What to charge? Thread poster: Sarai73
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Asked to proofread, QA and change/rewrite a doc of 3000 words in 24 hours. Usual rate is 0.75 GBP/word for translations. Not sure what to ask for here? Any help is very much appreciated!
| | | | Jan Willem van Dormolen (X) 
Netherlands
Local time: 16:12
English to Dutch
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Charge an hourly rate, whatever you think is appropriate.
Do NOT charge a word rate. Review work is totally unpredictable. Sometimes you spend 15 minutes on a 3000 word document and it's done, sometimes you spend 3 hours on the same size document, because the translation is really bad.
| | | | ATIL KAYHAN
Türkiye
Local time: 17:12
Member (2007)
Turkish to English
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My suggestion would be to charge one third of the rate for translations, i.e. 0.25 GBP/word. Jan's suggestion is also very logical, however.
| | | | Oliver Walter
United Kingdom
Local time: 15:12
German to English
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| Wrong number | Apr 13, 2011 |
Sarai73 wrote:
Asked to proofread, QA and change/rewrite a doc of 3000 words in 24 hours. Usual rate is 0.75 GBP/word for translations.
I assume you mean 0.075 GBP (i.e. 7.5 pence) per word.
Oliver
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Jean-Pierre Artigau (X)
Canada
Local time: 10:12
English to French
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You should charge an hourly rate, and Jan said, so your benefit will reflect the quantity of work you invest and the difficulty of the work involved (number of changes to be made, typically).
However for the client, the rules of the game should be clear from the beginning. When he sends you a first text to be proofread, you should tell him how you will determine your price before you start working on the project. Give him a chance to change his mind and cancel the project if he find... See more You should charge an hourly rate, and Jan said, so your benefit will reflect the quantity of work you invest and the difficulty of the work involved (number of changes to be made, typically).
However for the client, the rules of the game should be clear from the beginning. When he sends you a first text to be proofread, you should tell him how you will determine your price before you start working on the project. Give him a chance to change his mind and cancel the project if he finds it appropriate. And next time he sends you the same kind of work, he should know what to expect from you.
As for the rate itself, you could start by assessing your "usual" hourly salary (e.g. doing translation), then determine your hourly rate for proofreading accordingly. For instance you could decide that an hour of proofreading is worth the same as an hour of translation, or maybe 1.5 times more... You could also enquire about the usual hourly rates charged by your competitors.
Good luck.
Jean-Pierre ▲ Collapse
| | | | Sarai73
English to Swedish
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TOPIC STARTER
Jan and Atil - thank you! That sounds about right...will consider that in future. It's tricky, just as you say, as you can spend either a very long time or not long at all, depending on the quality of the text.
Oliver- Indeed, I mean 0.075 GBP. You're clearly an excellent proofreader...:)
Thanks to you all!
| | | | wonita (X)
China
Local time: 10:12
| High-end market | Apr 13, 2011 |
Oliver Walter wrote: Sarai73 wrote:
Asked to proofread, QA and change/rewrite a doc of 3000 words in 24 hours. Usual rate is 0.75 GBP/word for translations.
I assume you mean 0.075 GBP (i.e. 7.5 pence) per word. Oliver
I assume.
| | | | Sheila Wilson
Spain
Local time: 15:12
Member (2007)
English
+ ...
Jan Willem van Dormolen wrote:
Charge an hourly rate, whatever you think is appropriate.
Do NOT charge a word rate. Review work is totally unpredictable. Sometimes you spend 15 minutes on a 3000 word document and it's done, sometimes you spend 3 hours on the same size document, because the translation is really bad.
I fully agree with that, except that you can't risk presenting the client with a bill for 10 hours' work when they were expecting to pay 10 GBP.
Basically, if you haven't seen the text then you can't quote anything at all. It's as simple as that! It seems to me that at this moment in time you:-
a) don't know what the text is about
b) don't know what the translation quality is
c) don't know what the client expects you to do
d) don't know if you can handle the job
e) don't know what to charge for your services anyway
If that's an accurate take on your position, I think you need to be very, very wary of this job.
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Tina Vonhof (X)
Canada
Local time: 08:12
Dutch to English
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I agree with Sheila: never decide on how and what to charge until you have seen the (entire) document.
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