How about the rates for Chinese editing and proofreading?
Thread poster: Caroline717
Caroline717
Caroline717
Canada
Local time: 10:37
English to Chinese
+ ...
Nov 24, 2016

Hi. I want to know the rates for editing and proofreading, which are also often requested.

In our website, the lowest rate for Chinese translation is about $0.07 per word. Then how about the rates for editing and proofreading?

Are they ordinarily a little lower than that of translation? Thanks!


 
David Lin
David Lin  Identity Verified
United Kingdom
Local time: 17:37
Member (2013)
English to Chinese
+ ...

Moderator of this forum
lower perhaps Nov 30, 2016

Caroline717 wrote:

Hi. I want to know the rates for editing and proofreading, which are also often requested.

In our website, the lowest rate for Chinese translation is about $0.07 per word. Then how about the rates for editing and proofreading?

Are they ordinarily a little lower than that of translation? Thanks!


Hello Caroline,

Welcome to the Chinese Forum! I notice this is your first post ever. Enjoy your visit.

I think the usual practice is for a lower rate for editing and proofreading job. It however depends on how well the original translation is. If the translation is poor and you have to spend more time to edit heavily, then you should ask for a higher rate from the start. If all is fine except a few places that would require editing, then perhaps a half price rate would be appropriate.

Some editing and proofreading work might take a long time to finish though, such as post machine translation and transcreation work, then you could ask for an hourly rate to be fair.

Hope you will find this helpful.

David


 
Sheila Wilson
Sheila Wilson  Identity Verified
Spain
Local time: 17:37
Member (2007)
English
+ ...
Per hour is very often the only safe way to quote Nov 30, 2016

Caroline717 wrote:
Hi. I want to know the rates for editing and proofreading, which are also often requested.

In our website, the lowest rate for Chinese translation is about $0.07 per word. Then how about the rates for editing and proofreading?

Are they ordinarily a little lower than that of translation? Thanks!

First of all, let's define the job. Are you referring to bilingual revision of a translation? Where you read the source along with the target and check for omissions, mistranslations, poor target writing style/register, plus grammar/spelling/errors and typos? If that's the case, translators often say they're happy to quote a third to a half of their translation tariff. I don't do that job so I couldn't advise, except to say that a per-word rate for any revision work is a dangerous thing to do. OK if you've scrutinised the two texts, found the translation to be of largely acceptable quality, and you're experienced, but not something to commit to too early.

Many unscrupulous agencies cut costs by engaging "hobby" translators to rush through a translation (making heavy use of Google Translate, maybe?) at a ridiculously low rate. They then engage proofreaders at similarly low rates to try to tidy up the results. You can imagine how satisfying that job is and how well it will pay (NOT). Post-editing machine translation should be called PEMT - something else entirely, although the end result is often the same or worse: garbage. It often warrants the same tariff as for translation from scratch. I've only done it once (by accident ) and I know it would have been quicker from scratch.

Although I don't do bilingual revision - I get a headache from the constant refocusing - I do an awful lot of revision of English texts written by non-native speakers of English, which is often quite similar work, but missing the source. I would never quote per word unless I'd carefully examined random samples throughout the text - not just the first few pages which are often the best. I far prefer to quote per hour of my time, but for that you have to build up a trusting relationship with your client. If you quote per word for unseen texts then you're taking a big gamble on your potential income per hour/day/month.


 
Caroline717
Caroline717
Canada
Local time: 10:37
English to Chinese
+ ...
TOPIC STARTER
Thanks! Dec 1, 2016

Thanks! David and Sheila!

 
ysun
ysun  Identity Verified
United States
Local time: 12:37
English to Chinese
+ ...
It happens quite often Dec 2, 2016

Sheila Wilson wrote:

Many unscrupulous agencies cut costs by engaging "hobby" translators to rush through a translation (making heavy use of Google Translate, maybe?) at a ridiculously low rate. They then engage proofreaders at similarly low rates to try to tidy up the results. You can imagine how satisfying that job is and how well it will pay (NOT). Post-editing machine translation should be called PEMT - something else entirely, although the end result is often the same or worse: garbage. It often warrants the same tariff as for translation from scratch. I've only done it once (by accident ) and I know it would have been quicker from scratch.


 
ysun
ysun  Identity Verified
United States
Local time: 12:37
English to Chinese
+ ...
Rate for editing Dec 2, 2016

Caroline717 wrote:

In our website, the lowest rate for Chinese translation is about $0.07 per word. Then how about the rates for editing and proofreading?

