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how much do you usually charge to translate an 18,365 word project?
Thread poster: Ana Talos
Ana Talos
Ana Talos
United States
Local time: 08:24
English to Romanian
+ ...
Jul 12, 2020

someone wants me to translate and proofread their project which is about 18,000 words. What should I charge for this?
I was going to use trados but it's so expensive and I tried it and it's not that great.
Should I use this instead? https://lokalise.com/
I heard of it but I don't remember where. It's similar to trados but this one aids in the translation. Trados does not aid at all.

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someone wants me to translate and proofread their project which is about 18,000 words. What should I charge for this?
I was going to use trados but it's so expensive and I tried it and it's not that great.
Should I use this instead? https://lokalise.com/
I heard of it but I don't remember where. It's similar to trados but this one aids in the translation. Trados does not aid at all.

ana

p.s. I also don't know much about the man who wants to hire me, except his email address which comes up as having no results when I do a google search. Should he also have a phone number or a more legitimate contact info?

[Edited at 2020-07-12 21:10 GMT]
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IrinaN
IrinaN
United States
Local time: 10:24
English to Russian
+ ...
Please Jul 12, 2020

Do not do anything before you Read Scam Alert forum.

Ana Talos
Sheila Wilson
Philippe Etienne
Maria Teresa Borges de Almeida
Thayenga
Elena Feriani
expressisverbis
 
Kevin Fulton
Kevin Fulton  Identity Verified
United States
Local time: 11:24
German to English
You need to know more about the person offering this job Jul 12, 2020

I'm not going to get into the subject of a CAT tool. A job of this size should easily cover the cost of a tool.

You need to know the person's name and address (not post office box), his/her telephone number (and by all means call this person!). Due diligence requires verification of any information the person provides.

Google the title of the document, if you have it. You might find out whether it's already on the Internet. Googling a small text sample (if you don't hav
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I'm not going to get into the subject of a CAT tool. A job of this size should easily cover the cost of a tool.

You need to know the person's name and address (not post office box), his/her telephone number (and by all means call this person!). Due diligence requires verification of any information the person provides.

Google the title of the document, if you have it. You might find out whether it's already on the Internet. Googling a small text sample (if you don't have the title) will also reveal whether a translation already exists.

Also Google the text of the e-mail offer. Scams usually follow the same pattern, as they often involve recycled text.

Pricing can vary according to subject matter, standards for your language combination, required formatting, etc. At the very least, you should charge what you would ordinarily earn working full time for 2 weeks – or longer, depending on how fast you translate.

Good luck!
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Yolanda Broad
Morano El-Kholy
Liviu-Lee Roth
Ana Talos
Aline Amorim
Josephine Cassar
Maria Teresa Borges de Almeida
 
IrinaN
IrinaN
United States
Local time: 10:24
English to Russian
+ ...
Translating and proofreading the same for separate pay sounds ridiculous Jul 12, 2020

Initial proofreading is included in the translator's per word rate. We do not produce garbage for X cents and then proofread it for Y cents per word. Without even seeing it, I'm sure it's a scam.

A message out of the blue but via Proz? Is the subject within your declared fields? Could you impress the client with the relevant portfolio without any further investigation? Did he introduce himself properly, did he ask you any questions at all, explain why he chose you? Or is "he" ready
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Initial proofreading is included in the translator's per word rate. We do not produce garbage for X cents and then proofread it for Y cents per word. Without even seeing it, I'm sure it's a scam.

A message out of the blue but via Proz? Is the subject within your declared fields? Could you impress the client with the relevant portfolio without any further investigation? Did he introduce himself properly, did he ask you any questions at all, explain why he chose you? Or is "he" ready to enrich you just like that? I would suggest to charge $.20/word and $50 for proofreading and see if he agrees without blinking. But in reality, first thing I'd suggest is to hit the Delete button.

