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Poll: How do you prefer to be paid?
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Poll: How do you prefer to be paid?

Marlene Blanshay

Canada
Local time: 00:45

Member (2009)
French to English
+ ...

per word for translating

Dec 15, 2008

generally...but for proofreading, by the hour (or a flat rate depending).

neilmac
Spain
Local time: 06:45

Member (2007)
Spanish to English
+ ...

Word rates

Dec 15, 2008

But I actually bill in hours, because I stll use the template I had when teaching English and charging an hourly rate.
For example, I multiply the number of words translated by the rate (per word, for Word format or compatible). Then I round off the total in favour of the client to fit in with my hourly bill, and call it a "discretional discount".
Example: I've just billed one client around 900 euros and gave them a 7.54 euro "discount" off the gross amount, which I billed as 30.2 hours. The clients seem to appreciate this and I can offer the discount that I want to, because it's unofficial, a sweetener if you like.
It stops them haggling about prices, and I can use the same template for interpreting or proofing jobs or non-word formats which may be more time consuming or difficult to count in words (PDFs, PowerPoint, HTML etc).
On time payment is nice too, if you can get it...

[Edited at 2008-12-15 20:50 GMT]

Rolf Kern

Switzerland
Local time: 06:45

Member (2008)
English to German
+ ...

Depends on the kind of work

Dec 15, 2008

When there are countable lines, it is target lines, because German translations tend to be longer than French oder English texts.

When there are just words, or mixed text, where some German exists but must be verified, then time is the reasonable system.

Parrot

Spain
Local time: 06:45

Member (2002)
Spanish to English
+ ...

MODERATOR

NA/No preference

Dec 15, 2008

Everything has a time equivalent, and that's the non-recoverable asset.

Vito Smolej
Germany
Local time: 06:45

Member (2004)
English to Slovenian
+ ...

Missing among answers

Dec 16, 2008

I prefer to be paid on time.

Interlangue

Belgium
Local time: 06:45
English to French
+ ...

Not that difficult

Dec 16, 2008

Oliver Lawrence wrote:

Some agencies have asked me for quotes per page or per line, which always seems odd to me, as the number of pages/lines in a text depends partly on the formatting (font size, spacing, etc.) whereas the number of words does not, so it seems clearer and fairer to charge by word.

In terms of charging by the hour (for translation, as opposed to interpreting, I mean), I feel that if I take on a translation in an area which I'm not expert on (e.g. to broaden my experience), then charging by the hour would be slightly unfair on the client, tantamount to asking them to pay for my education as well as the specific translation service that they want. And it's not always at all easy to tell how long something will take before you get your teeth into it!

In MSWord, the "statistics" give you the character count with and without spaces, as well as the word count. A line in most countries, for most agencies is 60 characters with spaces (or 50 without) - in Germany, it tends to be 50 with. A page is 30 lines of those (1500 characters no spaces). Not that difficult!
Strange: in "MSDos times", we counted words, then switched to lines (or pages) because they more accurate and now, some agencies tend to come back to words.

Jon Fedler
Israel
Local time: 07:45

Member
German to English
+ ...

What type of word?

Dec 16, 2008

If my memory serves me correctly, before the era of CAT tools translation was generally paid for according to target words. As a German English translator this was to my advantage, as the finished product can be as much as 33% longer.

Some of my older customers sill pay the old way. Most have left the rates unchanged; a few have lowered them slightly. Last week I did a job for a new client (in the EU) that pays by target word, though I only discovered this after checking, as an afterthought. (I located it via a Proz ad, which didn't specify word type).

Have others had this experience?

To avoid all doubt, I think ads in Proz should state specifically what word is being referred to.

Marta Brambilla

Switzerland
Local time: 06:45

Member (2007)
German to Italian
+ ...

Per line

Dec 16, 2008

Hi !!!
I agree with Interlangue.
I don't like the per word payment as there are short, long, easy and difficult words.

I do prefer to get paid per line of 55 characters each.

Only in case of proofreading and translation Japanese-Italian I prefer the per hour payment.
Marta

Marta Brambilla

Switzerland
Local time: 06:45

Member (2007)
German to Italian
+ ...

Target language

Dec 16, 2008

Jonathan Fedler wrote:

If my memory serves me correctly, before the era of CAT tools translation was generally paid for according to target words. As a German English translator this was to my advantage, as the finished product can be as much as 33% longer.

Some of my older customers sill pay the old way. Most have left the rates unchanged; a few have lowered them slightly. Last week I did a job for a new client (in the EU) that pays by target word, though I only discovered this after checking, as an afterthought. (I located it via a Proz ad, which didn't specify word type).

Have others had this experience?

To avoid all doubt, I think ads in Proz should state specifically what word is being referred to.

I forgot to mention, the agency I work with pays me per line of target language and working into Italian this is an advantage because Italian is usually around 20% longer than German/English!!!!

Karen Vincent-Jones

United Kingdom
Local time: 05:45

Member (2006)
French to English
+ ...

Payment per line

Feb 12, 2009

Not being mathematically gifted, I can't work out how to quote per line, as I am used to quoting rates per word. Eg how would 0.08 euros per word work out per line? Can anybody help?