If you could change one thing about your freelance translation career up to this point, what would it be?
I’m really quite pleased with my freelance career thus far, but the one thing I wish I had started to do earlier is build strong partnerships with my colleagues. There are times when I’m at full capacity or a client wants work done into my source language (Spanish). I never want to let my clients down, so having a network of people whose work I truly trust — and who trust me in turn — is beneficial to everyone involved. As freelancers, we don’t have to be hermetically-sealed-self-contained units! Close collaboration can be very rewarding and I’m glad that lesson has finally sunk in for me.

What is the best piece of advice that you have been given by a fellow translator, or about business in general?
“Believe it and you’ll be it.” A friend said this to me years ago, when I confessed that what I really wanted was to be was a literary translator. I’m sure I dismissed this seemingly trite remark with a scowl, thought of all the challenges, muttered about it taking much more than belief. But the thought never left me. I began to take it to heart. My friend was right: every desire to accomplish something starts with the belief that you can do it. It’s the first and highest hurdle. Once you’re over it, that belief will give you the strength to get up and over the next hurdle, and the next. Proof positive: I have now published seven books in translation.

If you weren’t working in the language services industry, what would you be doing?
I would most likely study culinary arts. Food is a huge part of my life: I wake up thinking about what I’ll eat, where, when and with whom! There’s nothing more satisfying than wandering through a market, finding the perfect spice, tasting new flavours, concocting in my newly-renovated kitchen and sharing meals with others. I’ve even owned a small restaurant and a bar. It’s awfully hard work and not nearly as glamorous as I thought it would be, but I do still occasionally think about opening the perfect little Peruvian restaurant in Canada…

Thanks, Lisa!

Lisa Carter is a Spanish>English translator with nearly twenty years of experience, specializing in literary, legal and commercial banking texts. She has published six titles to date, with a seventh forthcoming in 2013. Her translation of El calígrafo de Voltaire [Voltaire᾿s Calligrapher], a novel by Argentine writer Pablo De Santis, was awarded the Alicia Gordon Award for Word Artistry in Translation or Interpretation, and she was nominated for the the 2012 International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award for her translation of The Einstein Enigma: A Novel, by José Rodrigues Dos Santos.

You can find Lisa on her professional website at www.intralingo.com, where she blogs about literary translation and offers online courses for translators.

You can also follow her on Twitter at @intralingo.

Returning readers (hi there!) will know that I have been pursuing a part-time Master’s degree in Translation, and the workload has been slowly building up over the past few months. In addition, I’m delighted to say that my continued marketing efforts are starting to pay off big time. This has all been a recipe for tiredness, but also a great sense of satisfaction. After my quiet start to the year, I’ve been so busy that blogging has slipped right down my priority list, but I still have a few 1 Linguist, 3 Questions posts to share with you before starting my new series of interviews on the subject of specialising (keep your eyes peeled!).

So what have I been up to?
*Contacting agencies
*Approaching direct clients
*Admin – hey, it’s got to be done!
*Getting professional photos done for my website and online profiles – they’re on Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn for now
*Getting new business cards, special mini cards and stickers, in preparation for the ITI Conference in May

What about actual translation?
*Fashion retailer’s website – German to English (38,000 words)
*Website copy for a hotel – French to English
*Website copy for an advertising agency – German to English
*Collection of short stories – German to English

I hope you have all been having such a productive time of it lately. Now, I’m off to spend a weekend away from my desk. Hopefully the sun will come out…

In order to say happy birthday to my blog (I think maybe it needs a name – what do you reckon?), I thought I’d run through a few of the most popular posts so far:

• The 1 Linguist, 3 Questions series – this has been amazingly popular, with a lot of my translation role models agreeing to take part. There are still one or two to come, so keep your eyes peeled for them! If you want to catch up, have a browse through the series so far.
• The Freelance Translator’s Reading List – another collaborative effort, receiving suggestions on my Twitter and Facebook accounts. If you have anything to add, please get in touch and I can add your favourite(s) to the lists.
• Dealing with the quiet times – despite being one of my more recent posts, this has proved one of the most popular. I think everyone can relate to the feeling you get when things have a been a little slower than normal. In fact, Judy Jenner has recently posted some great tips on dealing with famine periods over at Translation Times.

