Free final checks? Auteur du fil: Maria Teresa Borges de Almeida
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I’d like to have your opinion on the following. I was contacted about a month ago by a translation agency about an editing job. After long negotiations, I’ve accepted a rate lower than I usually charge because projects were regular (weekly), small and interesting (fashion) and as I discovered later on very well translated (if I knew who the translator was I would like to congratulate him/her), but (there’s always a but) the editing job was followed by a long list of requirements for a fina... See more I’d like to have your opinion on the following. I was contacted about a month ago by a translation agency about an editing job. After long negotiations, I’ve accepted a rate lower than I usually charge because projects were regular (weekly), small and interesting (fashion) and as I discovered later on very well translated (if I knew who the translator was I would like to congratulate him/her), but (there’s always a but) the editing job was followed by a long list of requirements for a final check which was supposed to be included in the editing rate. After the second project, I decided to part ways and no longer work with them. I’ve been translating for over 30 years and every now and then I’ve been asked to do final checks but never for free. So, my question is: is this a new trend? What do you think? ▲ Collapse
| | | | Lincoln Hui 
Hong Kong
Local time: 18:43
Membre
chinois vers anglais
+ ...
I have a client or two who wants checks. I find them annoying and distracting, but then the real time taken to do these things usually add up to less than 1 hour.
If things start adding up, there probably needs to be money involved. And if things get too frequent and they insist too much on getting things back as soon as possible, maybe happen to be out of office at inopportune times for them?
| | | | Thayenga
Allemagne
Local time: 11:43
Membre (2009)
anglais vers allemand
+ ...
| Part of the job | May 5, 2019 |
Final checks, including special requirements and a seemingly endless checklist, are part of an proofreader's job. If these instructions and the checklist are requested by the customer, they should be done as well, and... be paid for accordingly. In the business world freebies have no place. A serious customer will respect that all this takes time, your time, for which s/he will (or should) pay.
| | | | | Getting things straight at the start | May 5, 2019 |
We generally learn with experience but as a matter of principle, there should be a traceable (written) agreement setting out precisely what is to be done for the price to be paid. It is not enough to state "proofread" or "editing" for example, without specifying what is expected. Next time, you might like to consider whether checks are included, whether the proofreading is to be mono ou bilingual (comparing the translation with the source document, for example). It should also include the stages... See more We generally learn with experience but as a matter of principle, there should be a traceable (written) agreement setting out precisely what is to be done for the price to be paid. It is not enough to state "proofread" or "editing" for example, without specifying what is expected. Next time, you might like to consider whether checks are included, whether the proofreading is to be mono ou bilingual (comparing the translation with the source document, for example). It should also include the stages, and, of course, whether a final check is to be included. You'll know next time. ▲ Collapse
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Nikki Scott-Despaigne wrote:
We generally learn with experience but as a matter of principle, there should be a traceable (written) agreement setting out precisely what is to be done for the price to be paid. It is not enough to state "proofread" or "editing" for example, without specifying what is expected. Next time, you might like to consider whether checks are included, whether the proofreading is to be mono ou bilingual (comparing the translation with the source document, for example). It should also include the stages, and, of course, whether a final check is to be included. You'll know next time.
At the start what was agreed was a bilingual editing EN-PT and during the negotiations a final check or any other stage was ever mentioned…
| | | | | Per word or per hour? | May 5, 2019 |
Teresa Borges wrote:
After long negotiations, I’ve accepted a rate lower than I usually charge because projects were regular (weekly), small and interesting (fashion) and as I discovered later on very well translated (if I knew who the translator was I would like to congratulate him/her), but (there’s always a but) the editing job was followed by a long list of requirements for a final check which was supposed to be included in the editing rate.
If you agreed on a per hour rate, then the extra time taken would be a non-issue, so I guess it's a per word one. In my humble opinion, it would be feasible if those were spot checks, but if it's a systematic requirement for every single job, and it takes a considerable amount of additional time (especially compared to the actual editing), then yes, it would become quite the hurdle, especially if the negotiated rate didn't account for that, as it seems to be the case here...
I generally don't like doing proofreading, or worse, revision, but I was recently asked to check and grade a few translation tests, which included filling a report. The source text was reasonably short (around 250 words) and I was paid my hourly rate, so that was OK. Not sure I would've accepted if they asked me to do that at a per word rate, but obviously, in my case it was clear that wasn't just a "simple" revision.
Thayenga wrote:
Final checks, including special requirements and a seemingly endless checklist, are part of an proofreader's job. If these instructions and the checklist are requested by the customer, they should be done as well, and... be paid for accordingly. In the business world freebies have no place. A serious customer will respect that all this takes time, your time, for which s/he will (or should) pay.
Define "final checks" (in addition to the actual proofreading, I mean)... QA with CAT tools, Xbench, report filling, etc.? Actually, if a client asks for a proofreading, I would normally think they just need me to check a translation (not against the source) and mainly focus on grammar and syntax... But if and when that happens, I generally tell them that's what I mean by it.
And, even in case of editing/revision, I think a client could also settle for "just" the editing service, without requiring further steps, or ask to conduct them only occasionally (like filling in LQA reports, etc.), especially if translations are very good to begin with, as in Teresa's case... So, in short, IMO it's not a given.
As for "freebies having no place in the business world"... well, someone might suggest that going the extra mile is always the smart thing to do...
[Edited at 2019-05-05 17:53 GMT]
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I had agreed on a fixed lump sum for editing EN-PT on the understanding that the job would never exceed 250 words.
| | | | Vanda Nissen
Australie
Local time: 20:43
anglais vers russe
+ ...
| I had a similiar experience | May 6, 2019 |
with a translation project a couple of years ago. A fellow translator contacted me for medical translations, they mentioned that my translations were going to be edited which was absolutely fine. What they forgot to mention though, that the translations were going to be edited by the client who was not a translator but obviously had a lot of spare time on their hands. So, each time I was sent a lengthy edited document with the client's comments, something like that: "I understand why the transla... See more with a translation project a couple of years ago. A fellow translator contacted me for medical translations, they mentioned that my translations were going to be edited which was absolutely fine. What they forgot to mention though, that the translations were going to be edited by the client who was not a translator but obviously had a lot of spare time on their hands. So, each time I was sent a lengthy edited document with the client's comments, something like that: "I understand why the translator has chosen this variant, but I prefer my version, because blah-blah-blah... but if the translator can explain their reasoning, I may reconsider my decision". So, for each 500 words I had to read 4 pages of text. After a couple of such projects I realised that my original rate did not reflect these so called final checks and I decided to drop them (of course, I explained why). The colleague was very surprised which made me wonder if they really thought it was an acceptable practice provided that they paid for translation only. ▲ Collapse
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Kay Denney
France
Local time: 11:43
français vers anglais
| Anything free has to be factored into pricing. | May 6, 2019 |
Clients who pay my top rate get free checks after formatting and we can discuss my choice of words too. I don't wade through my edited work analysing every single change made by an over-enthusiastic proofreader who's made changes that are 99% subjective.
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