LQA hourly rate per 1000 translated file
Thread poster: Blessing Uzuegbu
Blessing Uzuegbu
Blessing Uzuegbu  Identity Verified
Nigeria
Local time: 09:54
Member (2018)
English to Igbo
+ ...
May 6, 2019

Hello,

I have been asked by a client to quote for LQA service. Please I need help in quoting hourly rate of LQA on a translated document. Hourly rate is per 1000 words. Please how do you all charge for LQA service. I look forward to hearing from you soon.


Kind regards
Blessing


 
Samuel Murray
Samuel Murray  Identity Verified
Netherlands
Local time: 09:54
Member (2006)
English to Afrikaans
+ ...
Hourly rate per X units May 6, 2019

Blessing Uzuegbu wrote:
Hourly rate is per 1000 words.


The client wants to pay you per hour, and wants you to do more or less 1000 words per hour. So, you should charge your usual hourly rate, and learn how to increase or reduce your level of precision, based on the quality of the text, so that you do approximately 1000 words per hour.

Odds are, however, that you won't be able to charge your usual hourly rate. LQA typically pays very little. Mostly clients who don't pay well, care about LQA. LQA is what editing looks like if it was designed by a committee.


 
Erik Freitag
Erik Freitag  Identity Verified
Germany
Local time: 09:54
Member (2006)
Dutch to German
+ ...
Hourly rate May 6, 2019

Dear Blessing,

The term hourly rate is commonly understood as "price per hour". The number of words isn't a factor.

It makes a lot of sense to quote LQA tasks by the hour. If a client tries to demand a certain number of words taken care of per hour, they are effectively not asking for an hourly rate, but for a per-word-rate and for a certain working speed. You don't want to do this.

My advice: Quote your normal hourly rate, charge the number of hour
... See more
Dear Blessing,

The term hourly rate is commonly understood as "price per hour". The number of words isn't a factor.

It makes a lot of sense to quote LQA tasks by the hour. If a client tries to demand a certain number of words taken care of per hour, they are effectively not asking for an hourly rate, but for a per-word-rate and for a certain working speed. You don't want to do this.

My advice: Quote your normal hourly rate, charge the number of hours the job takes (possibly rounded to the next 15 minutes).

Your hourly rate should be the same no matter what the task.

When pressed, give the client a rough estimate of the number of hours the job will take. Stress that this is nothing but an estimate and that you are going to charge the actual number of hours.

Hope this makes things a bit clearer for you.

Kind regards,
Erik


[Edited at 2019-05-06 13:58 GMT]

[Edited at 2019-05-06 13:58 GMT]
Collapse


Benjamin Penders
Samuel Murray
Blessing Uzuegbu
Gerard de Noord
Philippe Etienne
 
Sheila Wilson
Sheila Wilson  Identity Verified
Spain
Local time: 08:54
Member (2007)
English
+ ...
Negotiate - quote in a more sensible way May 6, 2019

Blessing Uzuegbu wrote:
I have been asked by a client to quote for LQA service.

Not really. If they ask you for a quote, they do just that, and wait for you to come up with it. In this case, they've already determined that the:

Hourly rate is per 1000 words.

They've approached a freelance translator, but they're telling them (you) how fast to work. Only YOU can determine how long the job will take. And you can only do that once you've seen the quality of the text. Have you seen it? Once you've examined it, you should be able to estimate how long the work should take. Remember to factor in any report etc. Then you can quote per 1,000 words (not per 1,000 words per hour). If you estimate that you'll only be able to process 750 words in an hour, then your per-1000-word rate will naturally have to be higher.

The basis for every single quote has to be your time - however you actually choose to quote - because your time (backed by your expertise) is what you're selling.

So, quoting by volume needs to be done afresh for every single text. That's an overhead that needs to be factored into the rate, and it's a boring, time-consuming chore. A far better way to quote for any editing job is to simply give the client your per-hour rate. Then you invoice that 1000-word text for an hour, an hour and a half, or however long it takes. Most clients will of course want some reassurance from an editor who is new to them, so you'll probably have to give them a maximum time spend. But make sure it's well above what you think you'll need, to cover contingencies.


Blessing Uzuegbu
Khalid Sabili
Vera Schoen
Peter Shortall
 
Thayenga
Thayenga  Identity Verified
Germany
Local time: 09:54
Member (2009)
English to German
+ ...
Per hour without a specific number of words May 6, 2019

Other than providing your usual hourly rate, you can only give the customer a valid quote, and that is, for every single job separately, after you have seen the document/translation.

That the client expects you to check the quality of 1,000 words (not files ) carries a slight touch of these projects possibly being mere post-editing. This factors (MTPE) should never be underestimated.


Blessing Uzuegbu
Maria da Glória Teixeira
 
Lincoln Hui
Lincoln Hui  Identity Verified
Hong Kong
Local time: 16:54
Member
Chinese to English
+ ...
Minimum rate May 6, 2019

I wouldn't be too concerned about the time taken for the LQA project itself, but I would try to negotiate a minimum rate, maybe the equivalent of 0.5 hour. These jobs often involve LQA forms or specific feedback procedures, and these are things that eat up time even for small jobs, but do become less tiresome with bigger projects.

