Quality assessment - how much do you charge?

Ice Scream wrote:

If it's obviously your hourly rate, the answer is your hourly rate...

Or are you asking how long it will take?

It would take me less than a minute to assess the quality of a translation. One-hour minimum charge then.

Vladimir Pochinov wrote:

If your client requires a detailed analysis of errors by category and severity, you may end up with an arm-long TQA report. If they need a pass/fail opinion, it may take 5 minutes to come up with the verdict.

Teresa Borges wrote:

I have a fixed rate per hour for some tasks (adaptation, proofreading, editing, QA, transcreation), some require more time than others. I have never invoiced translation per hour, though my hourly rate is based on how many words I can translate per hour. My minimum charge rate is the same as my hour rate.

Inga Petkelyte wrote:

I have been doing QA and none of them takes less than a minute - for downloading the file, naming it for my records, then uploading, that alone takes a minute or more. Now, assessment itself depends on the document volume and the quality thereof, for we are asked to correct what needs to be corrected and to justify each correction. And I could go on.

Teresa Borges wrote:

I have a fixed rate per hour for some tasks (adaptation, proofreading, editing, QA, transcreation), some require more time than others.

Vladimir Pochinov wrote:



Exactly. I believe it is the only logical approach. The key differentiator would be the number of words you can process within one hour.

I show below how your price schedule could look like, with two different hourly rates:

Example 1.

Translation: €0.10 per word (~300 words/hour)
Revision (or bilingual editing): €30.00 per hour (~600 words/hour), or €0.05 per word
Proofreading (or monolingual editing): €30.00 per hour (~1,000 words/hour), or €0.03 per word

Example 2.

Translation: €0.12 per word (~300 words/hour)
Revision (or bilingual editing): €36.00 per hour (~600 words/hour), or €0.06 per word
Proofreading (or monolingual editing): €36.00 per hour (~1,000 words/hour), or €0.036 per word

As you see, the amount to be earned per hour remains the same in each option above, regardless of the task involved.

Inez Ulrich wrote:What I actually meant was: what do you charge for hour for tasks like this? Of course, it can be done within minutes, or with a full report it might take hours. But what is your hourly rate? Or do you have a fixed rate per hour, no matter what task it is (translation, proofreading, editing)?

Inez Ulrich wrote:

Just another question, if I may: Lately, I noticed that a lot of agencies hire cheap translators and then expect the proofreader/editor to fix that mess, of course at the lower rate of proofreading. A clever way to save money, of course. For this reason, I always ask to see the translation beforehand and then discuss the rate necessary for the work involved. This is more -retranslation than editing, of course. You certainly charge way more for this kind of work, too, right? And how much more, if I may ask? For me, usually around € 0,08/word. Or do you consider this too cheap?

Vladimir Pochinov wrote:



It depends. You have your own rates. I rarely take on revision tasks involving translations by unknown translators. I am gradually switching to working for direct clients, and my primary offer to them is the TEP package. This means working in tandem with one of my trusted colleagues, taking turns as a translator and an editor. The final responsibility lies with the original translator, who can either accept or reject the changes proposed by the revised.

Regarding your question about the pricing for revision, charge anywhere between your regular rate for revision and your regular rate for translation if the original "masterpiece" calls for a complete retranslation (just advise the client that you can only retranslate it from scratch because it is beyond salvage).

As a separate note, you need to clarify what the client means by proofreading.

ISO 17100 standard:
-------------------------------
2.2.4
post-edit
edit and correct machine translation output (2.2.3)
2.2.5
check
examination of target language content (2.3.3) carried out by the translator (2.4.4)
2.2.6
revision
bilingual examination of target language content (2.3.3) against source language content (2.3.2) for its suitability for the agreed purpose
Note 1 to entry: The term bilingual editing is sometimes used as a synonym for revision.
2.2.7
review
monolingual examination of target language content (2.3.3) for its suitability for the agreed purpose
Note 1 to entry: The term monolingual editing is sometimes used as a synonym for review.
2.2.8
proofread
examine the revised target language content (2.3.3) and apply corrections before printing

Clients often want revision but expect proofreading rates

Ice Scream wrote:



Yes, one fixed rate. An hour of my time is an hour of my time.

(That said... I do charge some clients a lower hourly rate because they wouldn't stomach my standard hourly rate, just as I charge some less per word. But I only take their work if I'm sitting there twiddling my thumbs or if it's something I really enjoy.)