Freelance translators need to keep their pitches professional and concise. Below are five tips for writing a great freelance translator cover letter.
After having received hundreds upon hundreds of terrible cover letters over the years, I thought it was time to provide a public service to my colleagues in the industry.
Note: Although this post is mainly for freelance translators, these tips could be useful for any job seeker.
Click below to jump immediately to any tip or view a sample cover letter for freelance translators.
If you find the recommendations below helpful, then share them! (Then check out our other tips or read about falling rates in the translation industry.)
- Personalize the salutation.
- Keep the cover letter body short and sweet.
- Include a call to action.
- Check your spelling and grammar.
- Use formatting to emphasize your points.
5 Tips for Writing a Great Translator Cover Letter
There’s no way to know for sure that your recipient is going to a) read your pitch, b) view it favorably, or c) act on it.
Still, why not give yourself the best chances possible? If you follow these tips, I can guarantee you that at least one translation agency owner in the world (me)—but probably more—won’t delete your email message.
1. Personalize the salutation.
Find out who will likely be reading your email message. Investigate. Explore the agency’s website to find the name and email address of the owner (if it’s a small agency) or the vendor manager (if it’s a large agency).
Now use this name in your salutation: Dear Mr. Jones, To the attention of Ms. Jill Franklin, etc. Even a greeting like Hello, Steve can work in the right context (if you’re writing to an American agency owner who is the same age as you, for example).
The point is that a translator cover letter that’s personalized is much better than one that isn’t.
- Using Mr. [Last Name] or Ms. [Last Name] in your greeting is a safe bet. It’s professional but personalized. It also shows that you care enough to do five minutes of research. (I worry about freelance translators who don’t…)
- Don’t write Dear Sirs. (Remember that 51% of the world’s population won’t answer to that.)
- Don’t write Miss in an English salutation, even if you know that your reader is a young, unmarried woman. (I’m not sure how or why you would know this.) The term has fallen out of favor and is often seen as condescending or presumptuous.
- Don’t use the first name only unless you’re fairly certain that it’s appropriate to do so. I don’t mind at all if strangers address me as Matthew. (It’s my name, after all.) But not every professional is comfortable with this lack of formality. As a translator, you need to use your cultural competence to understand what is appropriate in the target culture. (The “target culture” here is the culture of your reader.)
“Well, that’s rich: This is a woman-owned business, but the translator starts his cover letter with Dear Sirs…”
2. Keep the cover letter body short and sweet.
Introduce yourself, say what you have to say, then end the letter. That’s it.
There’s no need to write a novel to a potential client. People are too busy to read or care about Section 2, Paragraph 3a of your treatise.
Instead, limit the body of the letter to no more than 9 or 10 sentences divided into 3 to 4 paragraphs. (In fact, I’ve seen excellent cover letters that are even shorter.)
Remember that part of your job as a translator is to write. If you can show that you know how to expertly sequence a letter, then it’s a point in your favor. (And the absence of this skill is concerning considering the profession.)
- Stick to a basic but professional structure. Your first paragraph should be a 1- or 2-line introduction (who you are, what your language pair is), your objective (why you’re writing), and perhaps how you found out about the client. Include years of experience, recent projects, and association memberships in your second paragraph. In your third paragraph, include a call to action of some kind (see below).
- The days of formal paper cover letters are over, at least in the U.S. There’s no magical one-page requirement (or its digital equivalent) anymore.
- List only a few recent projects. Include these projects as proof of your expertise. (If you say you’re a legal translator, then list legal translation projects.) Whatever you do, don’t list every project you’ve ever worked on. I have received countless emails over the years from translators who somehow think that I’ll be impressed by a letter that reads like an inventory list in an auto parts store.
3. Include a call to action.
Of the five tips for writing a good translator cover letter, this is the one that freelancers most often overlook.
Be confident (but not pushy) in your CTA.
