standard rates for written translation

[Paul B. Gallagher]

Inna Caron wrote:

> When you have been contracted to do a commercial translation, is the 
> payment subject to agreement between the parties, or is there a more 
> or less standard rate per page of written translation? If so,
> 
> 1) Do you charge per page of the original or translated text?
> 
> 2) What is the format of the chargeable page (say, in Word) - is it
> single- or double-spaced? 11 or 12 pt font size?
> 
> 3) If the pay is per original text page, and there is a photograph or
> a table taking up some space, do you still charge as for a full page,
> or do you extract the text portions and calculate the number of pages
> sans all the illustrations?
> 
> Thank you very much in advance for any information.

Well, I can't speak for academia, but out here in "the real world" (no 
offense intended -- I called it that when I was in academia), we don't 
generally charge by the page (pages can vary so widely, as you know). In 
the US, we charge based on word count; in Europe it's more common to 
charge by the line (where a line is defined as 55 or 60 characters), and 
sometimes by the "standard page" of 1500-1800 characters. Some systems 
include spaces, some do not, but as long as both parties agree on the 
counting system it doesn't really matter.

In the US, it's common but not universal to charge by the English count. 
The advantage of charging by the source count is that everyone knows the 
price before the work begins; the advantage of charging by the target 
count is that some source texts expand more than others and this 
accounts for it.

I believe the above answers your question 2).

Tables are generally charged the same way as body text -- by word or 
character count; if the formatting is unusually heinous you can usually 
negotiate a formatting surcharge. The same goes for graphics -- a simple 
photo in the source file that requires no processing is generally just 
thrown in at no charge, but a detailed schematic requiring replacement 
text in lots of little boxes will incur additional charges.

Finally, if you are a professional translator, you should devise your 
own rate sheet to which you adhere more or less. Translation agencies 
have their own rate sheets, and they will push you to accept their rates 
while you pull to get your rates. Direct clients are generally less 
systematic in their approach to translation rates, and they will 
generally pay what you ask or walk away. You should not feel obliged to 
take whatever is offered by a particular client, but if lots of clients 
offer similar rates for a particular class of work, that's what the 
market will bear. You can then decide whether you want to do that class 
of work or look for something else.

The simplest way to figure rates is this: first determine how much you 
need to make per hour, including taxes, expenses, etc., remembering to 
include your own profit. Then estimate how many hours the job will take 
and multiply to get the end price. For example, if you need to make $50 
an hour and a job will take you eight hours, you should charge $400. If 
the word count is 10,000, that means you're charging four cents a word. 
(These figures are for illustration purposes only and not intended as 
recommendations.)

In general, commercial clients will pay much more than academic ones, 
and sci/tech clients will pay much more than literary ones. As in all 
businesses, YMMV -- if you can translate /Harry Potter/, you can 
probably get more than the average literary translator.

-- 
War doesn't determine who's right, just who's left.
--
Paul B. Gallagher
pbg translations, inc.
"Russian Translations That Read Like Originals"
http://pbg-translations.com

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