| User | Thread poster: Caitlín O'Connor What should I quote for a DE>EN translation? |
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Caitlín O'Connor
Germany
German to English
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hello! I was asked to translate a contract of about 2000 words into English, i need to give a quote and have no idea how much i should quote. Any help would be greatly appreciated. This is also a client that I would like to do further business with, so i do not want to overprice but i do not want to undersell myself either!
[Subject edited by staff or moderator 2008-07-23 16:47]
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Ralf Lemster 
Germany
 Member (2003)
English to German
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Moderator of this forum | | How long is a piece of string? | Jul 23 |
Caitlin,
I understand your situation, but the way you asked your question, there's no way anyone can answer it properly.
Thing is, we don't know your client (end client - private individual or large corporation, agency, other freelancer, ...?), the nature and complexity of the project, your experience and qualifications, etc.
The key to pricing is to know (or at least get a reasonable estimate) how much time it will take you to translate a 2,000-word project (have you seen the text? If not, you should...). Based on your desired target income per hour, you can then price the project, and break it down to a per-word price if required.
Best regards,
Ralf
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Brandis
Germany
 Member (2003)
English to German
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| | Calculate on hourly price.. | Jul 23 |
Hi! sometimes that is still the best idea, especially when you do not know how to quote, you go with the industrial average pricing. BR Brandis
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Nicole Schnell
United States
Member
English to German
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| | Caitlín, translation doesn't come with a price list as in a copy shop or a burger restaurant | Jul 24 |
Nobody knows what your 2000 words are about. Are you going to translate personal ads for a lonely-hearts-website or are you going to translate highly classified information about the latest military aircraft, describing its unsurpassed technology in detail?
As Ralf Lemster said: "How long is a piece of string?"
Edited for typo.
[Edited at 2008-07-24 01:00]
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Soonthon LUPKITARO(Ph.D.)
Thailand
Member (2004)
English to Thai
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In economics, I studied about pricing policy.
In translation business, I set my prices in various strategies:
1. A new/repetitive client
2. A long-term/temporary client
3. The currency I will be paid
4. Payment terms
5. Easeness of the document to translate
6. Academic value of the document (e.g. what I can personally learn out of the contexts)
7. Volume of work
8. Special format requirement of translation
9. DTP features
10. Applicable software cost
You can also set pricing you plan for your business.
Regards,
Soonthon L.
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Marcelo Silveyra
United States
Member (2007)
German to English
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Caitlin, send me an e-mail and I'll help you out. Jeez, from some of the responses here, you'd figure the girl was asking how to build a nuclear reactor from an AMD processor, a jewel case, and a couple of shoestrings or something.
[Edited at 2008-07-24 08:52]
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Nicole Schnell
United States
Member
English to German
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| | Marcelo: "the girl"? | Jul 24 |
Quite a gentleman, hm?
However, nobody ever discusses rates in a public forum. This question has been posted a gazillion times.
If you are convinced that you will be able to represent precise market figures, though, so be it. I see an empty profile page.
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Marcelo Silveyra
United States
Member (2007)
German to English
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It's an expression, just like "dude" or "guys" - I'm afraid you're reading into it way too much, especially when we're dealing with what is basically a non-academic forum.
Moreover, I didn't say I would give her a table of "precise market figures" and get it over with by writing a couple of sentences- I said I'd help her out. They're very different things.
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Caitlín O'Connor
Germany
German to English
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a contract of about 2000 words into English
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Nicole Schnell
United States
Member
English to German
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| | There is nice feature on Proz.com | Jul 24 |
Simply go to: Directories > Freelancers. Choose the language pair, the country of residence, the field of expertise (legal), and a bunch of profile pages will be shown. Many colleagues are posting their average rates on their profile pages. This will give you a good idea of how much your fellow translators might charge.
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Nicole Schnell
United States
Member
English to German
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At a combined age of 108 years, neither my husband nor yours truly appreciates to be called "girl" or "dude". It is derogatory. As long as we don't know how the lady wishes to be addressed we should maintain courtesy.
BTW, I am any telemarketer's nightmare. The ones who consider it appropriate to be on first-name-basis with a complete stranger...
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FarkasAndras
Hungary
English to Hungarian
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| | depends on how you look at it | Jul 25 |
Nicole Schnell wrote:
At a combined age of 108 years, neither my husband nor yours truly appreciates to be called "girl" or "dude". It is derogatory. As long as we don't know how the lady wishes to be addressed we should maintain courtesy.
BTW, I am any telemarketer's nightmare. The ones who consider it appropriate to be on first-name-basis with a complete stranger...
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I know more people who object to being called a lady than who object to being called a girl. But then the first group consist of exactly one person...
Most people care about things that matter.
I'm not going to suggest a price as some seem to think it's improper and I work in a different (lower priced) market anyway.
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canaria
United Kingdom
Member (2006)
French to English
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| | even being fairly long in the tooth I would prefer to be called girl than lady! | Jul 25 |
Nicole Schnell wrote:
At a combined age of 108 years, neither my husband nor yours truly appreciates to be called "girl" or "dude". It is derogatory. As long as we don't know how the lady wishes to be addressed we should maintain courtesy.
BTW, I am any telemarketer's nightmare. The ones who consider it appropriate to be on first-name-basis with a complete stranger...
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Nicole Schnell
United States
Member
English to German
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| | When in Rome, do as the Romans do | Jul 26 |
The poster of this forum is a German resident. In this case it doesn't matter what you consider appropriate for yourself. Besides, it doesn't answer her question.
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The translation workplace 
