something fun or personal in the mail. I know I do when I’m on the receiving end; a client recently sent me a “thank you” postcard for a large rush project, and I pinned it on my bulletin board to inspire me when I sit down to translate.
  • It shows a classy touch. A marketing letter with a little handwritten note at the end and a business card enclosed is kind of the anti-spam.
  • The recipient has something tangible to keep. If the person needs your services months or years later, it’s unlikely that they’ll be able to locate an e-mail, but if they keep a file of business cards in their desk, you’re probably still in there.
  • You can write more. Not many people want to read a 400-word e-mail, but you can get away with a 400-word paper letter because it’s still one page.
  • Nice postcards and brochures appeal to people who are visual. You really don’t want to send a massive PDF to someone you don’t know, but you can send them a cool postcard and they’ll love it.

But then again…

  • Paper marketing campaigns are time-consuming. In the time it takes to personalize a paper letter, print it, sign it, stuff an envelope with it and your business card, put the stamp on and mail it, you could probably send out five quick e-mails.
  • Paper marketing campaigns can get expensive, at least compared to e-mail. Sending out marketing letters doesn’t cost much, but if you get into fancy postcards or brochures, you could be spending as much as a dollar per potential client just for the printing, not to mention graphic design.
  • Paper marketing campaigns also require more research; it’s pretty easy to find an e-mail contact on someone’s website, but sometimes you have to search for the right mailing address.

I don’t really have a verdict on this one. My translation partner and I did a modest (maybe 150 potential clients) direct client marketing campaign in the winter and spring and we did get some business from it, but it took a lot of time to put together. Now I’m experimenting with shorter, punchier marketing e-mails to see how that works. Any thoughts?


Corinne McKay

Some thoughts on saturated markets

There are a lot of disparities within the translation and interpreting industry, and one of those is the difference between language pairs/specializations that are fairly rare versus those that are fairly saturated. In this post I’ll both offer and request advice, since I often have students in my online translation course who work in saturated markets (and I’d like some fresh tips to offer them!).

First, let’s look at some numbers from the ATA membership directory, in terms of the number of people who have the following language combinations listed in their profiles:

  • English to Spanish translators: 2,111
  • German to English translators: 800
  • Russian to English translators: 480
  • Japanese to English translators: 394
  • Arabic interpreters: 148
  • Burmese interpreters: 3

Obviously I selected these to prove a point. But even the number of people registered for a fairly large language pair such as German to English pales in comparison with the 2,000+ English to Spanish translators. I’ve recently begun the process of preparing for the French court interpreter exam in Colorado. French isn’t exactly an obscure language, but there are currently no certified French court interpreters in the state. By contrast, the list of certified Spanish interpreters takes up several pages. I would assume that the situation is the same for certain language pairs in other countries (for example English>French translators in Quebec).

Saturated markets have a few issues:

  • Competition among translators and interpreters is often intense and very price-based.
  • Clients, especially large clients, are often able to keep rates on the low end of the spectrum. For example, PRI’s The World recently ran a story on pay cuts to court interpreters in Nevada, and certified Spanish court interpreters here in Colorado make $35 an hour.
  • Freelancers who work in saturated markets are often reluctant to share information with their colleagues; they are afraid to disclose who they work for or how much they charge, for fear of being undercut by someone else who charges less.
  • Freelancers in saturated markets have less incentive to get new credentials or improve their skills, because they don’t feel that they can charge commensurately higher rates.
  • The sheer number of people in the saturated market creates an “anyone can do it” mentality, and the market becomes even more saturated with people whose skill levels are not up to par.

But enough doom and gloom: the real question is, what’s a translator or interpreter in a saturated market to do? Here are a few suggestions, and (please!) feel free to add your own suggestions in the comments.

  • First, a pep talk: remember that you do not need enough work to keep all 2,000 English to Spanish translators in the ATA busy. You just need enough work for yourself. I would venture a guess that many established translators earn the bulk of their income from their 3-5 main clients. Do you think there are 3-5 clients out there who will pay real money for your services? Right, I think so too. So let’s figure out how to find them.
  • For translators who are not restricted to working with clients in their home area, the obvious solution is to look for clients in other areas. For example, for English to Spanish translators who live in Latin America, I would definitely recommend looking for clients in the US and/or the UK.
  • In order to do that, make sure to solicit the help of a native English speaker who lives in your target market country. For example if you want to apply to translation clients in the US, your application materials must be in error-free US English.
  • Look for direct clients. I work for and enjoy working for both agencies and direct clients. But I think that many direct clients get attached to translators they like, and are also less price-sensitive than agencies are, so they are a good bet if you work in a saturated market.
  • Get some credentials. For example, of the 2,111 people registered as English to Spanish translators on the ATA website, only 484 are certified for English to Spanish. 484 people is still a lot, but here we’ve already narrowed the pool down to 1/4 of what it was. I think that any credential you can earn: ATA certification, a translation certificate, court interpreter certification (if at the Federal level, even better!), etc. is a big plus.
  • Concentrate on the advantages that you offer: familiarity with the source language culture, ability to do on-site work, ability to provide multiple services (voiceover, transcription, subtitling, etc.) all spring to mind.

And please tell me that you have some more tips too!