When You Should Use a Translation Agency, or not

Yes, as a freelancer I admit my overweening bias.

I would be a much happier and calmer person if everyone who required a translation would circumvent the agencies and deal directly with the translators.

That said, there certainly are times when it’s quite wise for a client to use an agency, primarily when the job is large, complex, requires translation memory tools, involves multiple languages and on a very tight deadline. Or, if your firm or organization simply doesn’t have the time, personnel or ability to organize any of those issues.

So, what exactly do you get when you work with an agency?

Well, first and foremost, higher costs [she notes innocently]. There are many ways to establish fees in the translation business, but the most common by far is by source word. That is, a certain number of cents per word, with the word count being taken from the text which is to be translated.

You will generally be assured that the price is dependent on a number of variables – word pair [some being more expensive than others, usually because they are less common], degree of technical difficulty and deadline. Some agencies will even give you their typical or base fees upfront on their website. The cheapest I have seen are around 15 cents per word, and I have seen them as high as 25 cents. I sense they can go even higher.

What else can you expect? Definitely a “project manager.” This is the person who will, yes, “manage” your project, shepherding it through the various complex stages required to produce a perfect finished product. More or less. She will find the perfect translator(s) who has dozens of years’ experience in your very field, work closely with said translator, fielding any problems or questions and ensuring timely delivery.

Depending on the nature of the agency, she may also be the person with whom you liaise.

You would also expect your project to be proofread by a similarly experienced, meticulous wordsmith. Depending on your requirements, there may also be the organizing and/or distribution of glossaries, translation memory and other aids.

How does any of this compare with what you could expect if you were to deal directly with a freelance translator?

Well, as a point of reference, why don’t we start at the beginning with the ever compelling issue of cost.

Money, or at least personal income, is still a delicate matter for most, not to be discussed at the dinner table let alone be revealed to the electronic universe. But translators do indeed post their rates, or at least the ones which they wish the electronic universe to see and to assume they actually charge and actually get. If there is indeed an average, “professional” rate for many of the most common language pairs, it is probably between 10 and 12 cents a word.

A very poorly kept [due to the fact that it is so widely discussed] trade secret, however, is that many, many translators routinely charge as little as 5 cents per word and some, shudder, even less.

But more about Dirty Little Secrets later.

Therefore we have, say, Alpha and Omega Global Worldwide Translation Agency [entreating the gods and all pro bono attorneys that such agency does not, in fact, exist] charging a client, say, 20 cents per word. They will then either reach into the infinite recesses of their freelance translator base or post their project on one of the large translation sites for “bidding.”

Yes, bidding. Whereupon the tens of thousands of registered site users will submit blind bids including their CVs but also, and of paramount importance, their “best prices.” Best prices obviously meaning those which are furthest down the price chain from the 20 cents they are charging the above referenced client.

So, assuming they are paying some lucky translator – who is, of course, highly trained with vast experience in said client’s very field – 5 cents per word, then that means they are charging the lucky client 15 cents per word for their services. And we can further assume that these services include the above noted “project manager,” the erudite proofreader, their business overhead and some sort of reasonable profit margin.

Now it may indeed be expedient for many clients to embrace this sort of model, but for many others it might be seen as, perhaps, an unwise use of resources. Those clients might be even more skeptical once we’ve taken a peek inside the Alpha and Omega Global Worldwide Translation Agency.