What Is The Going Rate For Transcription Services Per Line

Setting the translation rate can be catchy, peculiarly for aspiring translators. On the 1 hand, yous take to brand certain your price is acceptable for the market. On the other hand, you desire to secure a decent living and not undersell yourself.

The post-obit cheatsheet will aid you quickly map your capabilities and expectations to a rate you can agree on.

1 — Commencement with yourself

New Smartcat users — especially those who are just starting their career as translators — oftentimes enquire united states what rates they should set for their translation services. My communication is to forget well-nigh the market for a while, and start with themselves.

That's why I decided to share a uncomplicated spreadsheet that I created a while ago (experience free to copy it for adjustments). Information technology will aid you lot speedily determine what charge per unit to set — or how expert a given rate is — based on your needs and abilities.

Here's a screenshot:

So what do we have here?

2 — Sympathise how hard you lot tin work

In the "big" rows, we have your anticipated endeavour in hours per month:

80 hours per month is a comfortable hateful, respective to around 4 hours of pure work per day (restroom/smoking/having a luncheon/procrastinating on Facebook excluded).
60 hours per month is piece of cake and suitable for someone whose life-piece of work rest tends to the former.
Above 100 hours per month, things start getting messy, as information technology'south really difficult to stay focused if you lot translate for more than than 5 hours a twenty-four hours, every solar day (remember, we are talking about pure piece of work).
120 hours per month is, at to the lowest degree for me, the accented maximum I tin bear. This means either working 6 hours a day every day, or "binge working" for even longer on individual days. Either makes yous physically exhausted and morally depleted, and I strongly suggest to avoid such overtimes at all costs.

3 — Notice out how fast you can translate

In the "small" rows (repeated for each "big" row), you lot take your translation speed in words per hour:

500 words per hour is the average speed for a standard translation, with moderately difficult terminology and grammer.
250 words per 60 minutes is applicable for circuitous technical translations, literary translation, and transcreation assignments.
750 words per 60 minutes can be achieved, if the customer doesn't accept strict quality requirements (say, they want to understand what'due south written in an article).
1250 words per hour is the accented maximum 1 can achieve if they post-edit a automobile translation, and the customer doesn't look for stylistic/terminological consistency.

(Note: you can use Toggl or a like tool to measure your productivity — see our previous article for more information.)

four — Retrieve of how much you want to earn

In columns, yous accept your desired income level per calendar month. Of course, these values will vary greatly based on your location, social/marital/parental condition and lifestyle. That's why they should be adjusted (as described below) in line with the following general levels:

Absolute minimum ($grand/month in this case): a level at which you lot actually lose money, but not then fast as to go bankrupt in a couple of months (you'll need this time to grow bigger).
Minimum sustainable level (hither $2000/calendar month): a level at which you can live for a while, covering just your basic living needs.
Normal level (here $4000/month): a level when you can live according to your reasonable expectations of what "skilful living" is.
Maximum happiness level (hither $6000/month): a level that makes you praise yourself for having become a translator, while drinking piña colada somewhere in the Caribbean.

5 — Bring it all together

All the in a higher place data are editable in the Parameters tab of the spreadsheet:

Now, after we've defined our parameters, permit's wait at the cheatsheet in one case again:

Each cell represents the translation rate that you lot demand to seek if you desire to earn a given corporeality by translating for a given time at a given speed. Rates are color-coded from grey to white to yellowish for a convenient visual representation of "where the gold mines are."

six — Identify translation rate groups by awesomeness

Now, highlight — at your own discretion — iii "blocks", or sets of parameters (equally circled in the screenshot):

"Red" cake: something yous could bear for a short while to get into the marketplace/win a customer/gain feel. (In my example, this means working 100 hours a month while earning $2000.)
"Orange" cake: something that ensures your comfortable living (here, working 80 hours and earning $3000.)
"Dark-green" block: something that makes you lot really satisfied with your piece of work ($4000 for 80 hours in this case).

Now you can easily see (a) where you are with the electric current rates, and (b) where you should be heading to brand your piece of work more comfortable for you lot.

7 — Strike out what's irrelevant

The last affair to proceed in mind is that not every rate you lot will get in the spreadsheet is relevant. For me, for instance:

Any rate above $0.20 per word is irrelevant. Okay, this could be different if I were translating poetry — simply in such a example I would most probable charge per hr anyway^*.
Rates above $0.08 per word is irrelevant for loose translations. I merely don't accept the gall to charge customers a translation charge per unit of $0.08 if I know that I would be translating it in a "quick and dirty" fashion.
Anything above $0.05 is irrelevant for post-editing assignments. The aforementioned here: you just can't accuse for post-editing something that high (and something that is an average rate for "normal" translation for many other translators).

^*There definitely are translators who charge more, but I merely don't consider myself in that league. Striking this out helps me empathize the "zones" that I shouldn't even consider as a goal (say, earning $8000 by working lx hours per months and translating at 250 words per hour).

Examples

Here are a couple of examples to illustrate how you tin use the spreadsheet:

Defining you charge per unit. A customer approaches you with a transcreation request. This is a very important customer, and then you are willing to get into "outburst mode" to get this job. You lot go to the "red" block of the cheatsheet and see that in this case you can offer them a translation rate of $0.08 per discussion. But you also tell them that if they like your work, further projects volition come at a price of (consulting with the "orangish" cake) $0.15 per source give-and-take. The client is happy considering this is a very expert toll now, and y'all in plow know exactly what you are going for.
Finding out if a proposed rate is good enough. A customer has a post-editing consignment with no strict quality requirements that he has an approved translation rate of $0.03/word for. You find that it is exactly the value you have for such work in the "orange" cake, meaning rather comfortable weather for you. Y'all agree, but keep in mind that in hereafter you would probably inquire them to increment the translation rate to $0.04 (the "greenish" block).
Finding out if work already made had a skilful rate. You take completed an assignment at $0.08/word, and your speed was 750 words per hour. You find that this value is even higher than that in the "green" cake, meaning that it was a very good charge per unit for that chore.

Of course, this cheatsheet has null but very simple arithmetical calculations in it — but I establish it very useful for quickly tackling the above tasks. It does not claim to be the ane-size-fits-all solution for setting your translation rate (in that location is none!) — merely I believe it'southward a good starting betoken for those who are simply starting to get the hang of information technology. What about you? Exercise you have your own tips and tricks for choosing your translation rate? — If you lot liked this article, feel free to subscribe to our web log or follow us on LinkedIn and Facebook!

Nigh the writer

How-do-you-do, I'thousand Vladimir "Vova" Zakharov, the Caput of Customs at Smartcat. Translation is my profession and my passion, and I'thousand excited to be able to share this passion with the astonishing Smartcat customs!