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Agency wanting to negotiate - are these rates too low?
Thread poster: Emily Gilby
Emily Gilby
Emily Gilby  Identity Verified
United Kingdom
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French to English
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Sep 13, 2018

Hi everyone,

I'm new to negotiating with agencies so I was looking for a bit of advice. I've set my rates at 0.09 GBP FR>EN and 0.08 GBP IT>EN for general documents and have written in my CV that I would negotiate rates for specialist documents. I applied to an agency specialising in pharmaceuticals, an area which I am specialising in. This agency asked to negotiate and is proposing £58-80 per 1,000 words for my language combinations for pharmaceutical texts. To me this seems low,
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Hi everyone,

I'm new to negotiating with agencies so I was looking for a bit of advice. I've set my rates at 0.09 GBP FR>EN and 0.08 GBP IT>EN for general documents and have written in my CV that I would negotiate rates for specialist documents. I applied to an agency specialising in pharmaceuticals, an area which I am specialising in. This agency asked to negotiate and is proposing £58-80 per 1,000 words for my language combinations for pharmaceutical texts. To me this seems low, especially considering this will be for specialist texts - does anyone have any advice on how to respond?

They also have asked for hourly rates. I'm only just entering the world of being a full time freelancer so I'm not actually sure how long I would take to complete a text in hours nor how much to charge per hour.

Another thing they have asked for is for a minimum fee for texts that are less than 500 words - not sure on this either?

Sorry for all the questions but any help would be greatly appreciated!!

Thank you in advance!
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Michael Newton
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Japanese to English
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Agency wanting to negotiate Sep 13, 2018

The rates the agency is offering you are ridiculous and abusive, especially for a specialized area such as pharmaceuticals. Stick to your original rates. If they don't accept them, drop them and look elsewhere. Also, try to target end-clients where you could charge even more. Good luck!

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Nikki Scott-Despaigne
Nikki Scott-Despaigne  Identity Verified
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French to English
Hourly rates Sep 13, 2018

Hourly rates are not usually a good idea for translation, even less so as you are starting out, for the very reason you say yourself.
After a few years, you get a pretty good idea of how much you can do in an hour, but that happens when you are familiar with the type of text, with a particular client, etc.

When you start out and are finding your feet, you will be slower than someone who is more experienced. This means that as a newcomer you will theoretically be charging more
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Hourly rates are not usually a good idea for translation, even less so as you are starting out, for the very reason you say yourself.
After a few years, you get a pretty good idea of how much you can do in an hour, but that happens when you are familiar with the type of text, with a particular client, etc.

When you start out and are finding your feet, you will be slower than someone who is more experienced. This means that as a newcomer you will theoretically be charging more than an experienced translator. Clients would find that hard to swallow. Newcomers should charge the ordinary commercial per word rate. If you have specialist skills to offer, then you should increase your rate to at least the normal rate for that specialization. Bear in mind that as you are likely to take more time than an old hand, you are effectively making less £££ per hour anyway. So charge normal per word rates for the field and skill set. Over time, you will pick up speed which in itself will make you more profitable. If an agency is not offering decent rates, look for other agencies. You'll need way more than one anyway.

Proofreading is often charged at an hourly rate, but even then, not always. You will often find proofreading offers at a per word rate, at one third the translation rate.

[Edited at 2018-09-13 22:21 GMT]
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Josephine Cassar
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Note also Sep 14, 2018

That the agency will then ask you for fuzzy matches discounts when using a CAT tool-and for pharmaceuticals, it makes sense to use a CAT tool for consistency, repetition, speed, so take this into consideration too when negotiating. Besides, you will then find it difficult to raise your rates in the future, therefore take all these into consideration.

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Dan Lucas
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It's hard initially Sep 14, 2018

scotters wrote:
does anyone have any advice on how to respond?

I don't know your pair, but if it seems low, even to you as a beginner, it probably is.

At first you may have to turn down a lot of work before you find something you can accept. When I started out I was working part-time on translation, so at least I had some other income. This can be difficult, psychologically, but as others have said, you can very seldom raise rates.

In particular, if the client seems to be a "keeper" (lots of potential work, high ratings on Blue Board or paymentpractices etc.), it's worth holding out for a serious rate. Quality clients will pay a decent rate.

