Re. Paying by the word

[Geoff Hart <geoff-h -at- MTL -dot- FERIC -dot- CA>]

 The previous message, or perhaps the one that you'll
 receive immediately after this one, asked about the
 practicality and the potential pitfalls of being paid by
 the word.

 Practicality: The author's preliminary estimates were $0.23
 per word, which seems reasonable given that translations
 typically run at about this cost. But I think the author is
 underpaid at this rate, for the following reasons:

 Problems:
 1. If you spend an entire day interviewing engineers, doing
 library research, holding meetings, etc., you don't get
 paid a red cent. Possible solution: accept an hourly rate
 for these activities.

 2. The current approach relies on a word count feature to
 determine the number of words produced. This methodology
 has a potentially serious drawback: let's say that you
 produce a 2000 word first draft. So far, so good. The draft
 now goes to review, and there are several substantive
 changes you must make. Hypothetically, let's say the
 changes require you to delete 200 words (e.g., a few
 sentences, a short paragraph, and a few isolated words) and
 replace them with 200 new words. Net change in word count,
 zero; net pay, zero. What you need is some way of counting
 keystrokes, both those that input words and those that
 provide necessary formatting (e.g., applying a paragraph
 style ought to count for at least one word). Possible
 solution: software?

 3. How much do you get paid for creating (or working with
 an artist to create) illustrations. Is a picture worth $230
 (1000 words!), or more, or less? How about tables, which
 require substantial design work before you can begin
 entering data? Possible solution: establish an equivalency
 factor, based on the number of words you could fit into the
 space occupied by the graphic? (I don't like that one at
 all, and a value of 1000 words is a cliche, not a valid
 estimate.)

 4. There's an important conflict of interest: Verbosity
 pays _you_ better, but well-crafted terse writing is far
 kinder to your reader and more likely to be the sort of
 writing your client will demand (both to cut costs and to
 address the needs of the reader). Not only do you get paid
 less for terse writing (fewer words), but you also have to
 devote considerable effort (unpaid time) to chop out
 unnecessary words. Possible solution: Know thy writing
 style, and negotiate a word rate that pays for this extra
 work.

 The solutions I've proposed certainly aren't bulletproof,
 so I'd love to see better ones proposed.

 --Geoff Hart    @8^{)}
 geoff-h -at- mtl -dot- feric -dot- ca

 Disclaimer: If I didn't commit it in print in one of our
 reports, it don't represent FERIC's opinion.