This is a common topic. When I was 18 I bought a van. It was the van my father had taught me to drive in, back when I was 12, so it had a lot of sentimental value. A few years later, coming out of the supermarket, a gentleman approached me and asked how much I was willing to sell it for. I knew it was worth around 1500€ and I didn’t hesitate: €25,000. Quoting a translation is kind of the same thing. If you go too high, no one will buy your product, if you go too low, people will think you’re no good.
Quoting is not like baking a cake and there is no secret recipe. To provide your client with a good quote, there are many things you need to consider.
Experience.
Usually, as you may know, translation is paid by word, so normally you’re expected to present your client with a rate per word. If you don’t know how much to charge per word, well, do the maths. Try to understand how much time you’ll dedicate to that job and how much your time is worth. If you have no experience in translation and this is your first job, maybe you shouldn’t charge too much. If you’ve been doing this for a long time, you’re specialised in a certain area and you’re sure you offer an excellent service, maybe you should charge above average.
Language pairs.
This is a matter of demand and supply. If a certain language has only one translator translating into it, then that lucky fella can charge as much as he wants. Clients will always go to him, no matter how much he asks for because… well… There is no one else to go to. So, if there aren’t many translators working with the languages you work with, in the market you are in, your prices can be higher. On the other hand, if you offer a combination that everybody does, you’ll have to stick to low rates if you want to stay competitive.
Markets.
Different markets have different prices for translation. Usually, translators who translate into a language are familiar with that language’s market and they are aware of the prices in the target culture. Be sure to take this into account.
Discounts.
Of course, you can be reasonable. Is the client a friend and the text a quick translation full of repetitions that your software will auto-translate? Consider a discount. The same goes huge texts: imagine it’s a 500,000-word project and you should charge €35,000 for it. Maybe you could charge only €30,000, since this will mean a steady flow of work for the following months (remember, these numbers are just examples). Also, if your client is a translation company that is willing to send you work recurrently, consider lowering your rate per word, since it’s important for any freelance translator to become friends with translation companies (they’ve got good clients).
Formatting.
Does the project contain a PDF file you’ll need to format? Consider adding the time you’ll spend formatting to the quote. You can charge this amount by the hour, but you’ll have to be sure of how much you think an hour of your work is worth. If you don’t want to charge it directly because you’re afraid your client might run away, you can increase your rate per word to compensate for the extra trouble of formatting. The bottom line is, make sure you get paid for every hour you spend working.
Area of the source text.
Areas of expertise may also influence the price you can charge. Suppose you’ve been a doctor. If you get a medical translation, you can charge a much higher rate than you would normally charge for a general translation. This is obviously related to the difficulty of the technical terms. Not many translators have been doctors, so you should receive more if you have any special education in your curriculum.
Minimum rates.
Another thing you may want to consider are minimum rates. Imagine your client wants you to translate a diploma with only 100 words. You may choose to do it directly in MS Word to save the time spent formatting and importing it into your CAT Tool, but it will also take you one hour. What you have to take into account is that during that hour you were working, and you had expenses (electricity, internet, etc). This is why minimum rates apply, so that you don’t work one hour for €5 or €6. In these cases, you may want to charge an hourly rate. Consider the above-mentioned points and try to come up with a price for the time you’ll be spending. Usually minimum rates apply to projects under 500 words, but this is also up to you.
Companies VS Freelancers.
Do you have a friend who’s company charges more than you? Bear in mind that companies provide a different service. They usually offer proofreading by a second linguist and their resources are usually more than those of a freelancer. They also have more expenses, which is why their prices are higher. If you’re a freelancer, you shouldn’t offer the same prices as companies. Otherwise, either the company is not paying its freelancers or in-houses enough, or you’re charging too much.
How to start?
So, if you have no idea what prices to offer your clients, I’m going to let you in on a trick: CLICK HERE. That’s ProZ’s average price list. ProZ is a platform where there are thousands of freelance translators and translation companies. They all upload their rates to show their customers. That table shows the average prices practiced by those freelancers and companies. Keep in mind that, since there are many companies registered on ProZ, the average prices may be slightly higher than those practiced by freelancers.
Then, as I said before, there is no secret recipe. You need to take a look at those prices, think about the topics I mentioned above, talk to a few colleagues if possible, and try to come up with a competitive price. Although most translators have fixed rates for different language combinations, be sure to let your clients know that there are a few factors (like formatting or area of expertise) that may increase your price per word or the overall quote. So, be sure to see the source text before committing to any job, to be sure that you’re applying a fair rate.