Paying for TM? Thread poster: Studio Moderna
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Hello, one translator of our company just told me that usually for providing TM to the client they ask for 25% of the price of the transaltion, that this is the common practice. Can you tell me if this is true? Do you charge for TM as well? Because I have never heard or read about it...
| | | | Darko Pauković 
Croatia
Local time: 08:55
Member (2012)
English to Croatian
+ ...
| | Recurring issues that shouldn't be issues | Jun 27, 2013 |
Darko Pauković wrote:
...If you require unclean file from your translator, you can populate TM yourself...
Indeed. I don't really get it.
When outsourcers require a translator to use a CAT tool, they usually require a bilingual file. And if they don't, the translator should know such requirement is implied. Therefore the need for a TM is redundant, unless they don't know what they're doing.
There is no point fighting over TM price, and translators would be better inspired to fight over proper rates and sustainable discounts schedules from the onset. And include bilingual files with all their deliveries, so that they have solid grounds to charge for TM delivery should the customer require it on top of bilingual files (hefty amounts, because you provide a valuable service to them, that they apparently can't do themselves with bilingual files only).
Also, an agency requiring the translator's TM means that they don't do any touch-up to the translation (like bilingual editing...), otherwise they would do so on the bilingual files and update their own TM.
Is there any reason why bilingual files are not enough? If so, please enlighten me.
I don't think I have ever sent a TM to an agency, and I work only with CAT tools. So whenever I am asked for a TM, I (re)send the correlated bilingual files. This way I am sure I don't send segments that don't pertain to any other customer/job. Besides, TMs may contain timestamps and other stuff that outsourcers don't need to know.
Now I understand that some translators charge for TM assets, and I would too if it required any sort of TM handling (like segment extraction to match the scope of TM required), especially if asked 2 months after bilingual files delivery or if it wasn't part of the initial deliverables required.
Please agencies, don't request TMs when you also request bilingual files. Unless there's a logical reason I fail to see, it gives me an impression of amateurism. Or laziness.
Philippe
Edit: the story is entirely different when the end client (the actual consumer of the translation) requests the TM, in order not to be bound to their translation provider. The TM is then clearly an asset and should be charged.
[Edited at 2013-06-27 12:16 GMT]
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To Philippe: Thank you for such long and detailed answer, as we are starting centralizing translations in our company, we dont really know these matters which seems to be clear to every translator. And you gave me exactly the answer I needed...
To Darko: Thanks Darko, I know that I can import bilingual file, just didnt know that the translators usually provide them...
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| Make sure you state clear requirements | Jun 27, 2013 |
Studio Moderna wrote:
...we dont really know these matters...
Sterile fights over TM/bilingual file delivery - or any other misfire - doesn't lead anywhere and each party can only lose out in the long term.
Have project management people trained about CAT tool basics
Seek advice (quizzes...) from your translators not to miss anything that could lead to conflicts afterwards. If interest is low, give them some incentive (branded T-shirt, translation payment on delivery...) to get valuable feedback.
Don't rush.
Philippe
| | | | | The other side of the coin | Jun 27, 2013 |
The other side of the coin is that translators shouldn't be required to do something that doesn't really need a translator's skill and isn't intrinsically tied to the job. (Like doing office footwork for people.)
| | | | | Clerk work requests also tend to cheese me off | Jun 27, 2013 |
Łukasz Gos-Furmankiewicz wrote:
...The other side of the coin is that translators shouldn't be required to do something that doesn't really need a translator's skill and isn't intrinsically tied to the job. (Like doing office footwork for people.)
Which is why I don't play with online portals: retrieve/upload files, check boxes, enter invoice amounts and do most of their business management are not part of the job I get paid for.
Delivering bilingual files is actually easier than monolingual files only: there's no need to even look at the final layout.
Philippe
| | | | | Academic books, technical specifications and revised documents | Jul 1, 2013 |
Some projects are actually continual, with reversions every couple of years when new information becomes available or the state of the art evolves. University physics books are often 20 to 30 years old before they are retired, replaced with a new book written from scratch over four to five years by a team of authors. Chapters are updated and corrected, and it is considered an honor to curate a book.
CAT tools are especially useful for translating physics books, because the same phrases are... See more Some projects are actually continual, with reversions every couple of years when new information becomes available or the state of the art evolves. University physics books are often 20 to 30 years old before they are retired, replaced with a new book written from scratch over four to five years by a team of authors. Chapters are updated and corrected, and it is considered an honor to curate a book.
CAT tools are especially useful for translating physics books, because the same phrases are repeated often, reused by the author a couple years later in the same context, or something close to that, which we call a fuzzy match.
As a translator, I would love to get my hands on a project that has a multi-year cycle, and as a business man, I can see a tangible value in the TM if I were to make a successful bid on such a book a few years after it was first translated. Even if I had the poly-lingual file of the book itself, I still want to have the TM, which includes bits that were in earlier versions of the book, but not in the latest. Not having to create a new TM from scratch would save me a considerable amount of time.
Around half way through the life cycle of the book, I wouldn't be surprised if the TM was worth a few years salary. ▲ Collapse
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