The WordRate magazine
Rates, deadlines, terminology and certification rules for freelance translators and the small language companies that hire them.
Nine articles, published September 3, 2026, written for people who quote their own work.
practical guide
A rate card is more than a per word number. It sets the minimum fee, the surcharge for a Friday night deadline, the fuzzy match grid and the hourly lines that stop small jobs from losing money.
comparison
Certificates, transcreation, subtitles, post editing and DTP do not behave the same way under a per word rate. Here is which unit fits which job, and where each one quietly loses you money.
regulation and compliance
Federal rules ask for a complete English translation and a signed statement of competence. Notarization is not part of the requirement. Here is what belongs on the certificate and what gets a filing rejected.
mistakes to avoid
A word count from a bad OCR pass, a table that hides half the text, an InDesign package with no fonts. These are the quoting errors that turn a profitable file into unpaid weekend work.
checklist
Before the first file arrives, settle the glossary, the style guide, the reference material, the approved rate card and the way you will get paid. Every item here prevents a specific argument later.
numbers and benchmarks
The only number that tells you whether a job was worth taking is dollars per working hour. Here is the arithmetic, the throughput ranges to measure against, and where unbilled hours hide.
case study
Follow a twenty two minute episode from source video to delivered SRT and SDH file: how the timing is cut, why line length is capped, and where the quote per runtime minute comes from.
trends and outlook
Light and full post editing are defined tasks with different deliverables and different effort. Understanding that difference is the whole argument when a client asks for a machine translation discount.
field report
Monday quotes, Tuesday vendor assignments, a Thursday rush certificate and a Friday invoice run. What the operating week of a small United States agency actually contains, hour by hour.
Nearly every pricing argument in this trade traces back to a rate card that was never fully written down. The complete guide covers per word bands, minimum fees, rush tiers and the hourly lines that stop small jobs losing money.
How to Build a Translation Rate Card With Minimums and Rush Tiers
Then work outward: the eight other pieces in Source and Target each take one part of it further, and every one links back here.