Don't be shy to post the whole message here, no one will "steal" that "client".
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Ana Talos
Liviu-Lee Roth
Esther Dodo
 
Liviu-Lee Roth
Liviu-Lee Roth
United States
Local time: 11:24
Romanian to English
+ ...
Welcome to the Proz family, Ana Jul 12, 2020

I noticed that you are a newcomer, therefore heed Kevin's advice. Nowadays, scammers target newly enrolled members.
Is the translation in your field of expertise? We are quite a small community of Romanian translators in the US and we know each-others field of expertise, therefore, if an offer comes out-of-the-blue, it is recommended to thoroughly check the requester.

If it is in the field of literature, it might be legit, if not, I'll check very thoroughly.

Stay
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I noticed that you are a newcomer, therefore heed Kevin's advice. Nowadays, scammers target newly enrolled members.
Is the translation in your field of expertise? We are quite a small community of Romanian translators in the US and we know each-others field of expertise, therefore, if an offer comes out-of-the-blue, it is recommended to thoroughly check the requester.

If it is in the field of literature, it might be legit, if not, I'll check very thoroughly.

Stay safe,
lee
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Ana Talos
IrinaN
expressisverbis
Tina Vonhof (X)
Jessica Noyes
Philip Lees
 
Ana Talos
Ana Talos
United States
Local time: 08:24
English to Romanian
+ ...
TOPIC STARTER
thanks Kevin Jul 12, 2020

Kevin Fulton wrote:

I'm not going to get into the subject of a CAT tool. A job of this size should easily cover the cost of a tool.

You need to know the person's name and address (not post office box), his/her telephone number (and by all means call this person!). Due diligence requires verification of any information the person provides.

Google the title of the document, if you have it. You might find out whether it's already on the Internet. Googling a small text sample (if you don't have the title) will also reveal whether a translation already exists.

Also Google the text of the e-mail offer. Scams usually follow the same pattern, as they often involve recycled text.

Pricing can vary according to subject matter, standards for your language combination, required formatting, etc. At the very least, you should charge what you would ordinarily earn working full time for 2 weeks – or longer, depending on how fast you translate.

Good luck!


I emailed him and asked for his phone number.
Thank you. I'll see if we'll talk over the phone.

ana

p.s. so full time minimum pay for 2 weeks?
so around $12x80hours?


 
Ana Talos
Ana Talos
United States
Local time: 08:24
English to Romanian
+ ...
TOPIC STARTER
thanks Irina Jul 12, 2020

IrinaN wrote:

Initial proofreading is included in the translator's per word rate. We do not produce garbage for X cents and then proofread it for Y cents per word. Without even seeing it, I'm sure it's a scam.

A message out of the blue but via Proz? Is the subject within your declared fields? Could you impress the client with the relevant portfolio without any further investigation? Did he introduce himself properly, did he ask you any questions at all, explain why he chose you? Or is "he" ready to enrich you just like that? I would suggest to charge $.20/word and $50 for proofreading and see if he agrees without blinking. But in reality, first thing I'd suggest is to hit the Delete button.

Don't be shy to post the whole message here, no one will "steal" that "client".


Hi Irina
thank you so much. I was beginning to translate.
Yes, the message was out of the blue from ProZ, not necessarily within my declared fields. it is about free range farm production.
He did not ask any questions.
thank you for telling me about the .20$ per word. I'll remember that for future projects as well.

here is his email
and file he needs translated. https://drive.google.com/file/d/1x2NKaXj4GcTZTRHLRyz6BvS_uLxm6PHr/view?usp=sharing https://drive.google.com/file/d/1OVL0UIZN8a9tZzIYFLCmBFEayutIi9d8/view?usp=sharing


 
Ana Talos
Ana Talos
United States
Local time: 08:24
English to Romanian
+ ...
TOPIC STARTER
thank you/multumesc Jul 12, 2020

Liviu-Lee Roth wrote:

I noticed that you are a newcomer, therefore heed Kevin's advice. Nowadays, scammers target newly enrolled members.
Is the translation in your field of expertise? We are quite a small community of Romanian translators in the US and we know each-others field of expertise, therefore, if an offer comes out-of-the-blue, it is recommended to thoroughly check the requester.

