Large Volumes

Why don’t other translators offer volume discounts?
The usual reasoning is that translating each word takes the same amount of time. On that premise, it makes no sense to charge less for very large projects.

Why do I do offer lower rates for long translations?
Because experience shows there are economies of scale in the type of translations I handle. In long projects I need less time per word.

This is easy to understand if you bear in mind that every assignment requires a minimum amount of preparation. Suppose I have to translate a bottling-machine manual: I will first skim the document, browse the client’s website in the source and target languages, look up documentation for similar products from other manufacturers to learn the terminology, and possibly prepare a glossary, etc.

There is also a tool that makes a big difference in long projects: building terminology databases. For short jobs it’s often not worth compiling glossaries; for long ones, glossaries both harmonise terminology—improving comprehension—and save time.

A real example: in a car owner’s manual I recently translated, the expression “dynamic radar cruise control indicator” occurred 62 times (rendered in Spanish as indicador luminoso del control de la velocidad de crucero asistido por radar). The CAT tools I use (see the IT section) let me add that term to the termbase in seconds, detect it whenever it appears again and insert the approved translation with just a few keystrokes.

Finally, large projects also save time on non-translation tasks such as preparing invoices, bookkeeping, or any ancillary admin (including the occasional shipment of hard copies), etc.