yndigo

Translation pricing

When you talk price with someone who’s never bought translations before, there are frequently two reactions: laughter and then shock.

Laughter at the idea that translators charge by the word or that a penny higher or lower makes a big difference. For example, I was interviewed by SmartMoney.com about working with freelancers and the interviewer, Diana, chuckled a few times when I told her that talk among project managers will often sound like, “he’s only 11 cents… yeah but he’s not so great… she’s 13… really?.. is she worth it?.. well, she’s decent, but always busy; what’s your budget?” etc.

Shock at the total price. “It’s only a few pages!” Well, actually it’s 35 single-spaced pages from Korean to English. Although prices in the translation industry have generally been stagnant for years, I understand sticker shock, as I discussed in a previous post about misunderstood translation clients.

Which word?

In translation, we talk about source words and target words. Because source words are more easily countable these days, the trend in the industry is to price by the source word. In my segment — legal translation — per-target-word pricing still prevails but the industry-wide per-source word practice is slowly encroaching as more and more translators become accustomed to pricing that way.

Why not by the hour?

Corinne McKay added some great insights to this debate in a post a few months back, her conclusion being that good translators make out better overall when pricing by the word and that clients are better able to price their translations up front.

Bernie Bierman added a comment to Corinne’s post from his own article about how translator compensation has changed through the years. According to Bernie, “[t]he per-word unit has for at least one hundred years been the basis for determining a translator’s fee,” but Computer Aided Translation tools have completely changed the playing field and today’s translators are “like livestock marching in willing resignation and without protest to the slaughtering pens.” Strong words.

Will translators continue to make sense per word?

Technology is marching on and the translation industry is embracing it. If the efficient new translation model proposed by some in which texts are machine translated and then post-edited by a professional translator, who knows, maybe we’ll see translation priced by the hour, which is normally how editing is done. And if so, will those editors be paid more than today’s translators, or less?