| Pages in topic: [1 2] > | Agency justifies higher rates on its website - a refreshing perspective! Thread poster: Anmol
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Really refreshing to see an agency give cogent arguments for why translation rates should be higher!
http://www.localversion.com/en/localization/60-translationprices.html
Reproduced here for convenience. ProZ job applicants should take these musings seriously and increase their rates too!
----------------------------------------... See more Really refreshing to see an agency give cogent arguments for why translation rates should be higher!
http://www.localversion.com/en/localization/60-translationprices.html
Reproduced here for convenience. ProZ job applicants should take these musings seriously and increase their rates too!
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Why are translation prices so different? Is €0.14 expensive?
WRITTEN BY LOCALVERSION
Localization is not particularly expensive, but like with restaurants, hotels, doctors or lawyers, your favorite translation partner will probably not be the cheapest one.
Professional translators earn 30% below average salaries in Western countries. When clients put excessive pressure on rates, they are actually choosing to work with localizers who earn even less than that, which leads to high risks of wrong translations, poor style, miscommunication, or even legal issues.
Accurate, specialized translations demand much more time and expertise than bad translations or easy, generic jobs. If your English texts are clear, natural and carefully written, your foreign users expect exactly the same in their own language.
So, you want to sell more. Great! You have invested a lot in creating your products and they have the potential to sell more around the globe. The non-English speaking markets are huge and growing fast. Globalization is one of the biggest business opportunities today and in the years to come.
Yet, localization can be intimidating. It might involve an uncertain amount of work on your side, plus you have to market your products, support your end users... The ROI is hard to predict. Then, all those translation companies seem to use the same marketing blurb. They all promise “quality” but what does that mean, and does it really matter? And why are their prices so confusing (word rates, fuzzy matches, additional fees) and so different from one another? Is a €0.14 word rate fair, cheap or expensive? And how am I supposed to tell if a translation is excellent and will help me sell more or if it is horrendous and will ruin my reputation?
Choosing your translation partner is not an easy job. You can certainly tell if a text is well written in your native language, but not in foreign tongues. By looking at a company’s web site, you can get some idea about how good their web designers or their web budgets are, but that does not necessarily reflect how reliable the company is and whether it is the right provider specifically for you. Serious, professional translators only work in a couple of well delimited areas where they are really seasoned experts. If a translator or company claims that they can translate “anything,” that is a clear sign that you can expect all kinds of issues. But since translation buyers often cannot tell a professional translation from a dangerous one (understandably), some vendors are marketing their services as “cheap” when they are actually very expensive considering what you get in return.
The table below summarizes a range of services offered today by different translation companies and common word rates for each. Prices will vary by language, volume and complexity, but it can give you an idea. Each service can make sense for some specific purposes. The questions are: What service do YOU need? What costs are competitive? Why?
Columns show who performs the first-pass translation. Rows show how that first-pass translation is then reviewed. For example, in the market you can find translations done by a native speaker and then reviewed by a second person at €0.07 to €0.11 per word. A highly specialized translation done by a senior specialist, reviewed by a second specialist and then proofread can cost €0.18-0.23 per word.
Note that these are not our rates, but common rates that you can find in the market offered by different types of providers. At LocalVersion, we only focus on services involving native, senior translators specialized in some specific fields (software localization, technical documentation, Apple products, information technology, web contents, and related marketing and legal materials). Here our rates are extremely competitive, since we are a relatively small and committed team of specialists, and practically all your money goes straight into the pockets of your localizers.
[Table deleted]
So, is a €0.14 word rate for French expensive? What hourly rate would that be?
Typically, if an agency charges €0.14, around 50-60% will go to the translator(s), 20% will go to the reviewer(s), 10% will pay for project management, tools and infrastructure, and 10-15% will be the agency’s margin (7-10% after taxes).
Professional translators translate on average 1,800-2,600 words per day. This varies greatly depending on the complexity of the texts and on how important style is (marketing texts and highly specialized documents are much slower to translate). A good translator can be busy translating around 75% of the time on average, so they will translate about 380,000 words a year. If they are paid €0.07 per word, they will earn €26,600 in a year (gross). After taxes, this is reduced to €15,000-21,000. They should still deduct what they spend on computers, tools and everything they need to do their work. So that senior, busy, English to French translator will earn around €16,000 a year. This is 25-30% below average disposable salaries in France or Canada, in spite of the fact that good translators typically have at least one university degree and 8+ years of professional experience. Rates in other languages are often lower.
So, when clients put excessive pressure on word rates, they may not be aware but they are in fact asking for their localization “experts” to earn less than €12,000-16,000 a year. Chances are high that those translations end up being assigned to cheap, junior translators who will rush to translate as many words as possible, with little care and very poor results.
In 2008-2011, average translation rates and salaries fell, as in many other industries. Some percentage was due to the law of supply and demand. But most of the fall was due to the fact that the quality offered in return decreased dramatically (non-professional translators, dropped QA steps, more literal and robot-like translations that are confusing or misleading and do not make for a good brand image, etc.). This is probably understandable for tiny start-ups with a very small audience and budget, but for well-established companies, the relatively small savings in translation costs can badly affect the brand image and lead to poorer sales and customer dissatisfaction.