Regards,
Dan


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Maxi Schwarz
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don't negotiate or "apply" Sep 14, 2018

I applied to an agency specialising in pharmaceuticals, an area which I am specialising in. This agency asked to negotiate and is proposing £58-80 per 1,000 words for my language combinations for pharmaceutical texts.

Since they are not employers, they are your potential customers. They are in fact applying for your services, and you have your fees. If they can't afford your fees, they should go elsewhere. A common experience is that customers who want to pay low fees often end up being difficult to work with in other ways. You also want assurance that you will be paid for your work, and on time.


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Sandra & Kenneth Grossman
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A minimum fee is a good idea Sep 15, 2018

scotters wrote:

Another thing they have asked for is for a minimum fee for texts that are less than 500 words - not sure on this either?


You should define for yourself a minimum fee for short texts under a certain threshold (whatever you decide is the minimum you care to manage). Otherwise, you may find yourself doing, billing, monitoring and reporting very short jobs of a few words that are really not worth your time. Such jobs usually also involve very short deadlines.

"Proofreading" may be a pitfall. It may be another name for redoing a cheap translator's job.

That said, the agency's rates for pharmaceutical translations are very low. And yes, watch out for CAT discounts when dealing with such companies.


Sandra


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Daniel Frisano
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Nothing is too low or too small Sep 15, 2018

I didn't mind working for similar rates when there was nothing better under the horizon. Sooner or later better opportunities arise, and you stick with those clients.

I've never had a minimum rate. It seems irrelevant to me. If I translate 8 words, I charge 8 words. Sooner or later some nice 50k appears.


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Sheila Wilson
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What about the peripheral tasks? Sep 15, 2018

Daniel Frisano wrote:
I've never had a minimum rate. It seems irrelevant to me. If I translate 8 words, I charge 8 words. Sooner or later some nice 50k appears.

What would worry me in your case is the fact that you'd probably be spending far more time doing the file handling, emailing, bookkeeping, etc. than you'd spend on the translation itself. Those are all one-off overheads per job, so they become inconsequential if you're sitting translating for hours. For two minutes of translation, they're far from inconsequential.


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jyuan_us
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A different perspective Sep 16, 2018

At £80 per 1,000 words, if you can translate 4000 words a day, you will get £320. Is that income that low in your country?

[Edited at 2018-09-16 14:36 GMT]


Richard Purdom
 
gayd (X)
gayd (X)
£ 58-80 Sep 16, 2018

You wrote £58-80.
What does it mean?


 
Emily Gilby
Emily Gilby  Identity Verified
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TOPIC STARTER
Reply Sep 16, 2018

David GAY wrote:

You wrote £58-80.
What does it mean?


Hi David, this means per thousand words

Thank you for your advice everyone. So far, I've gone back to the agency and asked if those rates for specialist texts or more general texts. I'll see what they say...

[Edited at 2018-09-16 20:09 GMT]


 
Lincoln Hui
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Low? Sep 16, 2018

jyuan_us wrote:

At £80 per 1,000 words, if you can translate 4000 words a day, you will get £320. Is that income that low in your country?

[Edited at 2018-09-16 14:36 GMT]

It's not a great way to do the math, but £320/day and 20 working days/month comes out to a monthly income of £6400 and an annual income of £76800, which blows the average UK professor and accountant out of the water and edges out many lawyers with less than 10 years of experience, so I'm not sure what point you're trying to make here.


 
Kay-Viktor Stegemann
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4000 words? Sep 16, 2018

Lincoln Hui wrote:

jyuan_us wrote:

At £80 per 1,000 words, if you can translate 4000 words a day, you will get £320. Is that income that low in your country?

[Edited at 2018-09-16 14:36 GMT]

It's not a great way to do the math, but £320/day and 20 working days/month comes out to a monthly income of £6400 and an annual income of £76800, which blows the average UK professor and accountant out of the water and edges out many lawyers with less than 10 years of experience, so I'm not sure what point you're trying to make here.


I think yuan_us asked a rhetoric question here.

But apart from that, a daily output of 4000 words in a pharmazeutics specialty field might not be realistic. And the £80 were obviously the upper limit of the agency with lots of room downwards. And then there might be deductions for fuzzies and whatnot. Doing the math is always a good idea, but you need the correct inital values for that.


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Lincoln Hui
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My bad Sep 16, 2018

On second look I definitely misunderstood what jyuan wrote, so my bad on that.

 
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Agency wanting to negotiate - are these rates too low?







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