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| User | Thread poster: Laura Diel Rates charged to translation agencies in Australia - suggestions needed |
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Laura Diel
Australia
Local time: 10:15
  Member (2009)
German to Italian
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Hi,
I have a rough idea of how much translators charge direct clients in Australia, but what about agency rates? Do you work with Australian translation agencies or mainly with overseas clients?
I know that rates can vary a lot depending on many factors (also on the country you live in), but I was wondering what the average translation rates are for professional translators living in Australia.
If you prefer you can send me a private message, any help is appreciated.
Thanks!
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MariaMast 
Australia
Local time: 21:15
Member (2009)
English to Spanish
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| | similar situation | Jul 13, 2009 |
Hello,
I am in a situation similar to Laura's. I am an accredited translator in Australia (Melbourne) but I have mainly worked with private clients so I would also like to know abouu agency rates both in Australia and overseas.
Thank you very much for your help.
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Geraldine Oudin
France
Japanese to French
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I can see you are in Perth, so am I.
Prices vary from an agency to the other, but I think you shouldn't expect much more than AUD 20 cent per word. I have registered with several agencies as an Interpreter, and I think most of them tend to have fixed rates both for Translation and Interpreting, which means you can hardly negociate your rates with them as you would do in Europe.
Most of them deal mostly with translation of documents like Certificates, driving licences and so on, which is not so interesting anyway.
As for me, and even though I am fully Accredited, I stick to my foreign customers...(so far).But I'd be interested to know what are the rates one can charge direct clients in Australia, though.
[Modifié le 2009-07-13 04:22 GMT]
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Laura Diel
Australia
Local time: 10:15
Member (2009)
German to Italian
+ ...
TOPIC STARTER |
Hi France-Japon,
thank you for the information!
As far as I know (through personal experience) rates for direct clients (translator>client) in Australia are around AUD 25-30 cent per word. But maybe this doesn't apply to all language pairs. This is why I think that AUD 20 cent isn't bad at all! Maybe MariaMast knows better...
Are your foreign customers agencies or direct clients?
It's very difficult to apply the right rates when you're working with agencies from different countries, you may have your own standard rates but in some countries (i.e. Italy) you will hardly be contacted if you ask more than AUD 10 cents...
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Heinrich Pesch
Finland
Local time: 12:15
Member (2003)
Finnish to German
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| | Stick to your rates | Jul 13, 2009 |
Laura.DieL wrote:
Hi France-Japon,
thank you for the information!
As far as I know (through personal experience) rates for direct clients (translator>client) in Australia are around AUD 25-30 cent per word. But maybe this doesn't apply to all language pairs. This is why I think that AUD 20 cent isn't bad at all! Maybe MariaMast knows better...
Are your foreign customers agencies or direct clients?
It's very difficult to apply the right rates when you're working with agencies from different countries, you may have your own standard rates but in some countries (i.e. Italy) you will hardly be contacted if you ask more than AUD 10 cents...
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Hi Laura,
this is non of my business, of course, but I really think we should not calculate along these lines. If our service is too expensive for some customer, there is nothing we can do about it. There are low-cost and high-cost countries, and our rates should reflect our own cost-structure, not that of a client in country X.
I charge all clients the same, only old clients can expect some loyalty-discount. Only if the agency promises to do quality assurance on their behalf can I charge less, because there is less work for me.
Regards
Heinrich
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John Rawlins
Spain
Local time: 11:15
Member (2007)
Spanish to English
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| | Avoid those agencies - don't drop your rates | Jul 13, 2009 |
I agree strongly with Heinrich.
If you hear on the grapevine that agencies in 'Pongoland' only pay 12 pongolese cents a word then that that is no reason to drop your rates. The best course would be to forget working for any agencies in Pongoland (anyway, the exchange rate for the Pongolese punt is very low at the moment).
[Edited at 2009-07-13 09:00 GMT]
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Laura Diel
Australia
Local time: 10:15
Member (2009)
German to Italian
+ ...
TOPIC STARTER | | you're right | Jul 13, 2009 |
I agree with you.
The problem is that I come from Pongoland.
