| Pages in topic: < [1 2] | Agency asking me to shorten a translation - should this be billed separately? Thread poster: Mark Sanderson
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Samuel Murray 
Netherlands
Local time: 07:36
Member (2006)
English to Afrikaans
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Mark Sanderson wrote:
The agency has now come back to me and asked if I can shorten the translation by around 200 words (total no. of pages = 6).
Yes, this should generally be charged separately, but if you can use various tricks to do so (e.g. as you have done, by omitting words like "please" or changing "it is" to "its" and "have been" to "were", and deleting some adjectives) and you think you can do it under 10 minutes, then I don't see the problem with doing it for free, if you want to.
| | | | | Too many notes | Jul 21, 2015 |
Once a royalty said to Mozart: "it's a good opera, but there are too many notes in it. As we all recall, "maestro" disagreed.
We are not "maestri", but I still maintain that it's not very common (or fair) request, unless the customer explains why exactly it is a problem.
| | | | | possible reasons | Jul 21, 2015 |
- layout issues with printed materials (has happened to me several times: English translations typically have fewer characters [though more words] than their German source texts, but this is often not the case in my work - if an issue comes up, I consider this my fault and fixing it is included in my original fee) - however, this is an issue with the number of characters and not words
- layout issues with digitally displayed materials (although I would think this rarely applies to length o... See more - layout issues with printed materials (has happened to me several times: English translations typically have fewer characters [though more words] than their German source texts, but this is often not the case in my work - if an issue comes up, I consider this my fault and fixing it is included in my original fee) - however, this is an issue with the number of characters and not words
- layout issues with digitally displayed materials (although I would think this rarely applies to length of the complete body of the text) - but again, this is number of characters and not words
- abstracts and a lot of application materials often have word limits - but I don't see what that could have to do with an instruction manual
- the most likely explanation: a manual is translated from Chinese to English, this manual is then translated from English into various languages and these translations are charged by the word ... now, that's hardly a very nice way to do business: artificially reducing the pay for a given text using a technique that will probably make it more difficult to understand and translate, but it doesn't seem like a far-fetched theory ▲ Collapse
| | | | | Remain in the driver seat! | Jul 21, 2015 |
Assuming the translation was carried out as requested, then this is a separate job that should be treated as such. I think you feel the same way.
Whether you charge for it or not that would be your business decision, e.g. might this become a regular customer, will it take long - but if you do it for free, it would need to be discussed I would point out that this is a freebie/favour.
What, how and why it needs to be cut is a totally different matter, which the OP needs t... See more Assuming the translation was carried out as requested, then this is a separate job that should be treated as such. I think you feel the same way.
Whether you charge for it or not that would be your business decision, e.g. might this become a regular customer, will it take long - but if you do it for free, it would need to be discussed I would point out that this is a freebie/favour.
What, how and why it needs to be cut is a totally different matter, which the OP needs to discuss with the customer. ▲ Collapse
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2GT
Italy
Local time: 07:36
English to Italian
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Ask them which words they want to delete from the text
Cheers
Gianni
| | | | Sheila Wilson
Spain
Local time: 06:36
Member (2007)
English
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| What a worrying possibility | Jul 22, 2015 |
Michael Wetzel wrote:
- the most likely explanation: a manual is translated from Chinese to English, this manual is then translated from English into various languages and these translations are charged by the word ... now, that's hardly a very nice way to do business: artificially reducing the pay for a given text using a technique that will probably make it more difficult to understand and translate, but it doesn't seem like a far-fetched theory
In today's climate that doesn't seem far-fetched at all. You could well be right. So making the cuts for free would be really handy for the client, but it's hardly the translator's responsibility to work for free in order to save the client money on future work relating to the text. Surely they should have crafted the source document differently, and/or told you in advance to adopt a particular style.
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I could have gone either way on this one. As I've written before, I think there's often much to be said for occasionally providing free services for clients (if we're only talking about 10-20 minutes of work and the issue brought up by Phil are resolved satisfactorily), and then letting them know that in the future such work will be billed. On the other hand, I certainly understand the arguments made by others against this practice.
HOWEVER, since you've already performed the work a... See more I could have gone either way on this one. As I've written before, I think there's often much to be said for occasionally providing free services for clients (if we're only talking about 10-20 minutes of work and the issue brought up by Phil are resolved satisfactorily), and then letting them know that in the future such work will be billed. On the other hand, I certainly understand the arguments made by others against this practice.
HOWEVER, since you've already performed the work and submitted it back to them, I think it would be bad form to bill them after the fact. Doing so could very easily create all sorts of headaches for both you and the agency.
If you want to charge in the future for this, and assuming your original translation wasn't too wordy, I'd write to the agency soon to let them know that while you were happy to do this for them this time around, you'll have to charge for it in the future. ▲ Collapse
| | | | Mark Sanderson
United Kingdom
Local time: 06:36
Chinese to English
TOPIC STARTER | All's well that ends well | Jul 23, 2015 |
Thanks for all of the replies.
After completing the revisions and reading the posts on here, I contacted the PM and let them know that I would be billing them for one hour of proofreading.
The PM accepted and the invoice has been sent.
This experience has taught me that I should have communicated about the price and purpose of this work right at the start. It's another one to watch out for.
Many thanks
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| Depends on how you define your service | Jul 24, 2015 |
Mark Sanderson wrote:
Hello,
I recently completed a project for an agency that was accepted and billed for successfully. The agency has now come back to me and asked if I can shorten the translation by around 200 words (total no. of pages = 6).
Should this be included as part of my original translation service, or should I bill this separately as editing or another after service?
The agency hasn’t said that the client was unhappy with the work; they have simply asked me to shorten it to a target length and send it back to them. They have not mentioned a separate fee.
What should I do?
Thanks,
Mark Sanderson
Hi, Mark. It depends on how you define your service. If you're in the business of selling billable words (or hours, pages etc.) in fast-paced standardized transactions with lean pricing, then chances are additional work time could disturb the flow and balance of your business. On the other hand, if you advertise something close to full service, a justified request to shorten your translation, for specific reasons and with reasonable parameters, should perhaps be included in the price.
Even so, you can always justify requesting an additional deadline (not 'yesterday') and additional pay on the grounds that it simply is a new service and a new order. The question is only if you want to or not, and that, like I said, depends on how you see it. Basically make a policy decision according to your values and your business model.
(Sorry if I'm not sounding too clear. I have a splitting headache today but still wanted to help.)
EDIT: Too late. Oh well.
[Edited at 2015-07-24 21:23 GMT]
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