Leanpub Header

Skip to main content
Go to Leanpub.comLeanpub

Translation 101: Starting Out As A Translator

Petro Dudi

This book is for anyone contemplating on becoming a translator, or for existing translators that need a concise crash course on their profession.

Minimum price

$9.99

$9.99

You pay

$9.99

Author earns

$7.99
$

...Or Buy With Credits!

You can get credits monthly with a Reader Membership
EPUB
0
Pages
About

About

About the Book

This book is for anyone contemplating on becoming a translator, or for existing translators that need a concise crash course on their profession.

It explores the realm of translation, the benefits and working conditions, the types of translation work and tools available. It gets down to details regarding the tools a translator uses every day, providing information not only from the translator's perspective but also from the viewpoint of the translation engineer and translation project manager. It provides a hands-on approach to CAT (Computer-Assisted Translation) Tools, on how you can take advantage of them regardless of your CAT Tool of choice.

You'll also learn how to successfully run your freelance translation business. You'll be presented with "inside" information on how clients (especially translation agencies) choose their translators. You'll learn how to set up profiting rates and how to find promising clients. You'll be given ideas for efficient organization of your work process and tips for successful customer relationship management. And, you'll be shown how to stay away from fraudulent companies too.

Share this book

Categories

ManagementHumanitiesNon-Fiction

Feedback

Email the Author

Author

About the Author

Petro Dudi

Petro Dudi is an American expat (born and raised in Lynn, Massachusetts) residing the last two or so decades in Athens, Greece. His professional career revolves around the Translation & Localization Industry for more than 17 years. Petro started out as a young inexperienced translator and, after years of hard work and persistence, ended up with his last in-house position being that of Translation & Software Localization Director. Translation and software localization are his core specialties, having translated or project managed numerous projects for Microsoft, IBM/Lotus, Adobe, Symantec, GE Energy, Caterpillar, Toshiba, LaCie, Canon, Sony, Nokia, Bosch, Siemens, just to mention a few. Lately, he is freelancing and providing translation & localization consulting to companies within the industry (i.e., translation agencies), and to corporations in need of internal or external translation/localization services (i.e., international firms with overseas branch offices, software companies and so on). Petro is also actively involved in helping out translators/localizers, especially with their translation software tools and daily business operation. A considerable effort in this area is pro bono. Seeing a lack of an online solution to such issues, he also set up a website to deal with them: http://www.translators-tech-help.com.

Contents

Table of Contents

Copyright Notice

About The Author

Part 1: So, You Want To Be A Translator…

Why Become A Translator

Freelance Working Conditions

Translating Part-Time

You’re The Boss

Money, Money, Money!

Do I Need Any Special Skills Or Experience? Types Of Translation Work

General Translations

Technical Translations

Medical Translations

Software, Game & Mobile App Localization

Subtitle & Voice-Over Translation

In-House Translation Jobs vs. Freelancing

A Financially Safe Environment

Experience Build-Up

Free & Continuous Training

Business & Social Networking

Having It Both Ways

Software Tools Of The Trade

Do I Need Them?

Basic Tools

Specialized Tools

Part 2: Computer-Assisted Translation (CAT) Tools: A Crash Course

So, What’s A CAT Tool?

A Short Introduction

User Interface Overview

CAT Tools Panorama!

Translation Memories (TMs)

What’s a Translation memory?

TM Match Categories

Word Counts, The Trados Discount Model & Weighted Words

The Trados Discount Model

Weighted Words

Terminology Databases (TermBases) Handoff & Delivery Packages

Handoff Packages

Delivery Packages

A Typical Translation Project Workflow

Client Handoff

Translation

Proofreading & Spell-Checking

Verification Checks

Delivery / Handback

Machine Translation (MT) Avoiding CAT Tool Lock-In

Freeing Past & Existing Translations

Keeping Your Future Work Cross-Platform

CAT Tools On A Mac Or GNU/Linux

Native CAT Tools

Virtualized CAT Tools

Part 3: Running A Freelance Translation Business

Defining Your Core Language Pairs Setting Up Your Pricelist

Rates For Translation Agencies

Rates For Direct (Non-Agency) Customers

Minimum Charge

Indicative Word Rate & Minimum Charge Ranges

Choosing Your CAT Tool Marketing Your Business (Or How To Find Clients)

Creating Or Spicing Up Your Resume/CV

Membership-based Translators’ Websites

Social Networks: LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, Google+

Online Business Directories

Your Personal Website

Pro Bono Service

Organizing Your Work

Project Dashboard

Tree Folder Structure

A Word About Purchase Orders & Invoices

Backups! Backups! Backups!

Client Relationship Quick Tips Avoiding Fraudulent Clients

Appendix 1: Translation Industry Glossary

Appendix 2: ISO Language Codes

Appendix 3: List of Translation Companies

Get the free sample chapters

Click the buttons to get the free sample in PDF or EPUB, or read the sample online here

Download Sample PDFDownload Sample EPUB

The Leanpub 60 Day 100% Happiness Guarantee

Within 60 days of purchase you can get a 100% refund on any Leanpub purchase, in two clicks.

Now, this is technically risky for us, since you'll have the book or course files either way. But we're so confident in our products and services, and in our authors and readers, that we're happy to offer a full money back guarantee for everything we sell.

You can only find out how good something is by trying it, and because of our 100% money back guarantee there's literally no risk to do so!

So, there's no reason not to click the Add to Cart button, is there?

See full terms...

Earn $8 on a $10 Purchase, and $16 on a $20 Purchase

We pay 80% royalties on purchases of $7.99 or more, and 80% royalties minus a 50 cent flat fee on purchases between $0.99 and $7.98. You earn $8 on a $10 sale, and $16 on a $20 sale. So, if we sell 5000 non-refunded copies of your book for $20, you'll earn $80,000.

(Yes, some authors have already earned much more than that on Leanpub.)

In fact, authors have earned over $14 million writing, publishing and selling on Leanpub.

Learn more about writing on Leanpub

Free Updates. DRM Free.

If you buy a Leanpub book, you get free updates for as long as the author updates the book! Many authors use Leanpub to publish their books in-progress, while they are writing them. All readers get free updates, regardless of when they bought the book or how much they paid (including free).

Most Leanpub books are available in PDF (for computers) and EPUB (for phones, tablets and Kindle). The formats that a book includes are shown at the top right corner of this page.

Finally, Leanpub books don't have any DRM copy-protection nonsense, so you can easily read them on any supported device.

Learn more about Leanpub's ebook formats and where to read them

Write and Publish on Leanpub

You can use Leanpub to easily write, publish and sell in-progress and completed ebooks and online courses!

Leanpub is a powerful platform for serious authors, combining a simple, elegant writing and publishing workflow with a store focused on selling in-progress ebooks.

Leanpub is a magical typewriter for authors: just write in plain text, and to publish your ebook, just click a button. (Or, if you are producing your ebook your own way, you can even upload your own PDF and/or EPUB files and then publish with one click!) It really is that easy.

Learn more about writing on Leanpub