During a long time I've read stories in translation blogs about how is to work as a freelance translator, how translators deal with their clients and all kinds of awkward situations. At first, some of the stories seemed a bit far-fetched, but when I started translating for direct clients, everything I read -and more-became true. So, if you want to become a freelancer, be ready to hear these sentences and/or face some the following situations:
"That's too expensive! I didn't think I had to pay so much for a translation"
Here you can find how to answer this comment
(After sending a potential client my rates):
Client: " Sorry, I can't pay your rates. But, I have tons of documents to translate . If you charge only half of your rate I'll send you papers for the rest of the year.
Me: (Thinking: I'm a student, I need experience and it looks like a fair deal) I accept.
(After sendimg the client the translated text);
Client: Good job! I'll send you another paper but now I can only pay you less than half of your rate...
( After accepting a translation job)
"I 've translated a part in Google Translator... Should I send it to you?"
"I speak English and I know the text isn't difficult (aka: "I don't want to pay much"). I could translate it by myself, but I don't have the time..."
"It's almost nothing... only four pages"
"You have experience translating this subject, so you shouldn't charge that much...just saying"
"Do you have to rewrite everything? Don't you have a programme or something?"
"You made a mistake here. See, the original text starts with "asdfgh" and you didn't start with that word"
(Replying to a person in a internet forum asking for translating a 12-page paper about Biology)
Me: "Please, send me the text and I'll send you my rates"
Person: "Wait.... do I have to pay for it? Won't you translate it for free?
Me: .... I'm sorry, but this is my job, and I'm sure you have already noticed that translating 12 pages requires a lot of time and effort.
Person: I've already found some people who will do it for free. Thanks anyways.
In the same forum a bunch of users, declaring that they were "good at English" volunteered themselves to translate the paper.
Volunteer 1: I don't know how to translate the part after "cultura celular" Help!!!
Volunteer 2: I don't know either, this is more difficult than I thought ...
(A former client asked me my rates for a 20-pages paper)
Me: Considering the subject, the text complexity and the tight deadline, it would be $X
Client: That's too much. I'll give you half of it. Take it or leave it.
That attitude was too much. My job isn't a garage sale and the rates are fixed by the translator according to the difficulty, format, deadline etc. If you want a discount, at least ask for it politely -this is not Pawn _Stars!.
(Of course, there are wonderful clients that are helpful and pay on time. But we are all prepared for them, aren't we?)
It seems that these cases are not restricted to freelance translators, but to all types of freelancers. Here there is a video who shows how it would look if other workers faced the same situations.
Do you have a story to share? Feel free to comment =)
Regards,
Andrea