The ATA Chronicle - January/February 2020 - 23

desired effect: demand dropped, mostly
on the agency side, and I was no longer
continually turning work away. But what
I hadn't done was to find enough new
clients to fill the gap left by the agencies
who were dropping me. So, there were
times last year when I had no work at
all. This is something I'm not used to
after having been almost constantly
fully booked for a couple of years. And
when work got slack, I took jobs I
shouldn't have touched, like the ones
I've mentioned.
It's at times like these that I need to be
reminded that positive things can happen.
Fortunately, one or two of those also came
along in the same post-holiday fortnight.
First, I had an inquiry from a potential
new client in one of my specialty fields:
wine. As I usually do, I asked how the
client found me, to which he replied,
"I just googled." That is fantastic news,
because so many of us with websites
sometimes wonder if the investment
is worthwhile. There's a temptation to
think websites are mere vanity projects
designed to project our egos onto the
internet, but with little practical use. But
here is real evidence that if someone keys
in something like "English translators
specializing in wine in Spanish," they will
find me. However much work arrives
or doesn't arrive from this particular
potential client, the fact that he could find
me in that way gives me hope.

CHARGING FOR QUALITY
Then there is the question of quality. I
want to provide quality because, beyond
the satisfaction it gives me, I have no
doubt that providing quality is what can
help human translators stand out from
machines. Obviously, though, quality
comes at a price. The minimum I need to
provide top quality is to be paid enough
to employ someone to reviewer my
translations, because, for me, having my
translations reviewed is the only way of
providing a really polished document.
The problem is, especially in a country
like Spain where quality isn't really part of
the culture, many clients are simply not
willing to pay that kind of price, and some
will just run away if you ask for it.
So, when I had an inquiry from a direct
client who came to me via a colleague for
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a website translation, I quoted two prices:
the "premium" price, with revision, and the
"standard" price, without. It's a tactic I've
sometimes used before that's designed to
stop clients who would balk at the higher
price from simply going elsewhere if their
budget doesn't stretch that far. I always say
that I recommend the premium option and
explain why. Often, though, clients ignore
my advice and choose the cheaper one.

What I hadn't done was to find
enough new clients to fill the gap
left by the agencies who were
dropping me.

But this time, my prospective client
made a different choice. "I prefer the
highest quality option," he said. "This
job isn't urgent." It was almost like
finding that unicorns exist. Because, in
darker moments, I wonder how many
clients actually care about quality at all
and whether it wouldn't be possible to
make a living churning out low-quality
translations as quickly as possible at low
prices. In fact, it probably would-for
now. But the problem for translators
trying this tactic is that machines can
already do more or less the same thing,
and they'll soon be able to do it better. So,
coming across a client so clearly in the
market for quality and ready to pay for it
was another reason to be optimistic.

CHARGING FOR THE LONG-TERM
Then, another new direct client appeared
in my inbox. He had a short translation
that needed doing. The only thing was, he
needed it that same day. My dilemma was
to quote him a price. This time, double
pricing was not an option. Apart from
anything else, there wasn't going to be
time for anyone else to revise my work,
so I needed to quote a single figure. But
how much? I took a few minutes to think
because there were various considerations.
This looked like a client who could pay
a reasonable rate and one I would like
to keep for future work. But that also
meant I needed to make sure I didn't

undercharge with the first job. Doing the
job the same day wasn't going to be a
problem, but at the same time I wanted
to ensure the client appreciated my effort.
Normally the translation would cost a
minimum fee, which represents thirty
minutes of work for me. But what if I
took a bit longer than that and charged for
an hour?
That left the issue of the urgency of the
job. To be honest, by charging for an hour,
I was already being well rewarded. But I
wanted the client, who, to be honest, didn't
seem all that well organized, to realize that
they wouldn't just be able to snap their
fingers and expect me to jump every time.
So, I decided to inform them that normally
I charge extra for rush translations, but
at the same time would do them a favor
by waiving the charge because it was our
first job together. That way, I earned a very
satisfying rate for the job and the client
enjoyed a discount. It really was a win for
both sides, and, I hope, the start of a good
future relationship.

LOOKING FORWARD, NOT BACK
As I've already suggested, the future is
where we need to look if we want to
find reasons to continue to be upwardly
mobile as translators. It's not an easy
process. There are misjudgments,
setbacks, and temporary reverses. But as
soon as we let these situations lead us into
negative, short-term thinking-as soon as
we fail to find ways of learning from them
and moving forward-we're on the road
to nowhere.
Simon Berrill is a translator
with 17 years of experience. He
works from Spanish, Catalan,
and French into English for
agencies, universities, and
private customers, largely
in Spain but also in the U.K., France, Germany,
Belgium, Italy, and other countries. His specialties
include journalism, history, tourism, business,
sports, food and wine, and art and music. He
worked as a journalist in England for many years. He
is a member of the Chartered Institute of Linguists,
the Association of Professional Translators and
Interpreters of Catalonia, and the Mediterranean
Editors and Translators association. You can find
his blog at www.sjbtranslations.com/blog.
Contact: simonberrill@sjbtranslations.com.
American Translators Association

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The ATA Chronicle - January/February 2020

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