Just when I thought I was out… they pull me back in June 9, 2011
Posted by Jill (@bonnjill) in Random musings.trackback
I have been your typical overworked translator in the last month or so. In May I earned double my target. June doesn’t look to be any slower. My number one client is keeping me very busy – with all 4 or 5 PMs contacting me, luckily not all at once but several a day. Plus, several other clients have been sending me jobs as well. So I was happy that Monday and Tuesday were “kind of slow”. I had hoped to enjoy a slow week and catch up running errands, cleaning the house, etc. Plus, Tuesday was my sister’s 40th birthday and my niece’s graduation from pre-school, so Tuesday night was spent with my family. Today I had all my translations delivered by 11 and was looking forward to taking the rest of the day off to rest for my incredibly busy day tomorrow (I’m tired just thinking about everything I have to do tomorrow!). So you can imagine my dismay when I received an e-mail from #1 client with a 2,000 word job for tomorrow EOB. But I happily accepted the job and am busy translating a survey about car brands. Of course I took an hour or so off to run my errands, because my cupboards were BARE and I was completely out of cat food (only 1 bowl left). Bailey would not have been a happy camper! As for the cleaning, it can wait until the weekend (or I may just use my Groupon and call a cleaning service).
Even with things being “slow” this week I’ve still managed to translate 10,860 words so far this month (and that isn’t counting the 2,000 word survey I’m working on today)… Life is good!
Musings from an overworked translator 
Hi Jill,
I know oh-so-well how you feel! Be it the bare cupboards, the cleaning, the not wanting to work but getting work anyway! I had hoped to scootch out yesterday to run some errands and enjoy the gorgeous weather, but but don’t I get an e-mail for a rush 180 words. Which might seem piddlin’ compared to 2,000, but it took nearly two hours from first contact to get the actual text!
I have a hard time focussing on work on sunny summer days, so I look forward to “slow” days to go outside (i.e. get away from the computer). But, after suffering a very slow 8-month period last year, I am always grateful when work does come in. Now if only my place would stay clean, and my fridge fill itself up, I’d be happy as a pig in s**t.
BTW isn’t it satisfying being over target?
Barbara D. from Montreal
Isn’t it always the tiny jobs that take up the most time? 🙂
Hi Jill, just out of curiosity, how much do you charge per word? Just wondering what the common rates are in the US compared to EU 🙂 Thanks, Pete
Isn’t that kind of like asking a woman how old she is 😉 ? Oh well, I have nothing to hide. Depending on the subject matter I generally charge between $0.12-0.14 a word.
kinda :)) … but mainly i was curious… it was the first thing that just poped into my head while reading about the workload (2000 wordst per day is quite a lot.. although i managed to deliver even bigger project, but it had its toll – like 14 hours sitting behind the monitor :)) …but i still love beeing a freelancer! 🙂 thanks for your reply 😉 have a great weekend!