The translation rate of $0.07 per word is way too low for translators living in Canada or USA. As for editing (bilingual revision of a translation as Sheila Wilson definded), if you don't know the quality of translation beforehand, you'd better not accept the editing job. If you think the quality of translation is fairly good, I would suggest you quote for $0.07 per word.

Some translation agencies may accept, e.g., $50/hr for editing, but they would require editors to edit about 2,500 words per hour. That is actually equivalent to about $0.02/word. So, you should quote per hour only when your client agrees to pay per that rate no matter how much time you would reasonably spend.


 
ysun
ysun  Identity Verified
United States
Local time: 12:37
English to Chinese
+ ...
the lowest rate for Chinese translation Dec 2, 2016

Caroline717 wrote:

In our website, the lowest rate for Chinese translation is about $0.07 per word. Then how about the rates for editing and proofreading?

In our website, the lowest rate for Chinese translation is not $0.07, but $0.01 per word (if not free of charge)! Then how about the rates for editing and proofreading?


 
Caroline717
Caroline717
Canada
Local time: 10:37
English to Chinese
+ ...
TOPIC STARTER
Thanks Dec 2, 2016

ysun wrote:

The translation rate of $0.07 per word is way too low for translators living in Canada or USA..

Thanks, ysun!

I saw $0.05 per word and $0.02 per word last month.

[修改时间: 2016-12-02 04:32 GMT]


 
Caroline717
Caroline717
Canada
Local time: 10:37
English to Chinese
+ ...
TOPIC STARTER
by ProZ.com's community Dec 2, 2016

ysun wrote:

In our website, the lowest rate for Chinese translation is not $0.07, but $0.01 per word (if not free of charge)! Then how about the rates for editing and proofreading?

The $0.07 is from "the average rates reported by ProZ.com's community of freelance translators and translation companies“.

$0.01, so low. Yes, I also saw $0.02.


 
ysun
ysun  Identity Verified
United States
Local time: 12:37
English to Chinese
+ ...
Alleged minimum rate Dec 2, 2016

Caroline717 wrote:

The $0.07 is from "the average rates reported by ProZ.com's community of freelance translators and translation companies“.

$0.01, so low. Yes, I also saw $0.02.

Yes, I know. I also saw that page: http://search.proz.com/?sp=pfe/rates

However, the data for the English-Chinese pair isn’t very reliable. Please pay attention to the following note at the beginning of that page:
This page lists the average rates reported by ProZ.com's community of freelance translators and translation companies. Please be aware that this data does not necessarily reflect the average of rates actually charged and paid for real-world projects; it is only an aggregate view of the rates that users have entered into their ProZ.com profiles.

Please also note that the sample size is 5306. Nevertheles, we don’t see many Chinese freelance translators who have indicated their rates in their profiles.

From time to time, we can see job postings in which some companies are looking for translators who are willing to translate at the rate of $0.01/word. Some so-called "non-profit" organizations even asked for free translations. Sometimes ago, one Chinese translator even declared on this forum that he was willing to accept the translation rate of $0.01/word!

[Edited at 2016-12-02 15:52 GMT]


 
Caroline717
Caroline717
Canada
Local time: 10:37
English to Chinese
+ ...
TOPIC STARTER
What rate can be mostly accepted? Dec 2, 2016

ysun wrote:

From time to time, we can see job postings in which some companies are looking for translators who are willing to translate at the rate of $0.01/word. Some so-called "non-profit" organizations even asked for free translations. Sometimes ago, one Chinese translator even declared on this forum that he was willing to accept the translation rate of $0.01/word!

[Edited at 2016-12-02 15:52 GMT]

I have been here for more than one month and searched for job everyday. But up to now I have only received one short task. Every time I just declared the minimum proz rate of $0.07/word. Is it too high? What rate can be mostly accepted? Thanks!

[修改时间: 2016-12-02 18:31 GMT]


 
Caroline717
Caroline717
Canada
Local time: 10:37
English to Chinese
+ ...
TOPIC STARTER
I have posted another thread Dec 2, 2016

http://chi.proz.com/forum/chinese/309494-is_007_word_too_high_what_rate_can_be_mostly_accepted.html
I have posted another thread:
Is $0.07/word too high? What rate can be mostly accepted?

[修改时间: 2016-12-02 18:37 GMT]


 


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