I'm not currently living there and that's why I was asking around, trying to understand what I can expect from the country where I'm living at the moment.
Yes, you're right the best solution is probably to forget Pongolese agencies.... and their rates.
Thanks
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Patricia Will
Australia
Local time: 18:15
Member (2004)
German to English
| | Not dropping your rates | Jul 13, 2009 |
Interesting discussion, but what some of you who don't live here may not appreciate is that there is a limited market in Australia for English into other languages. As Laura does English and Spanish into Italian then I would suggest that Italy (or other European countries) will be greater source of work than the local market here. So even if the agencies here do pay far better than in Italy it is not going to be much help if you only get one job a week and that job is a birth certificate or some other small document. We sell a service and if there is a limited demand for our services in one place we may have to look for our customers in another. I do very little local work, with most of my jobs coming from clients in Germany. Although the rates are slightly lower than what agencies would pay here the volume of work is much higher, with lots of very large projects to keep me busy. I would encourage anyone working here to look for customers outside Australia too and to choose your clients carefully if your market happens to be in a country where the rates are lower. Do some research on the Blue Board to see what are the best agencies in Italy, you may find some prepare to pay a higher rate than the AUD 0.10 you quoted. I don't know if there is a niche market somewhere here for English-Italian, but perhaps Australian companies with Italian subsidiaries or sales agencies, or Italian companies with affiliates in Australia, or Australian companies exporting to Italy in particular ..... perhaps Austrade can help you do a bit of research here. The Italian chamber of commerce in Australia might be another source of business.
Laura, I am in Perth too, maybe we can meet up for a coffee some time and chat about this and other related matters. What's your location?
Best regards
Patricia
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Geraldine Oudin
France
Japanese to French
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Laura, I am in Perth too, maybe we can meet up for a coffee some time and chat about this and other related matters. What's your location?
Best regards
Patricia |
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If you have a coffee, let me know...
I am surprised when you say that Italian agencies pay 0.10, that's lower than in France.
[Modifié le 2009-07-14 12:45 GMT]
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Patricia Will
Australia
Local time: 18:15
Member (2004)
German to English
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Yes, good idea, I'll try and organise something after the school holidays are over.
Best regards
Patricia
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Laura Diel
Australia
Local time: 10:15
Member (2009)
German to Italian
+ ...
TOPIC STARTER |
let me know if you organize a coffee!
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Daria Bontch-Osmolovskaia
Australia
Local time: 20:15
Member (2010)
Russian to English
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| | my tuppenny's worth | Sep 9, 2009 |
I am a Russian > English translator (though I do some in in the English > Russian direction as well), and I have to say that I would be very lucky to get paid AUS 0.10 per source word! Some local clients pay me more than that, but they are rare and far between, so most of my work comes from Europe and the US - which usually means that I am competing directly with translators in the Ukraine and Russian Federation, and they can work for as little as 0.01 - 0.02 per word. It's an unpleasant situation, I have to charge lower to get the volume of work that I need to pay my bills, but even then I get told that my rates are way, way too high.
It's enough to make me want to learn another European language to a point that I could translate from it into English...
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Hugo Wilcken
Australia
| | Just arrived in Australia... | Jun 16, 2011 |
Hi, I've just arrived in Sydney from Paris, where I worked for many years as a French-to-English commercial translator. I've started emailing agencies here with my CV, and I've got an initial enquiry as to my rates. To be honest, I have no idea what to ask for here. Judging from this thread, is 20c per word about right? Or would I pricing myself to high? I'd be grateful for any input.
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Hugo Wilcken
Australia
| | translation agency rates | Jun 17, 2011 |
No takers?
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Anna Herbst
Australia
Local time: 21:15
Member (2008)
English to Swedish
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| | Agency rates haven't changed much over the past few years | Jun 17, 2011 |
Hi Hugo,
The rates of between 0.20 - 0.30 per word that have been mentioned earlier in this thread still seem to be what most agencies are prepared to pay, so you are definitely not pricing yourself out of the market if you ask for 0.20 AUD per word.
Good luck with your freelance work,
Anna
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