Penelope Truck over at the Brazen Careerist is one of my favourite bloggers ever, and I’m delighted to have an opportunity to shamelessly hat tip in her direction today.
A recent post on 5 ways to be better at self promotion has useful advice for freelance translators at all levels of expertise. But a comment in point number 2 – Stay the most focused when things look the most difficult – especially caught my eye:
… it’s easy to get frustrated when things are not happening fast enough. So it makes sense that we’d try something new, to see if it might work faster.
I did this a lot while I was trying to be a freelance writer. I can write a wide range of stuff, and it took me a while to figure out the intersection of things I like to write and things I could get paid well to write. I knew a ton of opportunities in both of those categories, but I could think of very few things at the cross section of the two categories.
This is real food for thought for me. Like a lot of translators, I think, I see a definite distinction between the kind of translations I like to do but can’t afford to 5 days a week, and the kind of translation work that pays well. I’ve worked hard to move past the stage of needing to take every job that comes my way and I also feel I am well rewarded for the kind of work I do. So now my books are full, I’m keen to move on the the next stage.
I feel a re-shuffle of some sort is in order to mark this transition, but I hadn’t managed to work out just how I was going to do this. So I’ve decided to take a leaf out of Penelope’s very successful book, and work on trying to find the intersection between these two categories. It’s not an answer just yet, but at least it’s a question.
About the author
Sarah Dillon is a qualified, accredited and experienced professional translator originally from Co. Clare in Ireland. She specialises in producing English-language texts that don't "sound" like translations, ensuring her clients' message has the desired impact in their overseas market. She is based in Brisbane, Australia and works with corporate clients, small businesses, agencies and nonprofit organisations all over the world. In her spare time, Sarah is also Marketing Director of eCPD Webinars.
Sarah Dillon has written 252 posts for There's Something About Translation.