To sum up, when comparing translation rates, it is important not to compare apples to oranges. If your budget/sales are extremely low, you still want to offer your products in other languages and quality is not a concern, you can probably find some cheap alternative, keep your fingers crossed and hope to be lucky. If you are a successful company and you plan to sell more than a few copies of your localized products, you will want to offer the same good image and quality in your localized products as you offer to your English-speaking users, so you will want to work with a senior, professional team specialized in your particular field. The localization costs will be a bit higher, but they will still be a fraction of what it will mean in terms of international sales, brand image, and customer satisfaction.
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[Edited at 2014-03-04 15:36 GMT] ▲ Collapse
| | | | | Thanks, Anil! | Mar 4, 2014 |
Very interesting article, thanks for sharing.
So reading these arguments a perceptive client should be willing to agree upon a rate of 0.25 to 0.30 €/word
| | | | | Learn that by heart | Mar 4, 2014 |
And repeat it at anyone who pulls a face when you quote them your rates.
(Edited: two many "l"s - new keyboard!)
[Edited at 2014-03-05 13:01 GMT]
[Edited at 2014-03-05 14:38 GMT]
| | | | Gerard de Noord 
France
Local time: 13:31
Member (2003)
English to Dutch
+ ...
Impressive and very well written.
Thanks for this post,
Gerard
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Adam Jarczyk
Poland
Local time: 13:31
Member (2009)
English to Polish
+ ...
| A very well-written piece of advice | Mar 4, 2014 |
If only enough of our colleagues would take this into consideration instead of selling their expertise short. That would certainly also teach outsourcers better.
I, for my part, have long refused to work at rates that cannot support my living and that will destroy the market for colleagues, too. Only this way I can keep my service at the high level my regular clients rightfully expect and receive from our cooperation.
Hopefully many agency owners and translation experts... See more If only enough of our colleagues would take this into consideration instead of selling their expertise short. That would certainly also teach outsourcers better.
I, for my part, have long refused to work at rates that cannot support my living and that will destroy the market for colleagues, too. Only this way I can keep my service at the high level my regular clients rightfully expect and receive from our cooperation.
Hopefully many agency owners and translation experts will read this text and act according to it.
Adam ▲ Collapse
| | | | Sebastian Witte
Germany
Local time: 13:31
Member (2004)
English to German
+ ...
| € 0.14 is not even a halfway acceptable end customer rate in the case of certain pairs | Mar 4, 2014 |
Assuming they charge by the source word, € 0.14 in the case of GER to ENG means that the end customer pays slightly less than a euro per standard line having 55 chars w/ spaces (viz. € 0.98 based on 7 German words/standard line).
Since, as everyone knows, real agencies with business premises and employees like the one at hand (as opposed to lean management-type of one to at most two-person new school outsourcers operating from their home offices) need to double up on translators... See more Assuming they charge by the source word, € 0.14 in the case of GER to ENG means that the end customer pays slightly less than a euro per standard line having 55 chars w/ spaces (viz. € 0.98 based on 7 German words/standard line).
Since, as everyone knows, real agencies with business premises and employees like the one at hand (as opposed to lean management-type of one to at most two-person new school outsourcers operating from their home offices) need to double up on translators' rates,
that means I cannot make a living working for that agency being based in a country with medium-level cost of living (and maybe in some cases even relatively high taxes) like Austria, France, UK, The Netherlands, or Germany as 49 cents a line means only 24.50 euros before taxes an hour (roughly 15.93 euros after taxes in a country with relatively high taxes like Germany) (pls note: with most texts presented before professional translators, i.e. texts having a significant complexity level and oftentimes involving formatting work, professional translators with quite decent typing skills can only sustain a speed of 350 words/50 standard lines/hour over longer periods of time if going at it hammer and tongs, i.e. involving major exhaustion which is not healthy in the long run). ▲ Collapse
| | | | | Post removed: This post was hidden by a moderator or staff member because it was not in line with site rule | Anmol
Local time: 18:01
TOPIC STARTER | Translation is difficult work and ought to be better paid | Mar 5, 2014 |
And I say that despite being an electrical engineer/computer engineer/software engineer by training and work experience.
Some of the reasons I find translation to be more difficult than the engineering profession are:
a) you don't have liberal deadlines in translation, as you do in engineering, relatively speaking
b) you don't have extended teams of tens of people working on a project with you
c) your work has to speak for itself and needs to b... See more And I say that despite being an electrical engineer/computer engineer/software engineer by training and work experience.
Some of the reasons I find translation to be more difficult than the engineering profession are:
a) you don't have liberal deadlines in translation, as you do in engineering, relatively speaking
b) you don't have extended teams of tens of people working on a project with you
c) your work has to speak for itself and needs to be perfect, unlike in the case of a software engineer, for example, who can theoretically walk away from finished product to have software bugs show up weeks later.
I definitely think translation should be much higher paid. The only fly in the ointment is that the business world does not appear to think that translation is an essential product, unlike software products or power stations.
