M-Att.

I haven't talked about my employers in a while, so I figured I would let people know who I am working for without letting them know. One of my repeat customers is an international lawyer, M-Att.

This employer's jobs are all translating jobs--primarily translating legal documents into English. If you have been following me, you know I only translate from Italian, French, and Spanish into English and not the other way. She once asked me to check a translation into Spanish, but I try to avoid those. Nothing is more stressful or upsetting to me than when an employer whom I have been happily translating things into English for suddenly decides to ask me to go the other way in translation. Written translating is usually a one way street. Even my mother-in-law who is German only prefers at this point in her life to translate INTO English because she has been living in America most of her life. This does not mean she is no longer proficient in German or unable to translate it. To translate well both ways, you have to actively participate in the culture into which you are translating (i.e. Living on the border of two countries where you need to continuously use skills in both languages or living in a country where you are in a group of people who speak one language but the language of the country is different).

Translation errors are frequently responsible for wars, so even people whose sole job is to translate important documents, who have obtained certification, and who spend much time translating can still get it wrong. Why? (1) They are not familiar with the culture only the language (2) They don't leave footnotes that explain alternate translations. (3) They insist on word-for-word translations instead of looking at the meaning of phrases. 

A couple projects ago, M-Att. sent me an awful job. The first problem is that it was that it was a huge court transcription written entirely in CAPITAL LETTERS. The second problem is that it was seriously lacking in punctuation. Why is this a problem, well try reading the following humorous examples from the Internet in English:

HUNTERS PLEASE USE CAUTION WHEN HUNTING PEDESTRIANS USING WALKING TRAILS 

Was that "Hunters, please use caution when hunting pedestrians using walking trails." or "Hunters, please use caution when hunting. Pedestrians using walking trails."? Now imagine this was written in a foreign language and you were trying to translate it into English. Which punctuation would you use? In this case, most of us would choose the second option because the first one does not make ethical sense. Some translators would use the first as an option. The problem is that in the court document I had, there wasn't an ethically ridiculous choice versus a probable choice. It was two probable but entirely different meanings, and this wasn't one incidence but many incidences per page of the 27+ page document. Totally not fun.

Needless to say, this document was probably the most difficult thing I have ever translated. And it should show that if you want to get your point across no matter what you are writing (including comments on blogs and in online forums), you should never use ALL CAPS for the entire thing and you should also attempt some punctuation. 

Know What You are Doing Before You Hire a Freelancer to Help

This should be a given, but I cannot count the number of times people post projects, and they do not know what they want. There are the standard people, who post a job for a proofreader when they really want a developmental editor, but generally that kind of mistake won't get you in too much trouble.

I am talking about the people who post jobs on Guru for a "book agent to market my book" or a "script agent to market my script." These people clearly have no clue what an agent is or how to find one. This really upsets me to the point of wasting a bid to explain to these people what an agent is. As I have stated on this blog in previous posts, you do not pay for an agent an upfront fee. Real agents all work on commission. In addition to that commission, you might have to pay a very minimal fee for copying your manuscript (think along the lines of what it would cost to go to Office Depot or Staples and get a copy). Since Guru specifically states that commission only jobs are against its terms of service, that right there would tell anyone looking for a real agent that Guru is not the place to find one.

Still, these people post their "projects," and there are plenty of people working on Guru who are willing to take advantage of this based on the number of quotes they get. I know that Googling "Agent" will turn up a plethora of results from websites promising to help you get one or from non-reputable agents who want you to use them for a small up-front fee--but again, these are scams. Real literary agents have thousands of people sending them their queries each year, they do not need to send advertisements or sales e-mails to people. They do not need to work through Guru or any other freelancing website because they already have plenty of work.

There should be books about literary agents in your library that better explain what an agent does. The Writer's Market usually has a section devoted to them, as well. You should not simply embark on finding someone to be your agent until you know exactly what an agent is and how to find a real one. There are plenty of people out there willing to take your money and do nothing. If you have money you want to give away, I have a pay pal link up at the top for donations. :) But like other reputable teachers, I would rather give you advice on how to make money than try to scam you out of the money you have.