What you need to know when starting as a Freelance Translator
When you start working as a freelance translator, there are several things you need to think about.
One of the most important things is to find out what you know about the world and this has nothing to do with the language degree you have just earned at university.
Before studying a language or languages, what were you good at in school? Were you good at Maths, Physics, Biology ? Or were you better at amateur dramatics or at editing the school or university magazine. Are you interested in religion or in history ? Art books often need to be translated and a knowledge of art is something that can be developed and enhanced over an entire life-time.
What are your interests now, apart from languages?
It will be no good your advertising yourself as a freelance translator unless you tell the translation agencies what are your specialities.
If you have an easy writing style, you could be what agencies need for commercial and advertising translation. You need to update your interests in ecology and the environment frequently, since change occurs continuously.
The same applies to technical translation, where change occurs at an ever-increasing rate. Technical translators have often been working in a particular industry for several years and have spent some of those years in a foreign country, where they learned a foreign language. They were trained as engineers but after ten or twenty years they have decided to work as freelance translators (no more boss to tell them what to do) and their previous experience and training opens the door to technical translation. Their previous working experience has taught them the correct industrial vocabulary in both languages.
Other technical translators are people whose main education was in languages but who are also interested in technical subjects - maybe as a hobby - and this can be developed.
There are other translators who specialize in medical, legal or financial translation. Here again, they have usually worked in the profession concerned, often abroad, but after half a lifetime have decided to free themselves from the organisational constraints. These people are particularly valuable to translation companies, because they are professionally qualified as doctors, lawyers, accountants, etc.
On the one hand, freelance translation provides a lot of freedom - you can choose what time of day you are going to work - and you need on occasion to work until 2 o'clock in the morning and at weekends, but the great thing is that you can decide what you are going to do and when.
When starting out as a freelancer, if an end customer or a translation agency sends you a translation which is beyond your competence (and don't worry, this also happens to translators who have been twenty years or more in the business) you should politely tell the customer that you can't do it and why. An email can be sent to the customer during the following week, showing the subjects you specialise in.
This brings us to advertising. Almost all freelance translators have to advertise in one way or another. On occasions, the fact that you are registered with one of the national translation institutes is enough to attract a large amount of work, but this mostly applies to translators who have been working for several years. It is usually better for people starting at as freelancers to register with a translation or interpreting directory. Customers can find you there and you can get a large list of translation agencies to whom you can send emails, advertising your languages, your specialities and you major customers.
As the manager of a translation agency I usually receive anything from one to ten emails from freelancers every day and I reply, often asking for further details. If you send a CV with your email, make sure that your include on the CV your mailing address, telephone number, email address and your price per source word in one of the world currencies (Euro, British pound, US dollar). Of course, don't forget to include your specialities in your CV and a list of customer names for any large translations you have recently done.
A translation agency which is interested in your application will probably ask you to translate a short sample text, about one page of 200 to 300 words.
Some new freelancers telephone to translation agencies, looking for work, but it is usually better to use email. Agencies prefer receiving information in black and white - they find it easier to put your details on their databases.
I don't know how many thousands or hundreds of thousands of freelance translators there are in the world today, but there is always room for another one. So keep going - send out your emails !
About the Author
John Hadfield started his translation agency in 1989. This is the 20th anniversary and after all that experience, you won't find a better agency. You can get an instant on-line quotation for your translation at http://www.oxfordtranslation.co.uk and also find out more about how translation works.
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