HELP: price per word for source/target text ??? Thread poster: Barbara Santos
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Barbara Santos 
Portugal
Local time: 13:48
Member (2005)
German to Portuguese
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Hi all! For a project, I have to send my price per word for target text and for source text. I've been working with target text prices/word only and am not quite sure what rate I should ask for the source text: more or less than the target one? I have no idea how the texts/formats will be. Can anyone give me a hand on this? Thanks, Bárbara
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Suzanne Deveson
Netherlands
Local time: 14:48
Member (2007)
English to Dutch
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| Higher if source text is English | Mar 29, 2006 |
There are generally 10-15 % more words in a translated file than in the original (especially if the source text is English and the target text Dutch, French or German), so I should charge 10-15% more if you can...
[Edited at 2006-04-05 18:17]
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Tina Vonhof (X)
Canada
Local time: 06:48
Dutch to English
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| No difference | Mar 29, 2006 |
I see no difference or am I missing something? The wordcount may be different but the price per word should be the same.
[Edited at 2006-03-29 21:55]
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| Calculate the expansion or contraction factor | Mar 29, 2006 |
Use your past translations in the language pair in question to find the language expansion or contraction factor to apply to your rates.
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| How to proceed | Mar 30, 2006 |
Take a few varied samples (large enough to smooth out any spike) of previous source texts and translations. In a 3-column table, insert source wordcount, target wordcount and amount invoiced for each job.
Then for each line, divide amount invoiced by source wordcount: you get a price per source word.
Then make an average of these quantities and round up to the next higher meaningful figure (you won't want to quote 0.09572348 euros per source word, but rather 0.096 or 0.1).
In... See more Take a few varied samples (large enough to smooth out any spike) of previous source texts and translations. In a 3-column table, insert source wordcount, target wordcount and amount invoiced for each job.
Then for each line, divide amount invoiced by source wordcount: you get a price per source word.
Then make an average of these quantities and round up to the next higher meaningful figure (you won't want to quote 0.09572348 euros per source word, but rather 0.096 or 0.1).
In my EN>FR pair, the price per source word should be about 10-20% higher than per target (there are more words in FR to convey the same text) to end up with the same invoice amount (ie the same amount of work).
Now you are free to have the same price for both, but if you see a consistent discrepancy between source wordcount and target wordcount, there will be one price less advantageous than the other in terms of rate per hour (and that's what this business is all about, no?).
Hope it helps,
Philippe ▲ Collapse
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magdap (X)
Local time: 14:48
English to Polish
| It does make a difference! | Mar 30, 2006 |
Depending on a language, source and target text differ in lenght even to 15%!!
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Parrot
Spain
Local time: 14:48
Spanish to English
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magdap wrote:
Depending on a language, source and target text differ in lenght even to 15%!!
Higher than that in German legalese to English legalese. So field is a critical factor. Technical English can reduce Spanish and French source texts by some 10%, but tend to maintain the source word count, if not go over, in the legal area.
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I use some freeware I found as a result of another, similar proz.com posting a few years ago. It's called fee wizard, and I'm sure if you google for it (perhaps including the word "translation") that you'll find it.
It allows you to convert between price per line/word/page, etc. for source and target language.
Check it out. I found it well worth while.
Alison
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Samuel Murray
Netherlands
Local time: 14:48
Member (2006)
English to Afrikaans
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| Take common texts, like the Human Rights Declaration | Mar 31, 2006 |
Barbara Santos wrote:
I've been working with target text prices/word only and am not quite sure what rate I should ask for the source text: more or less than the target one?
It depends on the language. Just for fun, I took the translations of the Human Rights Declaration in each of your languages, and came up with a percentage with which you should multiply the target rate to get the equivalent source rate.
Portuguese: 1841 words
English: 1746 words
German: 1643 words
Italian: 1812 words
Spanish: 1927 words
English to Portuguese: 105%
German to Portuguese: 112%
Italian to Portuguese: 102%
Spanish to Portuguese: 96%
This is not very scientific, though, since it is based on a very small sample of text and on only one type of text.
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Xu Dongjun
China
Local time: 20:48
Member (2006)
English to Chinese
I agree:-)
Samuel Murray wrote: Barbara Santos wrote:
I've been working with target text prices/word only and am not quite sure what rate I should ask for the source text: more or less than the target one? It depends on the language. Just for fun, I took the translations of the Human Rights Declaration in each of your languages, and came up with a percentage with which you should multiply the target rate to get the equivalent source rate. Portuguese: 1841 words English: 1746 words German: 1643 words Italian: 1812 words Spanish: 1927 words English to Portuguese: 105% German to Portuguese: 112% Italian to Portuguese: 102% Spanish to Portuguese: 96% This is not very scientific, though, since it is based on a very small sample of text and on only one type of text.
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