Writting and Translating

[aurelina]

Hi,

I am new to Upwork, and I am starting as a French English Translator, this is new to me, I still don't know how the app works and I landed my first contract last week. I don't understand the difference between being paid hourly and by word.

My employee told me to enter my hours manually and told me the rate is usually 7 to 10 cents per words for general online translation. The text I am working on is taking some time, and his answer isn't clear to me.  How does this all work? Do I get paid per hour or words?

Thank you for your help.

[petra_r · Accepted solution]

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@Aurelie P wrote:

I am new to Upwork, and I am starting as a French English Translator, this is new to me, I still don't know how the app works and I landed my first contract last week. I don't understand the difference between being paid hourly and by word.

My employee told me to enter my hours manually and told me the rate is usually 7 to 10 cents per words for general online translation. The text I am working on is taking some time, and his answer isn't clear to me.  How does this all work? Do I get paid per hour or words?

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 Manual time is NOT protected so you should ideally use the tracker to track your hours. If it is an hourly contract it is irrelevant how much you usually charge per word, you log the hours you actually spend translating.

It's your client, not your employer (let alone "employee") by the way 🙂

[martina_plaschka]

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@Aurelie P wrote:

Hi,

I am new to Upwork, and I am starting as a French English Translator, this is new to me, I still don't know how the app works and I landed my first contract last week. I don't understand the difference between being paid hourly and by word.

My employee told me to enter my hours manually and told me the rate is usually 7 to 10 cents per words for general online translation. The text I am working on is taking some time, and his answer isn't clear to me.  How does this all work? Do I get paid per hour or words?

Thank you for your help.

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 Aurelie, girl, you need to know this stuff before it happens! 

There are 2 types of contract, hourly, or fixed price. It sounds as if you have an hourly contract. That means you should track the hours that you work with the time tracking app. This takes random screenshots that will be saved to your work diary, and your client can see them, and has proof that you actually worked on his job. 

If your client has agree to this, proceed. 

As you are unsure, it seems, how long it will take you to submit the work, it would have been advisable to work on a fixed price project. You would calculate the price per word (which, incidentally, you should tell the client, not the other way around) by number of words, say that comes out to USD 50, so the client sets up a fixed price project. 

That way it does not matter if you take a little longer, and the client does not need to suffer to be your learning curve. 

Make sure you provide excellent work, a good feedback will help you get started well. 

[versailles]

Please note that since your native language is French, you should only do English into French. Translating French into English is done by native speakers of English. Check this: Translation and Interpreting: Getting it Right

Also, you need to stop seeking work and read all the help section and also these forums to get some valuable insight. Once you totally understand how this works you can start seeking gigs. If you do it backward, you will get scammed.

[AveryO]

Hi Aurelie, 

I would recommend that you read up on the freelancer resources we have compiled here to help you familiarize yourself with working on Upwork. The blog posts, threads, and support articles noted on there will help you get started as a freelancer here. 

Please also read these tips for avoiding questionable jobs to help you work safely on Upwork.

[a00757da]

Payment for translation is usually made per word or character, not per hour worked. The rate per word can vary depending on the language pair, text complexity, and other factors.

For example, the rate for translating general content from English to French

 may be around 7-10 cents per word, but the rate for translating specialized technical content may be significantly higher.

If your colleague asked you to input hours, they may have meant for you to track the time spent on translating the text, so that they can pay you for the actual amount of time worked. However, in the translation industry, payment is more commonly based on the number of words or characters, not time.

If you have additional questions about how payment for translation works, it's best to consult with your employer or experts in your field for more detailed information.

[colettelewis]

Falus, you just replied to a post that is five years old! I expect if the OP is still on Upwork, she has figured it all out by now! 😉

[elisa_b]

I am pretty sure this reply was not created by Falus. 

[879b2b20]

Funny