Linguistic review hourly word requirement - How to negotiate? Thread poster: linjenproz
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linjenproz
Local time: 06:48
English to Chinese
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Hi, is anyone familiar with the linguistic review hourly pay scales, and the negotiations of hourly word requirement?
I'm getting paid hourly on some linguistic review projects. Home based work. The client has a high-standard word requirement per hour for the review work, while the quality of the translation work is extremely poor.
I have to do a lot of work to comment on all the major and minor errors the translators made, therefore I can get nowhere near the client'... See more Hi, is anyone familiar with the linguistic review hourly pay scales, and the negotiations of hourly word requirement?
I'm getting paid hourly on some linguistic review projects. Home based work. The client has a high-standard word requirement per hour for the review work, while the quality of the translation work is extremely poor.
I have to do a lot of work to comment on all the major and minor errors the translators made, therefore I can get nowhere near the client's hourly word requirement.
Can anyone give me some advice on how to negotiate a new standard, or a higher pay to cover the extra time I spend on each project? Also how much is reasonable for the charges?
Thanks a lot! ▲ Collapse
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linjenproz wrote:
Hi, is anyone familiar with the linguistic review hourly pay scales, and the negotiations of hourly word requirement?
I'm getting paid hourly on some linguistic review projects. Home based work. The client has a high-standard word requirement per hour for the review work, while the quality of the translation work is extremely poor.
I have to do a lot of work to comment on all the major and minor errors the translators made, therefore I can get nowhere near the client's hourly word requirement.
Can anyone give me some advice on how to negotiate a new standard, or a higher pay to cover the extra time I spend on each project? Also how much is reasonable for the charges?
Thanks a lot!
They want 1000 words per hour, eh?
| | | | | The average is 2,400 per eight hours, the most, | Aug 7, 2012 |
if you someone wants quality translation. I think you should base your rate on 300-400 words/hour.
| | | | Thayenga 
Germany
Local time: 07:48
Member (2009)
English to German
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linjenproz wrote:
I'm getting paid hourly on some linguistic review projects. Home based work. The client has a high-standard word requirement per hour for the review work, while the quality of the translation work is extremely poor.
I have to do a lot of work to comment on all the major and minor errors the translators made, therefore I can get nowhere near the client's hourly word requirement.
Can anyone give me some advice on how to negotiate a new standard, or a higher pay to cover the extra time I spend on each project? Also how much is reasonable for the charges?
Thanks a lot!
If your work is a full-scale revision and not "just" proofreading, then you should charge an absolute minimum of 50% (better around 70%) of your per word translation rate.
I agree with Lilian. If they want quality work, but deliver translations which require a lot of extra work because of their quality, then you should estimate your completion rate around 300 - 350 words an hour.
You might try to explain both the issue of the poorly translated source documents as well as that of the quality of your work - which they obviously set at a high standard.
Sure it's possible do 1,000 or more words in one hour, provided the translation is of a very high quality and your are terminology savy.
The question here is: does your client want high quality from you or just "flipping" through their files at a 1,000 word/hour rate? Under the circumstances you've described, both is pretty much impossible. They can expect only one or the other.
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Phil Hand
China
Local time: 13:48
Chinese to English
Sorry if this isn't helpful to you, but my advice is just to say no. In our pair, almost all "review" work actually need retranslating. Best just to refuse to do it at all unless the translation was done by a translator personally known to you.
As for negotiation... This question always puzzles me. Negotiation is easy when you're in the right. Send them an email which says: "The work you're asking me to do cannot be done for this rate. It often takes X time to edit Y words to an acc... See more Sorry if this isn't helpful to you, but my advice is just to say no. In our pair, almost all "review" work actually need retranslating. Best just to refuse to do it at all unless the translation was done by a translator personally known to you.
As for negotiation... This question always puzzles me. Negotiation is easy when you're in the right. Send them an email which says: "The work you're asking me to do cannot be done for this rate. It often takes X time to edit Y words to an acceptable level of quality. For that reason I will have to charge a rate of USD Z per word/per hour."
They accept or they don't. Usually they don't, then they go and get someone cheaper, then they come crawling back when they can't get the quality.
There's no "trick" to negotiation. You just tell people the prices you can accept (and why, if necessary). ▲ Collapse
| | | | | I agree with Phil 100% | Aug 8, 2012 |
I absolutely agree with Phil. For "proofreading", I charge by the hour. I refuse to agree to any fixed fee because, before starting the work, I can't tell how long it will take me. It depends on the quaity of the translation. I politely explain this to the client.
The fees you charge are up to you, not to the client.
As Phil says, they often refuse to accept my proposal, in which case I don't accept the job. I dislike proofreading, anyway, and am rarely "desperate" for work.
St... See more I absolutely agree with Phil. For "proofreading", I charge by the hour. I refuse to agree to any fixed fee because, before starting the work, I can't tell how long it will take me. It depends on the quaity of the translation. I politely explain this to the client.
The fees you charge are up to you, not to the client.
As Phil says, they often refuse to accept my proposal, in which case I don't accept the job. I dislike proofreading, anyway, and am rarely "desperate" for work.
Stick to your guns.
Jenny
[Edited at 2012-08-08 09:10 GMT] ▲ Collapse
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