Translators needed

No.

This blog post is ancient too!

I'm beginning to wish I'd not posted it. My only aim was to help other people. Authors are not treated as slaves, they are under no obligation to work for Textmaster. Anyone who is approved on a shaky test will soon be found out. Every single word that a new author writes is checked and poor authors are blocked.

I'm sure some of the comments are from embittered writers who have been blocked. The moderators are there to help and will ask for changes if they deem them necessary, but if the changes are made, the author gets paid. The moderators also correct work if the changes are only minor and send through to the client. The only way an author would not get paid would be if their work were really bad. I have been paid for every single piece of work I've done, promptly.

go for it, Tracy, I found it very rewarding and better than teaching (and I'm qualified!). Avoid legal stuff unless you've got the background, I used to a lot of technical stuff as there aren't many that way inclined ;-)

For those that are worried about their source language skills, there's nothing too much to be concerned about:

"As someone interested in this company from a competitive reason, I tried getting approved as a proofreader and translator. I treated it more as an experiment than as a goal of actually getting accepted.
For the proofreading test, I made zero changes. That's right, I made NO edits and submitted the piece the gave me to proofread. A couple days later, I was accepted as a proofreader. I literally LOL.
I also took the test to become an Spanish ===> English proofreader. I do not speak Spanish nor am I literate. I know the basics from one high school course some 13 years ago. Instead, I took the Spanish written text they gave me and ran it through Google translate. I fixed a couple spots that seemed oddly worded and submitted. I was again accepted as a translator a couple days later"

and

"They seem more interested in promoting their 10% referral scheme than anything...…."

(http://tinyurl.com/jvmw3gv)

Another comment elsewhere:

"I am an author there, and let's say the truth, authors are treated like slaves and moderators will always find a way to make you earn less money (because of a comma, a space or something like that) plus I met some rude customers so some authors (like me) are afraid to help people on this site". (http://tinyurl.com/p4fppp3)

Have you seen the answer to your comment on the blog?

Hi Wendy, I will definitely give it a go if they are looking for French translation into English as I work in the wine tourism industry which has a very specific niche in translation. I have been working at our local viticulture college teaching the BTS students wine English even though I am not a teacher. I discovered I hated doing it so need something to replace that small but necessary income in low season. My background is similar, educated to A level in a grammar school with a strong emphasis on grammar. Regrettably to the point where I mentally cringe when reading something in the public domain that is badly written.

Thanks for the information, it's appreciated.

I have and the reason I posted in the first place is because I know that there are a lot of people out there who could do with extra income and I wanted to tell them about Textmaster. I have also worked for Translated.net but the rates are a third higher on TM and more for items that require expertise or have to be completed urgently.

Hey, nobody's saying they're not bona fide, I just knew their name rang a bell from somewhere … Maybe you should add a comment to the blog post.

This is two years old and the rates have risen since and I find it insulting that you think I would recommend this company if it were not bona fide. They now have higher rates for professional translators. Quality control is strict, particularly for new authors and clients can pay for extra proofreading if they want to, others prefer something cheap and cheerful if it's just for SEO purposes. I suspect this was written by someone who doesn't like competition.

Food for thought about Textmaster: TextMaster et le feuillet à 1 euro : création de valeur ou la familiarité du médiocre ?

I'm just checking to see why it's not possible to register to translate from French to English at the moment. They may have 'turned it off' because they don't need any more people for that language pair at the moment, but I'll let you know what the answer is as soon as I have it.

Right, I'm back from the vet and ready for calls/questions...

We are now officially friends!

No, I'm not qualified, but languages have always been my thing. My only qualifications are A level French and 21 years of living in France plus a very old fashioned grammar school education with lots of....well, grammar really!

Hi Victoria,

There's some info if you click on 'Become an Author' Basically you take a test and if you're good enough, you'll be approved and you can start work. You just need to check in regularly to see what's available...don't wait for the notifications. Your daughter sounds ideal, if you want to message me, I'll give you my contact details and your daughter can email me or give me a ring. Send me a friend request, if you want to...I don't want to be pushy!

Thanks Wendy,just thought I would ask as I did find some strange stuff. Wow, That is a fair amount of money, good to see it can be profitable. Are you a qualified translator or do you have a writing background? Am asking as although I'm interested in giving it a go over the winter, I don't have any formal qualifications. I would only be interested in French to English as my written French is appalling, despite currently studying for a University Diploma.

How does this work Wendy? I've just looked at the site and it demands you sign up before you can find anything out.

Enquiring for my daughter who is bilingual English/French and fluent in Italian and has aready done a fair amount of translation.

No, I get a few euros from referrals (20 over a year???) French is definitely an option because that's what I do mainly and earn between 1500 and 2500 euros per month. There may be bad reviews from failed translators...you wouldn't believe the standard of some of the work (I get to check it now) and some just think using Google Translate is good enough and can barely string a sentence together in any language. You can message me and I'll give you my phone number, if you like. I wouldn't dream of recommending something that was not trustworthy or reputable.

By the way, you can only translate into your native language, so French to English, not vice versa.

Hi Wendy, decided to check this out as my quiet season is upon us so have just had a quick scan but can't find many good reviews about it. Most comments seem to concentrate on the fact that users make better money by referring other translators? Doesn't seem to list French as an option either!