Scream

I've been meaning to write for a long time - scout's honour - but so much has been going on I haven't known where to start. Now I'm just going to vent out a bit; as good a place to start as any, I guess.

< rant >I'm back in Finland, quite settled in already, but things are just not working out for me. First, the job around which I had planned my life for the next 5 or so years gets cancelled at the last minute. Then, the agencies I apply for make me feel like the most unappreciated poor sod in the world (how would you like to work for 5 cents per word?). Now the agency I have mostly worked for up until now owes me almost 2k with no sight of payment in the foreseeable future (the due date of the first invoice of the batch was 7 July, by the way) because, quote, the client hasn't paid the agency yet. Tough, says I: I have handed in the work on time and thus expect to be paid in due time. It's not my problem your billing department doesn't know their stuff.

I also signed a new freelance agreement with another agency, who offered me part-time inhouse work that was supposed to start today and last for a week. Surprise, surprise, their system is not operational, so the job got cancelled. This is getting ridiculous.

It's hard to keep positive in the face of the harsh realities of the translation business. The agency I'm starting with now is paying less than 8 cents per word and of course even less for fuzzy matches and the like. All the while I keep seeing Miss Gorschelnik giving her lecture about minimum fees and how accepting anything under 8 cents per word is equal to shooting yourself in the leg (if I remember correctly, a full-time freelance translator asking for 8 cents per word is left with a little over 1000 euros after taxes). The established translators on Translat and the SKTL's survey seem to agree that 18-20 cents per word constitute a suitable fee. Nice, could I get what you're having? Where are these clients?

FML.< /rant >

In much better news, I just spent two wonderful weeks under the Tuscan sun admiring the hills and cliffs, grape vines and olive trees. Have now seen San Gimignano, Volterra, Siena, Florence, Pisa, Montalcino, Montepulciano and places in between.