I’m starting to work on the second edition of my book How to Succeed as a Freelance Translator, and it makes me realize that more translators really should write books. Really, the market for specialized glossaries, translation technique manuals, translation business practice guides and more is wide open. So, if you have a book inside [...]
Archive for March, 2008
Let out the book inside you
Posted in Freelancing, Technology on March 26, 2008 | 1 Comment »
Paid by the word or paid by the hour?
Posted in Freelancing, Marketing on March 22, 2008 | 11 Comments »
At last year’s American Translators Association conference in San Francisco, I overheard a few conversations about how the translation industry would be affected if translators started billing by the hour rather than by the word. In some cases and for some jobs, translators do bill by the hour, but the tried-and-true per-word charge is still [...]
The art of saying no
Posted in Freelancing, Marketing on March 22, 2008 | 4 Comments »
Recently, several newly established freelance translators have asked me about how and when to say no to clients who are offering translation projects. It’s a delicate topic, since as freelancers we need to accept work in order to stay in business, but we also need to decline work in order to maintain a good quality [...]
A new header image
Posted in Announcements, Nubbin, Technology on March 18, 2008 | Leave a Comment »
WordPress’ MistyLook theme makes it very easy to change your header image, here is a new one from iStock. This is called “Way to Everest,” by iStock member “weareadventurers.” It reminds me of one of my favorite places (Nepal) and also that sometimes, translation feels a little like climbing Everest!
A helpful post on blogs and feeds for translators
Posted in Nubbin, Technology on March 17, 2008 | 2 Comments »
Here is a useful post, from Translator Support, about RSS feeds and some translation-related sites that offer feeds. For a long time I was mystified by feeds (and I’ve now publicly admitted this!), but Blogging With Beth removed my feed-based shame and confusion, and I’m now a devotee of Firefox’s Sage plugin. Sage is tied [...]
An April Fool from Trados?
Posted in Nubbin, Technology, Translation industry news on March 13, 2008 | 1 Comment »
Although Taco Bell garnered an estimated $1 million in additional revenue from its April Fool’s Day Taco Liberty Bell joke in 1996, I’m guessing translators may be a little less amused by Trados’ announcement that it will discontinue upgrades for Trados 6.5 and earlier and SDLX 2004 and earlier on April 1. Thanks to sleuth [...]
A bestseller of sorts
Posted in Announcements, Nubbin on March 13, 2008 | 1 Comment »
Lulu, the print-on-demand service that I use to publish my book, is a fun place to visit. I like to think of it as Amazon’s slightly nutty cousin, the weird but cool one who eats the cranberry sauce right out of the bowl at Thanksgiving. Ever since I published my book in the summer of [...]
Juvenes Translatores
Posted in Links, Translation industry news on March 10, 2008 | 2 Comments »
School outreach, the idea of getting high school students and even younger children interested in and informed about translation, seems to be picking up speed as the current generation of translators reaches out to the next. Today, 27 teenagers, one from each EU member state, will be in Brussels receiving their awards as winners of [...]
Which English?
Posted in Freelancing, Translation technique on March 6, 2008 | 3 Comments »
Rumor, or should we say rumour, has it that many (or at least more than usual) translators on this side of the Atlantic are being approached to translate into what we commonly refer to here as U.K. English. I would guess that this has more to do with the falling U.S. dollar and weakening U.S. [...]
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