Translation Work - How Much to Charge?

Hi all

I don't know what category this goes on but here goes.

I have been asked by a friend to do some translating for him and he says he will pay me. I have a German degree but am not a qualified translator. I know that translators normally charge per word, and wondered if there was anyone who could give me a rough idea of how much to charge.

Many thanks
Aidan

You are in the right place eminence

More usual here is lines of destination text. A line is a DIN line from a typewriter, 55 characters including spaces.

Charge rates to the end customer vary depending on the nature of the text. Typical for average is about €1 to €1,20 per line, so agencies may only want to pay you 50 to 80 Cent per line.

Personally, I charge direct customers €1 per line for simpler technical texts, and as much as possible for the hard stuff Some will charge around 6 to 8 cent per word but, as said, it's not usual here.

Just be aware that, if the text is of a legally binding nature, a liability disclaimer is a good idea.

If somebody has a financial disadvantage because of your work, they will often enough try to get compensated for that. That has been the end of many a friendship :excl:

For estimating quotes, look at the number of characters including spaces in the "Statistics" tab in Word, divide by 55 and add 10%.

Expect to do about 50-60 lines per Hour when you're up and running, maybe 40 to start with. That might even be as low as 10-20, if you are having to use the dictionary a lot. Remember that the overheads: Estimating, organizing and invoicing all take time on top, as do collection, delivery and discussion. For short texts, the overheads can be more than the work itself.

If the customer is happy with paying what comes out in the end, then do the math with the final text. (I generally point out to them that this is usually cheaper for them, but most want a quote up front.)

Of course there is the dreaded USt to add on to that.

You can also consider "special" prices for friends and 007 jobs

That may be the case in Köln/Bonn. In Schleswig-Holstein you'll be lucky to see 2€/DIN A-4 page!

Supply and demand and too many bored diplomatic wives in Hamburg!

Hi Mike

Thanks for your help and that's very useful advice.

Aidan

Must be a typing error! I would believe €20/A4 page - you mostly need 1/2 to 1 hour to translate a page. There is a difference between translating and typing.

It also depends on what the text is. Anything important will only get done once that way, then it's back to getting it done properly by someone who knows what he's talking about (I've re-translated enough "rejects" in my time )

No typing error, but the information reflects my experience in the mid-90's, when I was desperate for every penny I could get my hands on.

Things may have improved slightly since then, but no way can I believe that you'll manage 20€ up here.

To be fair, I haven't been in the market for about ten years, so I can't exclude the possibility that a market change has gone unnoticed by me.

Having said that, the big problem up here was always the bored housewife syndrome, just looking for pocket money. For everyday translation they sufficed for most people. Good quality technical translation is another matter altogether, but there isn't much call for that up here!

Come to that there isn't much call for technical competence up here either, which is why I've spent the last four years as a "Wochenendpendler"! The one compensation is that you can buy a house, including "Grundstück" for under 200,000€ ("Neubau" older places you can get for less than half that amount) with 1000+ sq. m. plot.

You can also get a lot of help on this subject browsing through the internet.
Links that I use a lot are: proz.com, translatorscafe.com or gotranslators.com