If it is in the field of literature, it might be legit, if not, I'll check very thoroughly.

Stay safe,
lee


hi Liviu
buna

eu vreau sa translatez literatura, folklor
(my area of expertise/what I prefer is literature and folklor. He has a lecture on farm production he wants translated in romanian.)
I put his emails and document in my reply to Irina's post.
I'm so glad to find other Romanian translators. Yes, i am new.

Imi pare bine sa va intilnesc.


Liviu-Lee Roth
 
IrinaN
IrinaN
United States
Local time: 10:24
English to Russian
+ ...
Don't:-) Jul 12, 2020

Ana Talos wrote:


thank you for telling me about the .20$ per word. I'll remember that for future projects as well.



Ana, that was sarcasm:-). I suggested to use it as a clear indication of a scam because no real client will pay that much to a newbie without any further ado. This rate exists for high-end niche fields/industries or under direct government contracts, but not on Proz pastures, especially for bidding here. Maybe some colleagues in certain pairs can get it from serious direct clients who happened to be looking for the best of the best but this is not an every day event.

Lee can give you a better advise on realistic rates in your pair when dealing with real clients.


Yolanda Broad
Liviu-Lee Roth
Thayenga
 
Joakim Braun
Joakim Braun  Identity Verified
Sweden
Local time: 16:24
German to Swedish
+ ...
My 2 cents Jul 12, 2020



Good heavens, don't put your potential customer's data out there for everyone to see.
It looks scammy, but you never know.

The document is surely copy-pasted, with tons of garbled formatting and lacking identification/pagination/headers/footnotes that you would expect in a genuine document of this kind. Few authors would misspell their own name on page 1. Data is old, 1990s-2000s, with market data from 2007/2008, and the last year mentioned seems to be 2012. Given the not very high quality of the text it's surprising that someone wants to pay $1,000-2,000 for translation. There are surely much better and more relevant and up-to-date texts about organic farming out there.


Liviu-Lee Roth
Morano El-Kholy
expressisverbis
 
Liviu-Lee Roth
Liviu-Lee Roth
United States
Local time: 11:24
Romanian to English
+ ...
scam Jul 13, 2020

[quote]Joakim Braun wrote:


Good heavens, don't put your potential customer's data out there for everyone to see.
It looks scammy, but you never know.



Well she did the right thing to post the name and e-mail.
The IP is from Frankfurt, Germany, the article names one author while the e-mail suggests another author. It is 100% a scam.

I would suggest the Moderators to place this post under Scam and block the IP address.

Stay safe,
lee


 
Kevin Fulton
Kevin Fulton  Identity Verified
United States
Local time: 11:24
German to English
Twelve dollars/hour = grocery store wages Jul 13, 2020

Ana Talos wrote:

p.s. so full time minimum pay for 2 weeks?
so around $12x80hours?


You should value your work at a much higher rate. Here in the Midwest, grocery store clerks make $12-14/hour, and in the case of Costco, full-time employees also get access to health insurance.


Catherine Brix
Philippe Etienne
Thayenga
Tina Vonhof (X)
Katrin Braams
 
Samuel Murray
Samuel Murray  Identity Verified
Netherlands
Local time: 16:24
Member (2006)
English to Afrikaans
+ ...
@Ana Jul 13, 2020

Ana, I agree with others that this looks very suspicious. Although I can think of valid reasons why a person would want this document translated (e.g. he's a student and English is only his second or third language, or he's helping a friend who's doing research, or he's going to write a book, or he wants to have handouts to be given at lectures, etc.), it still looks like something that I would not touch.