The past year in blogging has been very successful (and enjoyable!) for me, having been invited to contribute to the ITI Bulletin, do presentations with colleagues, write guest posts and do online and audio interviews about blogging and my business – all on the basis of this little blog. Here’s a quick round-up of what opportunities blogging has resulted in for me:

• Articles for the ITI Bulletin (more to come soon!)
• Presented with Marta, Valeria and Meg at the Language Show in London
• Invited to write a guest post for Dana Translation
• Interviewed for Sharp End Training’s Blogging Toolkit, along with Judy Jenner and Corinne McKay, and hosted a giveaway of a free copy
• Interviewed on Lloyd Translates about how I got into translation
• Included in the blogroll of 10 colleagues’ blogs
• Interviewed on Sara Colombo’s blog about work/life balance

If you’re considering starting a blog, or you have let yours slide somewhat, I’d definitely recommend going for it – who knows what it could lead to?

That’s why Katie Anderson’s latest blog post really spoke to me. Career progression comes down to choices. Your choices. Whenever a new opportunity comes your way, or you have a new idea, ask yourself whether the step will bring you closer to your ultimate goal. Yes? Go for it! No? Maybe it’s time for a rethink. Thinking of your dream career, or the place where you want your business to be in 5 years’ time, as a destination can make it all seem that little bit more achievable. Most things in life can be equated to a journey, and it takes a lot of time and effort to get to the end of that road and achieve your dreams.

Are you a bit lost?

Of course, the first step in all of this is establishing exactly what you’re aiming for. I sat down with a big piece of paper and a set of coloured pens (stationery – I can’t help myself) and mapped out my path. If you have a spare 30 minutes or so (longer if you really get into it), I would really recommend this – it was a great help for me to physically see where I want to be and how I can get there.

If visual techniques aren’t your thing, there’s always the age-old question: where do you see your business in 5/10/20 years’ time? Be clear, though. You need to set, or at least identify, real targets, or it becomes a wasted exercise.

How are you feeling about your business at this potentially deflating time of year? Personally, I’m cheerful, busy and in need of a holiday!

Given this lack of (paid) work, you’d think that I’d have had more time to write more posts here (sorry!), but I made a big effort to use this quiet time to enhance my online presence, work on my skills, gain more knowledge and market to new clients. And it seems to be working: over the past few days, I’ve been flat out with work for, wait for it…new clients!

Between my ‘feast’ periods, I worked on a lot of things that can get swept away in a tide of work. Now that my diary has filled up again, I’m glad I took the time to work behind the scenes. So what have I been up to?

Required reading
In times of uncertainty or low confidence, it’s a good idea to go back to the experts:
•How to Succeeed as a Freelance Translator – Corinne McKay
•The Entrepreneurial Linguist – Judy and Dagmar Jenner

I have also been exploring some new books recently:
•The Translation Sales Handbook – Luke Spear
•The Little Book of PR for Translators – Nicole Y. Adams

Aside from great CPD, these books have given me a new perspective on how to run my business.

Webinars and online courses
Back in January, I made the most of an offer run by eCPD Webinars and bought three recorded webinars. I took my famine period to build on my knowledge and skills. Even now the offer is over, webinars start from just over £20 – a very reasonable fee for what can be very beneficial advice and knowledge from subject experts.

I have also signed up for two online courses on copywriting and proofreading, which can be completed in my own time. The flexibility offered by these (often free) distance learning courses are ideal for freelance lifestyles.

Online presence
Ever since I started translating, let alone freelancing, I have maintained online profiles. That said, it’s easy to let things slide and let your bios age. I try to revisit my LinkedIn profile every month or so, and I make a note of new skills and courses to add to other profiles when I update them. Recently though, I have been looking for more places for Speech Marks Translation to live on the web. My first port of call was a local group for businesswomen that I belong to, where I added myself to the members directory.

These are the other profiles that I have made in the last few weeks:
•vizualize.me
•Pinterest (speechmarks)
•Linguaquote

Marketing to new clients
I always try to dedicate some of my day to identifying and contacting potential clients, so this took up a lot of my time during the famine period. Sometimes it takes a bit of motivation and courage to contact new companies, but I spent a lot of time researching and compiling a spreadsheet, and I contact a few of these businesses each day, which is very manageable.

