Srini Venkataraman wrote:
a.I received 3 or 4 small docs together in one request :each doc is say 150 words, so will have minimum billing each. But totally for the 500 words, the billing will be different. So should I treat these as separate jobs or as one job ?
b.Sometimes I receive 2+ minute audio clips - about 3 or more in one request. So face the same issue as above.
I can't speak for anyone else but personally, if they're all in the same email or PO or whatever, I treat them as one job. Even if my minimum fee would apply to each file individually, I only apply it if the entire job merits it. This is because there's only a tiny overhead involved in opening each file and getting the word count. I try to avoid charging my minimum fee wherever possible. It's never a good idea to ask a regular client to pay extra just because one of the many jobs they send is small. It's one reason why I invoice regular clients monthly. I charge a minimum of an hour's fee per invoice, but only 15 minutes for each individual line (i.e. job) on a monthly invoice.
c.when source is pdf and output is word doc, do you charge extra?
That would depend - again, in my case - if it took longer to process the file than if it had been a Word document. If it's a scanned PDF and therefore a hassle to process (OCR, tidying up the resulting odd characters...) then I'd definitely charge more. And a lot would depend on how fussy the client was about formatting the Word document. I normally add on a flat fee for that type of file handling.
I'm sure a lot of translators take that sort of work in their stride and do it in seconds. Or they have CAT tools and other utilities that will handle it all. I'm rather IT-challenged and it isn't going to get any better at my age. If it's a PDF that's full of tables, columns and other formatting then I simply inform the client that I'm a translator/editor, not a DTP professional. I ask them to provide me with an editable file, e.g. a .docx one.
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