I will be continuing to make comments on Corinne McKay’s book
First of all, I want to thank Ms McKay for commenting on one of my posts, especially as she took the time to take a stab at answering a couple of the questions that I posed in relation to things I had read in her book
“…earning the ATA average or more is very doable for people who have excellent skills and promote themselves aggressively.”
Nice to hear, isn’t it, other newbies out there? In fact, she says 60-70K is realistic. Good figures. I’m happy with the original 52K, myself, considering it’s one person’s income. Let me jump right to one of my potential problems that I would like help with solving. She talks about promoting oneself aggressively. It’s a home business, so it’s going to have to be a fact of life for the freelancer. But how do I market myself? I just realized there is a big difference between me and other freelance translators: I am currently not in my native land, nor am I in a country whose first or second language is my intended source.
German to English is my functional language pair, but I live and work in Japan. For Caroline, who is trilingual, with a high degree of fluency in Japanese, this is a very practical situation. But what about the fella who is far from source and target languages? At first glance, this might seem impossible to some, but considering that most freelance translation work is done over the internet, how important is my physical home base? This is a very important question, I humbly submit. Anyone care to tackle this big one? I’d love to hear about others in a similar situation.
It is my hope that I can establish myself in this profession and become relatively mobile. I’m not talking about moving to a different country every week or every month, but perhaps having a base in one country and being free to go on working holidays in others, which would be good for linguistic proficiency and would be practical for a multicultural couple such as we are. Right now, however, as I read Corinne McKay’s book
On a different note, I also received a wonderful comment from Jill Sommer of Sommer Translation and Net Services. She gave me some book-hunting advice and some rich links which I have posted on my new Links page (it’s in the early stages so don’t be underwhelmed when you see it… In fact, you can help me build it more quickly by sending me your useful links!). Jill works in my language pair, which might be a lucky find. I noticed that she has been involved with German News for quite some time, and I used to be on the mailing list when I was doing my M.A. (and started my Ph.D. in) German Studies.
Anyway, she also confirmed that the 52K is a realistically attainable goal for a full-timer after building up a client base of at least 7-10 regular clients. She mentioned that she has about 14 clients now and has to turn away a great deal of work because she is always ‘booked up’. I can’t help but wonder… to whom does Jill pass those rejected projects? Is there room for a freelancer to get a start by helping another freelancer get projects done that otherwise would have to be turned down?
Do some freelancers offer to mentor other ‘fresh’ translators by providing them with paying projects that the mentor takes credit for and has to proofread? It’s like sub-contracting, the way an agency does, but keeping it between the independent entrepreneurs; a freelance translator community/virtual business association. Does anyone out there do this? Any mentors? Any people who have benefited, come under the wing of a translator mentor?
Lots of questions, but that’s healthy, isn’t it?! All attempts at answering any of these queries of mine, and any other potentially useful advice, are certainly welcome (desired, in fact!).
