Pages in topic:   < [1 2]
Help me reboot my translator activity...
Thread poster: Alexandre Chetrite
Catherine Howard
Catherine Howard
United States
Local time: 05:17
Portuguese to English
+ ...
three tips to consider for getting more work Jan 5, 2015

I want to second Carmen's recommendation of joining Marta's free Business Camp for Translators. It's already off to a strong start with great exercises to get your translation business revved up, whether you're new or experienced as a translator. It involves a lot of commitment to keep up with the daily assignments, but that's the only way any businessperson ever succeeded.

Here are some general tips about proofreading your CV, profile, other marketing materials, and, in fact, all
... See more
I want to second Carmen's recommendation of joining Marta's free Business Camp for Translators. It's already off to a strong start with great exercises to get your translation business revved up, whether you're new or experienced as a translator. It involves a lot of commitment to keep up with the daily assignments, but that's the only way any businessperson ever succeeded.

Here are some general tips about proofreading your CV, profile, other marketing materials, and, in fact, all your work: never, EVER rely simply on spell-check or grammar-check functions to proof your materials, just like you would never rely on machine translation to do your assignments. Spell- and grammar-check functions only catch some of the errors.

In addition, unless your family members are professional translators or editors, do *not* rely on them either, even if they are bilingual, again with the parallel that mere bilinguals are not translators. Translating and editing require professional skills and experience. It is *especially* crucial for your public marketing materials to have a professional editor review them (i.e., someone you pay or with whom you exchange services); if you have written them in your non-native source language, then that editor must be a professional translator as well. One spelling error or one poorly phrased sentence can send a potential client traipsing off elsewhere to find someone to deliver quality translations. It's as if it were a great big banner announcing that you were not to be taken seriously. Of course that's not true, but that's the message it puts out.

Many translators think they're good enough to not need professional proofreading or editing. Most of them are translators who work for agencies, where presumably (not always) someone is proofing the work sent in by the translators. Other translators who don't use colleagues' services for revising are simply not making enough money to do so, but this unfortunately keeps them stuck in the lower-paying end of the market.

By contrast, some of the top translators in the world (such as Chris Durban, Kevin Hendzel, Robin Bonethrone, etc.) argue that the more elite a translator is, the more he or she insists on hiring with a professional reviser or working with a close partner who does proofing or editing. This is in fact the standard practice among translators who work with direct clients in the high-paying premium market. They wouldn't ever submit their translations without their partner reviewing and revising them -- and they wouldn't even *dream* of putting their marketing materials out in public without hiring professional editors!

Here's one more tip: e-mails to agencies are becoming less and less successful each year, as agencies try to protect themselves from the explosive growth in the number of scammers and fraudsters who have stolen the identities of legitimate translators. More and more agency owners say they automatically delete unsolicited e-mails; it's just too much work trying to sort out the scammers. So what's a translator to do? You have to go to the agency's website and look for the portals with forms for contacting them or for filling out an application. That's how they screen out the worst of the scammers, although it's still not foolproof. Sorana's advice is still well-taken, that you have to contact lots of agencies to get any response -- with the proviso that you do this through the agency's portal, not your own e-mail program.

HTH,
Catherine



[Edited at 2015-01-05 03:12 GMT]
Collapse


 
Pages in topic:   < [1 2]


To report site rules violations or get help, contact a site moderator:


You can also contact site staff by submitting a support request »

Help me reboot my translator activity...







Wordfast Pro
Translation Memory Software for Any Platform

Exclusive discount for ProZ.com users! Save over 13% when purchasing Wordfast Pro through ProZ.com. Wordfast is the world's #1 provider of platform-independent Translation Memory software. Consistently ranked the most user-friendly and highest value

Buy now! »
Trados Business Manager Lite
Create customer quotes and invoices from within Trados Studio

Trados Business Manager Lite helps to simplify and speed up some of the daily tasks, such as invoicing and reporting, associated with running your freelance translation business.

More info »