Rates

The cost of a trans­la­tion is gene­rally cal­cu­la­ted based on the number of words in the source text.

My basic fee for gene­ral trans­la­ti­ons from English into Ger­man is € 0.25* per word. The actual fee for a par­ti­cu­lar trans­la­tion con­tract may be hig­her, depen­ding on the dead­line, dif­fi­culty of the text, file for­mat, etc. My rate always includes editing/proofreading by a colleague, so that you can be sure to receive a flawless text ready for publishing.

My mini­mum charge is € 50.00*.

Fac­tors that could increase the word price:

• File for­mat. For trans­la­ting from .ppt, .xml, .html, .jpg, .pdf files or simi­lar, I add a surch­arge of at least 10 %. Please pro­vide me with your files in Word for­mat if possible.
• Deli­very date. More urgent trans­la­ti­ons attract a hig­her surch­arge. My usual daily out­put is a maxi­mum of 2,000 words and a trans­la­tion requi­ring more than this will be more expensive.
• ‘Out-of-hours’ work. Alt­hough I am wil­ling to work over the wee­kend, on bank holi­days, and during the eve­ning, a surch­arge of at least 50% will apply for this. I will gladly provide you with an individual quote if you send me the text (or at least an extract from it).

*All the pri­ces quo­ted on this page are inten­ded for cor­po­rate cust­o­mers and are cal­cu­la­ted wit­hout sta­tutory Ger­man VAT at the cur­rent rate of 19%.

Certified document translations are charged in accordance with the German Judicial Remuneration and Allowances Act (JVEG) at € 2.32* per standard line (55 characters incl. spaces, based on the target text). I will gladly provide you with an individual quote if you send me the document by scanning it in and attaching it to an email. If scanning is not possible, a photo will do, preferably taken straight from above so that everything is legible. Texts of fewer than 20 lines (55 characters each) will attract a one-off minimum fee of € 50.00.
Addi­tio­nal copies of the trans­la­tion will cost € 2.00 per page  plus € 10.00 for the certification.

Pos­ting as a let­ter wit­hin Ger­many is free of charge!

 

*As docu­ment trans­la­ti­ons are gene­rally requi­red by pri­vate cust­o­mers, all the pri­ces shown under “Document Translation Rates” include sta­tutory Ger­man VAT at the cur­rent rate of 19%.

Proo­frea­ding is char­ged by the hour, at a rate of € 50.00* per hour.

It is dif­fi­cult to cal­cu­late a fixed price, as the amount of time nee­ded for a text depends on how much there is to correct.
In my experience, a simple proofreading job that involves carefully reading through the text to check for typos, spelling, and grammatical errors requires 4 minutes per page–this results in a minimum charge of € 3.50* per page (1,500 characters).

An editing job is slightly different. As well as checking the text for typos, spelling, and grammatical errors, I also carry out a thorough review in terms of style and consistency. In my experience, I can work through 8 pages per hour, resulting in a price of approx. € 6.50* per page (1,500 characters). These are estimates and both proofreading and editing may cost more depending on the number of corrections and time required.

Revising a translation from English or Russian into German requires a combination of in-depth proofreading and editing. Not only does the text need to be checked for typos, spelling and grammatical errors, style, and consistency, it must be carefully compared with the source text. This kind of work would cost at least € 15.00* per page (1,500 characters).

When revising a novel translated from English or Russian into German, I first read the book in the original to familiarize myself with the style, but I only compare the translation with the original if I stumble over a passage. Otherwise, I polish the style, eliminate Anglicisms as well as translation errors, and make the translation more “German”. The price depends largely on the quality of the translation; you can expect at least 4.50 euros* per page (1,500 characters).

Would you still like to know how much it will cost in advance?

If so, I can offer to work on your text for exactly one hour. As soon as this hour is up, I will stop. This makes it pos­si­ble for you to assess my work on the one hand, and decide if it is necessary for you, whilst on the other hand, you will be able to cal­cu­late exactly how long it will take to edit your whole text. And should you decide not to go ahead with the full proo­frea­ding after this hour, you will only pay € 50.00 net–and no more.

*All the pri­ces quo­ted on this page are inten­ded for cor­po­rate cust­o­mers and are cal­cu­la­ted wit­hout sta­tutory Ger­man VAT at the cur­rent rate of 19%.

Translations of novels are charged per page and I pro­vide this service as a sin­gle package with editing and proofreading.
You can expect to pay approx. € 25.00* per page (1,500 characters) or 0.12 USD per word for the bundle of translation, editing, and proofreading (plus statutory German VAT*). Editing and proofreading are done by two different providers, whom I assign accordingly.