Blessing Uzuegbu
Zeineb Nalouti
Maria da Glória Teixeira
 
Blessing Uzuegbu
Blessing Uzuegbu  Identity Verified
Nigeria
Local time: 09:54
Member (2018)
English to Igbo
+ ...
TOPIC STARTER
totally agree May 6, 2019

Thank you very much for your kind suggestion, I will quote 1000 words, this is a huge project that runs into millions of words, I intend to inculcate my editing words per 1000 words, using hourly rate per 1000 words as they are suggesting does not seem feasible to me, that is why I am curious to find out from my colleagues what they would have done if they were in my shoes. I know they are trying to cut cost. I have not seen the quality of the text yet, its just a quote they are demanding. Thank... See more
Thank you very much for your kind suggestion, I will quote 1000 words, this is a huge project that runs into millions of words, I intend to inculcate my editing words per 1000 words, using hourly rate per 1000 words as they are suggesting does not seem feasible to me, that is why I am curious to find out from my colleagues what they would have done if they were in my shoes. I know they are trying to cut cost. I have not seen the quality of the text yet, its just a quote they are demanding. Thank you for the tip.





Sheila Wilson wrote:

Blessing Uzuegbu wrote:
I have been asked by a client to quote for LQA service.

Not really. If they ask you for a quote, they do just that, and wait for you to come up with it. In this case, they've already determined that the:

Hourly rate is per 1000 words.

They've approached a freelance translator, but they're telling them (you) how fast to work. Only YOU can determine how long the job will take. And you can only do that once you've seen the quality of the text. Have you seen it? Once you've examined it, you should be able to estimate how long the work should take. Remember to factor in any report etc. Then you can quote per 1,000 words (not per 1,000 words per hour). If you estimate that you'll only be able to process 750 words in an hour, then your per-1000-word rate will naturally have to be higher.

The basis for every single quote has to be your time - however you actually choose to quote - because your time (backed by your expertise) is what you're selling.

So, quoting by volume needs to be done afresh for every single text. That's an overhead that needs to be factored into the rate, and it's a boring, time-consuming chore. A far better way to quote for any editing job is to simply give the client your per-hour rate. Then you invoice that 1000-word text for an hour, an hour and a half, or however long it takes. Most clients will of course want some reassurance from an editor who is new to them, so you'll probably have to give them a maximum time spend. But make sure it's well above what you think you'll need, to cover contingencies.
Collapse


 
Blessing Uzuegbu
Blessing Uzuegbu  Identity Verified
Nigeria
Local time: 09:54
Member (2018)
English to Igbo
+ ...
TOPIC STARTER
Thank you May 6, 2019

Thank you for your kind suggestion, I will keep this in mind.


Samuel Murray wrote:

Blessing Uzuegbu wrote:
Hourly rate is per 1000 words.


The client wants to pay you per hour, and wants you to do more or less 1000 words per hour. So, you should charge your usual hourly rate, and learn how to increase or reduce your level of precision, based on the quality of the text, so that you do approximately 1000 words per hour.

Odds are, however, that you won't be able to charge your usual hourly rate. LQA typically pays very little. Mostly clients who don't pay well, care about LQA. LQA is what editing looks like if it was designed by a committee.


 
Blessing Uzuegbu
Blessing Uzuegbu  Identity Verified
Nigeria
Local time: 09:54
Member (2018)
English to Igbo
+ ...
TOPIC STARTER
Thank May 6, 2019

Funny enough I haven't seen the text to determine the quality of the text, I don't think is a post editing job, I am keeping my fingers crossed until I see the text.




Thayenga wrote:

Other than providing your usual hourly rate, you can only give the customer a valid quote, and that is, for every single job separately, after you have seen the document/translation.

That the client expects you to check the quality of 1,000 words (not files ) carries a slight touch of these projects possibly being mere post-editing. This factors (MTPE) should never be underestimated.


 
Blessing Uzuegbu
Blessing Uzuegbu  Identity Verified
Nigeria
Local time: 09:54
Member (2018)
English to Igbo
+ ...
TOPIC STARTER
Thank you May 6, 2019

Thank you very much for your kind suggestion, I will keep this in mind


Erik Freitag wrote:

Dear Blessing,

The term hourly rate is commonly understood as "price per hour". The number of words isn't a factor.

It makes a lot of sense to quote LQA tasks by the hour. If a client tries to demand a certain number of words taken care of per hour, they are effectively not asking for an hourly rate, but for a per-word-rate and for a certain working speed. You don't want to do this.

My advice: Quote your normal hourly rate, charge the number of hours the job takes (possibly rounded to the next 15 minutes).

Your hourly rate should be the same no matter what the task.

When pressed, give the client a rough estimate of the number of hours the job will take. Stress that this is nothing but an estimate and that you are going to charge the actual number of hours.

Hope this makes things a bit clearer for you.

Kind regards,
Erik


[Edited at 2019-05-06 13:58 GMT]

[Edited at 2019-05-06 13:58 GMT]


 


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LQA hourly rate per 1000 translated file







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