Proofreading rate for Japanese-to-English proofreading
Thread poster: FreelanceBass
FreelanceBass
FreelanceBass
United States
Local time: 18:08
Japanese to English
Dec 10, 2018

Hi,

I’ve been doing some technical translation work for an automotive company for a bit now.

I was recently approached by said company asking if I’d also be interested in proofreading some of the Japanese employees’ English reports; in other words, I would be going through the original Japanese and ensuring that their corresponding English translations are correct. I’m assuming that I’d also be editing them in order to make sure they look professional.
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Hi,

I’ve been doing some technical translation work for an automotive company for a bit now.

I was recently approached by said company asking if I’d also be interested in proofreading some of the Japanese employees’ English reports; in other words, I would be going through the original Japanese and ensuring that their corresponding English translations are correct. I’m assuming that I’d also be editing them in order to make sure they look professional.

I’ll be negotiating pricing sometime this week, and am trying to come up with a rate that is fair but puts bread on the table. The company is a good one and isn’t out to stiff me, but I also want to ensure that I’m doing right by them.

My current rates for said company range from $0.10 to $0.125 per source character (no spaces), depending on how the document is formatted and also on how much extra time I estimate it will take for preliminary research and editing.

Based on the aforementioned pricing, what do you think would be a reasonable price for this sort of proofreading work? I’m assuming it would be a bit lower than my translation rates - but I don’t want to price it so low that when I start my first document, I realize halfway through that I’m not making enough to justify my time expenditure (compared to my full-on translation work).

Thanks in advance.

PS: I wasn't sure if I should be posting this in this forum or in the translator one; I'm posting it in both since it has something to do with both specializations.
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Andrea Baggetto
Andrea Baggetto
Italy
Local time: 23:08
Japanese to Italian
+ ...
Proofreading Asian/European languages Dec 11, 2018

I have been working as a proofreader for English to Japanese and Italian to Japanese translations. It is actually the other way round with respect to your question, but I believe the same rates would apply.

In principle, my proofreading fee is about one third of the translation fee. This on the assumption that the text I am proofreading has been drafted by a native speaker who masters the language. Hence, my proofreading focuses on checking terminology and finding possible misinterp
... See more
I have been working as a proofreader for English to Japanese and Italian to Japanese translations. It is actually the other way round with respect to your question, but I believe the same rates would apply.

In principle, my proofreading fee is about one third of the translation fee. This on the assumption that the text I am proofreading has been drafted by a native speaker who masters the language. Hence, my proofreading focuses on checking terminology and finding possible misinterpretations and/or direct translations that diverge from the original meaning.

If you feel that your proofreading would involve a heavier editing, you may apply a higher rate, up to half of the translation rate.

It is hard to estimate how long a proofreading takes, and I know one sometimes fees he/she is not getting enough money for the time spent. On the other hand, in most cases the contractor does not accept charging on a hourly basis, so I guess a pragmatic approach would be your best bet.

Hope this helps.

Andrea
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Proofreading rate for Japanese-to-English proofreading







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