I've never thought of being a translator,but in the moment I read your article I just loved the idea!
I'll study more and more and who knows someday I can travel all over the world working in an internet-based job!

Merci!

Legal Translation Solutions

I just came across your blog. Excellent topic. Lots of nu nomads (that what we call location-independent working-professionals) are translators. One of the problems is that they have difficulties with the transition. It would be nice to have you comment on our blog (www.nunomad.com/blog) when the occasion arises.

Just so you know, this week we’ve published our long-awaited how-to guide on location-independent living. It’s titled, “the Nu Nomad” and you can read all about it at http://www.nunomad.com/TNN.
Good luck with your work!

Keep up with the good work!
Greetings from Slovenia

You raised some interesting points, so let me explain:
I was surprised that the small part of this article where I mentioned reducing my price would get the biggest reaction from other translators, but several people have tweeted me and written me to say that I’m “hurting the industry” or things like that. I really didn’t think that me being competitive could offend people, but as you say there is a huge debate about this. I am not an established translator, since I’ve just been doing this for about 2 and a half years. I find some translators cling on to their prices religiously since they’ve had them for years. This isn’t the case for me, so I am willing to be flexible when I need to.
I could definitely have dealt with this situation better and maybe talked more directly with my current clients and otherwise get new clients, but frankly I just wanted the quickest solution to make sure that I could earn as much as possible in as short a time as possible, so I told the clients that I like working with that I’d reduce my rate for a few months, and as planned I have 10-12 hours work a day, which gives me more than the 6-8 hours I may work on the previous higher price.
Networking and taking the risk with new clients that I may have to chase for payments is not something I can afford to do right now. Luckily the huge flood of work means that in a few weeks I will already have earned enough to be able to return to working less than full time and focus on my non-work projects.
I may have panicked because it might just be a temporary summer lull and the crisis certainly didn’t effect me all year up until July, but with a rapidly approaching credit card limit I had to be prudent! Although I consider myself a good translator, I still have a lot to learn about the industry and good client communication and I’ve definitely learned plenty in the last few weeks! I hope other translators don’t get annoyed and think that I’m trying to bring everyone’s prices down; I didn’t see any other option in my situation that didn’t involve going into uncharted territory, which I couldn’t risk.

Anyway, I don’t actually have ungodly working hours (these weeks are the only exception) and my deadlines are usually quite flexible I generally charge less than I know I could despite my niche and the demand I get, because I like the greater flexibility I have when I call the shots and tell them that if they want tighter deadlines they can pay me more etc. My whole purpose with freelancing is to enjoy work and to have a good balance with life outside of work, and I feel that I have been managing that quite well so far Although I take my work very seriously, I can take regular breaks and several days off, which makes me feel much more casual about the whole thing. If I charged more, then there would be more pressure to produce work quicker for stressed out clients. Life is too short for pressure I will gladly accept less money (as long as it’s enough) in exchange for greater quality of life

I am indeed a vegetarian. Prague is a very touristy city so even if vegetarianism isn’t in Czech culture, every restaurant I go to here has plenty of great options, and of course I cook at home a lot. International chains like Tesco have plenty of options Every country I’ve ever been in always has plenty of vegetables, but the ready-made meals for when I’m feeling lazy are harder to find in some places. If I can think of a good way to make it language related, I may write a post about how to be a travelling vegetarian

Thanks again for the OJ treat and interesting comment!

Thank you for this interesting and comprehensive post on working as a freelance translator.

I doubt many translators would agree with your pricing strategy, though. They would argue that you’re undercutting the market: just take a look at the ProZ-forum on money matters, for instance. Plenty of heated discussions on that particular topic!
I think everyone should decide for themselves what they think is reasonable pay for the work they do. I can imagine that when you’re in a tight spot financially, you would drop your price just to stay afloat. But I think that maybe you’re underselling yourself, since obviously you have quite a lot of added value to bring to the job.
As a medical translator (English & German to Dutch) I am in a stable and reasonably well paid niche, and what crisis was that again? As it is, I am being offered more work than I can actually handle and right now, at the end of August, I have already reached last year’s annual income.

That being the case, I think I can spare you an orange juice or two! (It’s only 15 minutes of work for me, so no need to be stingy ) Don’t you ever tire of those? I don’t drink either, but I am more of a tea person myself. But imagine ordering tea at a party: people would find that even weirder than ordering juice!

Anyway, back to it. One thing you forgot to mention in your post: the ungodly working hours when a deadline is looming!

Best regards and good luck! I always enjoy reading your posts!

Marjolein Verhulsdonck-Roest
Dronten
The Netherlands

By the way, didn’t I read somewhere that you’re a vegetarian? (Was it your blog or your Couchsurfing profile, I can’t remember.) I am a veggie, too, and so are my children (5, 10 & 16). Is it feasible in Prague? In the Netherlands you can get everything you might want in every single supermarket, even in the smaller towns like Dronten. I know that in Germany it’s harder to get by: I can’t imagine anyone in their right mind actually wanting to eat those rubbery fake sausages they sell over there! Just wondering…

I live in Macaé, a city of Rio de Janeiro!