In a recent conversation at a ProZ.com pow-wow (meet-up for professional translators) in Birmingham, I recommended the book The Entrepreneurial Linguist by Judy and Dagmar Jenner of Twin Translations, and their wonderful blog, Translation Times.
This book has given me some great inspiration and confidence to deal with marketing and business issues, and I would thoroughly recommend it to any aspiring translator or experienced translator alike. Even those of us with enough work to keep us going could always do with some more direct clients, more enjoyable work, longer deadlines and/or better rates.
For the record, I have not been asked to provide this recommendation, nor am I receiving any commission for doing so! No, I simply found this book to be amazingly helpful and would recommend it to all other linguists. Apart from everything else, books like this help to encourage and set professional standards – slowing the race to the bottom perpetuated by disreputable agencies and a combination of irresponsible and unprofessional translators (sometimes even fraudulent – oh, Google Translate there you are again!). The simple rule: PAY PEANUTS = GET MONKEYS. And no translator wants to be a monkey. *
* Please don’t get me wrong, I like monkeys. But lots of monkeys do not have nice lives.
Thanks, Rose. I’ve heard many good things about “The Entrepreneurial Linguist” and its time for me to buy my copy.
Hi Rose,
Many thanks for your effort, but could you tell me on How to download the book.
Best Regards,
Ahmed Abdulrahman,
Senior Arabic Translator, Localizer, Interpreter
Sure. There is a link on the link I posted about the book, alternatively, just click https://www.lulu.com/commerce/index.php?fBuyContent=8146850
I attended Judy’s presentation and I bought this book, which I found to be as excellent as her presentation. One thing I want to add is that not only is this book helpful but it is also very positive. I think it’s a great resource. Thanks to Judy and Dagmar for writing this book, and thanks to Rose for blogging about it!
Thanks for the kind review, Rose! We very much appreciate you spreading the word about our book. You have no idea how happy it makes us to hear that it’s been helpful and useful. Writing it was painful, but it’s wonderful to receive such positive feedback. It *almost* makes us want to think about a second edition — or maybe next year.
And yes, those book recommendations are fab. We think Corinne’s book is outstanding for those looking for all the information to get started. For funny translation-related cartoons, our favorite is: http://mox.ingenierotraductor.com/
Yes, I agree that it was well worth a read. The material is well organized and well presented. When I ordered The Entrepreneurial Linguist on Lulu, I also picked up The Prosperous Translator, by Chris Durban (and Eugene Seidel) which was thought-provoking and kept me entertained for hours, as well as A.M. Sall’s The Insider Guide to The Strategic Marketing of Translation Services, which didn’t entertain me very much at all but did contain some rather useful information on marketing methods.
Thanks for those further recommendations! Of course, How To Succeed as a Freelance Translator by Corinne McKay is also great, but does focus more heavily on the American market in some places.