[Edited at 2014-03-05 13:27 GMT] ▲ Collapse
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Mark Benson (X)
English to Swedish
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| Now I'm not following | Mar 5, 2014 |
Anil Gidwani wrote:
I definitely think translation should be much higher paid. The only fly in the ointment is that the business world does not appear to think that translation is an essential product, unlike software products or power stations.
[Edited at 2014-03-05 09:14 GMT]
Because you're using such broad and general terms. Do you think that translation should be much higher paid when bought from you?
I don't think that rates can be much higher than they already are in many cases. Look at Lucia Lusindky from this site - 0.5 - 0.6 usd per word... Very high.
0.14 is really low compared to that. But personally I'm not convinced that the service will differ that much if you remove the '1' from that price.
| | | | | 0.14 EUR per word is not expensive - it is very cheap | Mar 5, 2014 |
I charge significantly more than that to direct customers without any of the costs of an agency. I also assume (and hope) that they can't find specialized translators willing to work for 0.07 EUR per word.
Anyone genuinely familiar with any field and with a very solid command of the handwork of translation and of two or three languages is worth a lot of money to a lot of (direct) clients.
The people behind the agency may reallly be experts in their field, but no quality clien... See more I charge significantly more than that to direct customers without any of the costs of an agency. I also assume (and hope) that they can't find specialized translators willing to work for 0.07 EUR per word.
Anyone genuinely familiar with any field and with a very solid command of the handwork of translation and of two or three languages is worth a lot of money to a lot of (direct) clients.
The people behind the agency may reallly be experts in their field, but no quality client is going to believe them unless they more or less double their rates.
I'd rather have USP-free Big Linguabridge filling potential clients' heads with pure misinformation than have them read this half-reasonable, half-nonsensical text.
If you feel the need to pass this on, I'd suggest checking the math (I didn't) and deleting or doubling the rates. ▲ Collapse
| | | | Jeff Whittaker
United States
Local time: 07:31
Spanish to English
+ ...
| The real question is... | Mar 5, 2014 |
Why isn't the American Translators Association posting articles, ad campaigns and viral videos to educate consumers about prices and about machine translation?
[Edited at 2014-03-05 16:44 GMT]
| | | | | Not a real profile | Mar 5, 2014 |
Mark Benson wrote:
I don't think that rates can be much higher than they already are in many cases. Look at Lucia Lusindky from this site - 0.5 - 0.6 usd per word... Very high.
Nice rates!
But did you mean Lucia Leszinsky's profile? I might be wrong, but this does not seem to be a real profile. (Lucia is a proz.com staff member and if you look closely, it seems to be used for testing purposes)
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| This is bad writing... | Mar 5, 2014 |
because it appears to be extrapolating from the writer's own experience to make wild generalisations about the whole industry.
Professional translators earn 30% below average salaries in Western countries.
This is based on a translator charging only €0.07 per word. Many of us charge way more than that.
If they are paid €0.07 per word, they will earn €26,600 in a year (gross). After taxes, this is reduced to €15,000-21,000.
It's meaningless to compare after-tax incomes. This will depend on the tax rate and a host of other factors.
In 2008-2011, average translation rates and salaries fell, as in many other industries.
The writer does not cite any evidence for this.
| | | | Gerard de Noord
France
Local time: 13:31
Member (2003)
English to Dutch
+ ...
| I think you're not taking the original posting in good faith | Mar 6, 2014 |
philgoddard wrote:
because it appears to be extrapolating from the writer's own experience to make wild generalisations about the whole industry.
Professional translators earn 30% below average salaries in Western countries.
This is based on a translator charging only €0.07 per word. Many of us charge way more than that.
If they are paid €0.07 per word, they will earn €26,600 in a year (gross). After taxes, this is reduced to €15,000-21,000.
It's meaningless to compare after-tax incomes. This will depend on the tax rate and a host of other factors.
In 2008-2011, average translation rates and salaries fell, as in many other industries.
The writer does not cite any evidence for this.
I think you're not taking the original posting in good faith. Even if you would be right you aren't doing anybody a service.
Cheers,
Gerard
| | | | Heinrich Pesch
Finland
Local time: 14:31
Member (2003)
Finnish to German
+ ...
| Cheap offer indeed | Mar 6, 2014 |
The arguments of the article cited are of course valid, but the rate of USD 0.14 is not. Just as an example: Since 2006 I'm regularly translating for a big manufacturer of agricultural equipment. The final layout work is done probably by the end-client's staff, but the translations go through two (2) agencies before the files arrive in my mail box. I charge more in Euro than those USD 0.14 for each word I translate. So apparently the end-client is accepting perhaps 0-3 Euro per translated word, ... See more The arguments of the article cited are of course valid, but the rate of USD 0.14 is not. Just as an example: Since 2006 I'm regularly translating for a big manufacturer of agricultural equipment. The final layout work is done probably by the end-client's staff, but the translations go through two (2) agencies before the files arrive in my mail box. I charge more in Euro than those USD 0.14 for each word I translate. So apparently the end-client is accepting perhaps 0-3 Euro per translated word, just for translation without dtp. ▲ Collapse
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