As you may have discovered yourself already, the document is copy/pasted from
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Ana, I agree with others that this looks very suspicious. Although I can think of valid reasons why a person would want this document translated (e.g. he's a student and English is only his second or third language, or he's helping a friend who's doing research, or he's going to write a book, or he wants to have handouts to be given at lectures, etc.), it still looks like something that I would not touch.

As you may have discovered yourself already, the document is copy/pasted from various online resources, mostly web sites about various aspects of organic farming, as well as extracts from a few books on the topic.

The fact that the client is asking for a pro forma invoice means that he intends to pay you in advance, and that is the first step in a number of well-known advance-fee scams. There have been reports of scammers being able to make fake payments even into bank accounts, so it's very difficult to know when an advance payment is real or just looks real for a couple of weeks before the bank "discovers" that the payment is fake and demands that you pay back the money.

Let us know what payment method the client proposes.

Ana Talos wrote:
Someone wants me to translate and proofread their project which is about 18,000 words. What should I charge for this?


If you have nothing better to do, I suggest no less than 5c per word. That would be $12 per hour if you translate 250 words per hour. Or 7c per word, which is $17 per hour. Some people might say (as some have already) that that is "less than what industry X pays", but there is no rule that translation has to pay more than waitressing. If this is your skill, and if you can live off $12 per hour, then do what makes you happy.

I was going to use Trados, but it's so expensive and I tried it and it's not that great.


A long project is not a bad way to break into using a CAT tool. And if you're new to CAT tools, it may take a while before you start getting or seeing benefits from using CAT tools. But you're right: Trados is expensive. If you want a cheap CAT tool, try OmegaT (offline) or Wordfast Anywhere (online).

Should I use this instead? https://lokalise.com/ I heard of it but I don't remember where. It's similar to Trados but this one aids in the translation. Trados does not aid at all.


Both Lokalise and Trados do aid in translation (or do you mean that Lokalise comes with built-in automatic machine translation suggestions?). But Lokalise is more intended for software development projects where translators get support and assistance from project managers. I have worked with Lokalise myself, and I would not recommend it for a professional translator who is new to CAT.

I also don't know much about the man who wants to hire me, except his email address which comes up as having no results when I do a Google search. Should he also have a phone number or a more legitimate contact info?


Yes, but some scammers are also willing to talk to you over the phone, so having a phone number and having had a phone conversation is no guarantee.
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Ana Talos
 
Michael Newton
Michael Newton  Identity Verified
United States
Local time: 11:24
Japanese to English
+ ...
18,365 word project Jul 13, 2020

Insist that the client give you their phone number so you can discuss the project. You must call them, not the other way around. That way you can trace the call (Nigeria, Poland, Mongolia). When I get a dodgy request like this, I always insist on a telephone conversation. The "client" disappears.

expressisverbis
Jessica Noyes
Ana Talos
 
Tina Vonhof (X)
Tina Vonhof (X)
Canada
Local time: 09:24
Dutch to English
+ ...
Other comments Jul 13, 2020

Hi Ana, welcome to the forum.

Others have already commented on the job offer that looks like a scam but I would like to make some other suggestions:

If you want to learn a CAT tool, I would take your time to do that before using it under the pressure of finishing an actual job. Also, take a little time to find out what the going rates are in your language combination. Read the forums about scams and become familiar with what some of the red flags are.

In yo
... See more
Hi Ana, welcome to the forum.

Others have already commented on the job offer that looks like a scam but I would like to make some other suggestions:

If you want to learn a CAT tool, I would take your time to do that before using it under the pressure of finishing an actual job. Also, take a little time to find out what the going rates are in your language combination. Read the forums about scams and become familiar with what some of the red flags are.

In your profile, replace the list of objectives with a list of your own experience, the types of jobs you have done in the past, so that serious clients can see what you have to offer. Presumably the jobs you have done in the past correspond with some of the specializations you mention at the top.
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expressisverbis
Ana Talos
Daniel Jeory
 
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