English to French translation: How I Established Myself as a Freelance Translator

I start all my responses to ads for freelance English to French translation projects I am interested in usually in this way: “Hello, I just read your ad on [ ] and I would be interested in the job. I am a French native and have been working as a freelance translator for the past 9 years.” Sometimes, I get an answer, and even the job, most of the time not. I can probably say that 9 out of 10 times, I don’t. However, I would say I am rather successful.

How did I become a freelance translator? By accident. I moved to the US because of my American husband. When in college, I studied English in France, and earned a Master's degree in teaching French as a foreign language. So, when I arrived in the US, I started teaching French and still do. Then, one day I saw an ad from a translation agency which was looking for French, German and Spanish linguists. I applied and got the job. I worked there for a couple years and learned a lot of things, such as I did not want to translate computer manuals for the rest of my life, I could make a lot more money as a freelancer than as an in-house linguist (oh, yes, even if we were translating documents in-house, we were not entitled to call ourselves translator, but merely linguist, which probably allowed for a lower paycheck.) After two years in that agency, I got a job as a French assistant-editor for a major textbook publisher. While working there I started working a little bit as a freelance translator, but not too the full extent of its meaning until more recently.

About 18 months ago, after two years of working overtime at my editorial job, I decided I needed a change and decided to start again my freelance English to French translation business while still working full-time. I was always told that it takes from 6 to 12 months to establish oneself as a freelancer. In June 2006, I made a few major investments, at least they seemed major to me at the time. First, I reactivated my ATA (American Translator Association) membership which cost about $150. Secondly, I upgraded my old Trados version to the most recent one, which meant another $500 or so. Last, I became a member of one of the major translator websites, Proz.com, which added another $120. Later, in November, I bought a laptop for about $1000. With my ATA membership, my new Trados and Proz, I was ready.

I updated my resume and started contacting former clients telling them that I was willing to take on English to French translation jobs again. At the same time, I started bidding on projects on Proz.com like crazy. Most of the time, I never heard from the people. A few got back to me and even fewer led to a job. Fortunately, I was still working full-time and working on English to French translation only in the evening and on the weekend. Slowly, I started getting more and more translation work. In November 2006, I was offered to work on a "huge" project and decided to go part-time at my office. The job did not materialize. However, being part-time allowed me to bid on bigger jobs and starting in January 2007 and landed a few good jobs. And, best of all, the clients came back offering more work. February was the best month of all so far.

In March and April, I got fewer English to French translations than I was hoping to get and started questioning my choice. It is also the time I took a test for a major translation company with little hope to pass, their requirements being set very high. Just before leaving for France, I learned that I had passed the test. I was very excited but at the same time worried: I just landed a client that could potentially give me work every day and I was taking off for a month. What would happen when I came back? The day after I was back I had more emails asking for my services than I could have ever imagined. And it has not stopped since. I am even refusing jobs. I am still working part-time as an editor but I could easily freelance full-time now.

It took exactly a year to establish myself as an English to French translation freelance translator, as I was told.

Géraldine Touzeau-Patrick, French Editor and Translator.