Hello readers! Thoughts on Translation is back from an incredible two weeks in Costa Rica: we visited Corcovado National Park and the Arenal volcano area and it was truly amazing. I highly recommend Corcovado Adventures Tent Camp and the Sirena ranger station for a truly off-the-beaten-track … [Read more...] about 5 things to do before 2012
Money
ATA conference topic: low payers
Amazingly enough in this economy, my sense from the ATA conference is that most freelancers are very happy with their work volume and income levels. Especially as compared with the gloom and doom of the US economy (maybe even the world economy?), I think we're doing quite well. 2011 has brought me … [Read more...] about ATA conference topic: low payers
Some thoughts on hourly and salaried pay
In the early days of Thoughts on Translation (March, 2008 to be exact), I wrote a post on charging by the word versus charging by the hour. For a long time, it was the most active post on my blog and it inspired some interesting and heated discussion. Get Rich Slowly's post today is on hourly versus … [Read more...] about Some thoughts on hourly and salaried pay
What about TM discounts?
During the recent discussion on volume discounts, a number of readers brought up the (very valid) issue of translation memory discounts. I feel a can of worms about to open here, but I'll inject some of my thoughts on TM discounts. First caveat: I am neither a huge fan of nor a heavy user of TM. I … [Read more...] about What about TM discounts?
Some thoughts on volume discounts
I get lots of questions from beginning and experienced translators about volume discounts (charging a lower per-word or hourly rate for larger projects). I actually think that after "how much should I charge?", "should I offer a volume discount" might be the second most frequently-asked question … [Read more...] about Some thoughts on volume discounts