Working with agencies
Up until recently, I hadn’t worked with agencies all that much. However, after reading about fellow translators’ experiences of working with select agencies, I started to listen up and do some research. In particular, I wanted to know the mix of agency and direct clients favoured by colleagues. I now know that, for example, Catherine Christaki, co-writer of Adventures in Freelance Translation, only works with agencies, Rose Newell, who writes the brilliant Translator’s Teacup blog, has a 50/50 split of direct and agency clients, and Judy Jenner, blogger at Translation Times, works exclusively with direct clients. Clearly, there’s no perfect solution. What works for one person won’t be right for another.

So what next? I started by reading the following posts on working with agencies:
Konstantinos Stardelis – Dealing with a translation agency
Corinne McKay – Marketing your services to translation agencies

After doing a bit of research, and having a think about what I wanted to get out of agency work, I created a checklist of criteria to identify good prospects. The most important of these were, unsurprisingly, rates and payment terms. I also found some great-looking agencies which specialise in my favoured sectors, and contacted a number of advertising agencies with translation or transcreation departments, as suggested by a colleague who specialises in advertising. The most important thing for me was to add to my current portfolio, not contradict it, as I’m working on narrowing my specialist fields (more news to come – stay tuned).

So, there’s my story of dealing with freelance famine. I’d love to hear your suggestions and experiences – a problem shared and all that…get in touch.

In the meantime, here are some links to great posts on addressing the issue:
Dealing with Freelancing Famine – Adventures in Freelance Translation
Avoiding feast or famine by marketing consistently – Thoughts on Translation
Avoiding the famine: be ready for anything – There’s Something about Translation

If it’s something you’d be interested in, you can now get the interview (just over 25 minutes) for free on the Sharp End Training website.

I am not sure if there is anything I would change, to be honest. This is one of the advantages of being a freelancer – you are your own boss and you make your own decisions. I wish I had enough time to start a translator’s blog so if I could use a magic spell, I would make the day longer! I also wish I was a bit closer to London to be able to attend more events, but on the other hand I live in the Cotswolds, the most beautiful spot on Earth, and I would never swap it for any other place!

What is the best piece of advice that you have been given by a fellow translator, or about business in general?

I think a good piece of advice for someone starting in the business would be to be patient and perseverant. It takes a while to understand how the business works. And nothing happens overnight. You need to be proactive to get noticed. To begin with, start networking and use social media (“leverage social media” I could say, “leverage” being for some reason one of the words I really dislike in source texts!). LinkedIn, for example, provided me with one of my best clients. Plus you get a chance to share experiences, views and opinions with other translators. It is interesting and it is fun! Another thing, do not neglect your first language, especially if you live in the source language country. Read, watch TV, keep developing!

If you weren’t working in the language services industry, what would you be doing?

I would love to be a graphic designer and design websites! I am not sure if I would be talented enough, but I would love to able to play with different fonts, colours and themes. It is in a way similar to a translator’s job: the final result – after a certain amount of fiddling, adjusting and editing – must bring huge satisfaction!

Thanks, Jo!

Joanna Machnica is a translator working from English to Polish as Polished Translations. Jo is based in the beautiful English Costwolds, and you can find her on Twitter, Facebook and her website.

Translation
*An interview with Corinne McKay – people who rock the industry
*A to-do list for translators by Konstantina at Wordyrama
*Thoughts on using ProZ in a guest post on Catherine Translates

Writing
*Less is more: pruning your copy by Clare Crossan at Word Play

Freelancing
*How do you make a clean break from work at the end of the week? Try this suggestion from writer Katie Anderson
*A guide to face-to-face networking for freelancers on Freelance Switch
*6 ways to beat home-office isolation from Work from Home Wisdom

If you’re interested in widening your pool of local contacts, or just getting out of the house/office once in a while to chat to like-minded entrepreneurs, have a search online for local networking groups in your area. You won’t regret it.

I’m really looking forward to the next meeting of Inspire Herefordshire, and I hope to be a member for a long time to come.

*Identify what you didn’t like about 2012

*Find the reasons for the things you didn’t like about 2012

*Have a plan of how to fix it

I side with Marta here in resenting the rates proposed by some clients, and their payment terms. However, we are in control of what we accept and what we choose to reject. The ability to control my working conditions and reputation is one of my favourite things about my chosen career. Let’s all make this the year of the translator.

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