What to charge?

[jdaxland100]

Hi! Someone offered me a job translating 16,000 words from French to English. My current rate is $5 per 500 words which would bring this job to $160, but i feel like that’s not enough considering the time involved! What do you guys think??

[steixeira]

You can easily increase your price. I always do if it is technical text as it means I have to do more research to get the proper translation. For such a large number of words you can bump up your price as well.

Just justify it when you send your offer.

I also do not give discounts and this has been a topic of discussion with some buyers who think they should get a discount if they give me a 10,000 word document to translate.

[emmaki]

Charge by the hour, not word count for this kind of gig. How much money is one hour of your time worth? And justify that with something a bit extra to sweeten the deal (unlimited revisions, faster delivery, etc)

[eoinfinnegan]

Many translators charge your rate, $10/1000 words, I generally will charge more for longer texts. Remember that agencies charge $30-50/1000 words for this kind of work so even doubling your rate is still good value for the client. I would suggest $250 for this gig. Your client may be expecting a lower rate for a large document but explain that there is more to translating a longer text than simply more words.

[ale_acunna]

It’s definitely fair to charge more for longer documents, I haven’t found a problem in doing do, most buyers are usually flexible when they want to make sure they get a good result, especially when the project is long.

[misscrystal]

This would be the same as 32 $5 sales.
You can send a custom order for whatever you want. It’s up to you.

[jdaxland100]

Thank you everyone! I sent an offer for $200, saying that it is a lot of work and will take a lot of time. They haven’t replied yet, so we’ll see what happens!

[kingland]

Just think and calculate about what price(s) you want then send a custom offer.

[contentcruise]

Buyers would think of it as 32 by $5, just like they are buying 32 gigs, but its not. Going on a long distance, kind of translation job, needs more of your time and energy than you would with 32 separate gigs.

However, I think you are the best judge when it comes to pricing. Outside of Fiverr, such job might be be around $600 or more. There is no offense asking what you want, its left for them to negotiate.

Cheers!

[steixeira]

It is difficult to change by the hour for translations. Sometimes a 1000 word text can take less time than a 200 word. It all depends on the topic.