A call to action (CTA) is an instruction to the reader. It usually includes an imperative verb form. On a website, the text on a button might read “Call Now” or “Learn More,” for example.
In a cover letter, the call to action is your way of letting your reader know what you want him or her to do.
Do you want your reader to provide you with information? See your attached CV? View your LinkedIn profile?
You get the idea. Suffice it to say that you have to tell your reader—explicitly—what step he or she should take next.
CTA Quick Tips
- Please see my attached CV is a weak call to action. What’s the reader supposed to do upon seeing your CV? Email you? Call you? Send 17 projects your way? Marvel at your industry experience? You can still include your CV, of course, but it shouldn’t be the main purpose of the initial contact with a client.
- If possible, humanize yourself with your call to action. Include a hyperlink to your Proz.com or LinkedIn profile. (Yes, you absolutely need to have a LinkedIn profile and a professional profile picture.) It lets a potential client a) see that you’re a real human and not a spammer, b) learn about your language background in more depth, and c) find out “who you really are.” Do you support a certain cause? Do you have interests outside of your work life that would prove you’re a well-read, intellectually curious person? (Note: If you don’t read a lot and you’re not intellectually curious, then you’re in the wrong line of work.)
- A call to action can be as simple as a request for information, e.g., Are you accepting applications from freelance translators at the moment?
- Leaving out a call to action negates what you’re trying to do. Your message falls flat. Imagine getting a letter that reads like this: I’m so-and-so, a blank-to-blank translator. In my career I’ve done X, Y, and Z. I’ve attached my CV for your reference. Thank you. Would you respond to that? I wouldn’t… and I don’t.
4. Check your spelling and grammar.
I shouldn’t even have to say this, but I will. If you hope to get work as a translator, then your writing needs to be impeccable. If it’s not, try another line of work.
- Read your letter out loud before you hit “Send.” You’ll be able to catch misspellings and words that you’ve accidentally repeated or omitted.
- Run your text through a spell-check tool. It takes 30 seconds. Show that you’re a professional. (This step should be automatic. After all, you should be running a spell- and grammar-check tool on all of your translation projects before you deliver them.)
- Nonnative English speakers can be forgiven for writing the occasional awkward or stilted phrase in English. But even so, if English is a working language for you, you ought to be able to compose a cover letter without any egregious grammatical or spelling mistakes. If you can’t, is your B language really that good?
5. Use formatting to emphasize your points.
Text formatting is your friend, so use it.
If you include a bulleted list or words in bold, your letter will be easier to scan or read. (I’ve done these same two things in this very post.) Line after line of similar-looking text is hard to read, especially on a screen.
- Use a bulleted list to highlight three points—for example, your years of experience, association memberships, and a few of your regular clients.
- Use bold type within your paragraphs to highlight key information—for example, language pair and areas of specialization.
Freelance Translator Cover Letter: Sample
It’s one thing to list a few recommendations for a translator cover letter. It’s quite another to actually show you what happens when you follow those tips.
Below is a sample of a freelance translator cover letter that I wrote at the same time as this post. For confidentiality reasons, I’m not using any actual cover letters I’ve received, though they would have illustrated the point just as well.
I’ve also included the five tips from this post in the screenshot below for easier viewing.
If you have feedback for me, then leave a comment.
Would a colleague of yours like to know how to write a great freelance translator cover letter? Then share this post on your favorite social network!
And if you’re just starting out, read one woman’s story about how she became a freelance translator.
Need more tips? Check out how to quickly convert dates in European format to US format (and vice versa) in MS Word. Then learn how to automatically find all acronyms in a Word doc.
Great article, full of useful and concise tips to improve our cover letters. One thing I’d like to ask you about is rates. I always wonder whether to include them or not on the cover letter, even when I’m asked about them in a prior conversation. Would that dissuade my reader from keeping my letter, would that be a time-saver for them? If they can’t accept my rates, would they let me know? Any advice here will be of help!
Thank you for this article, Matthew!
Thanks for the kind words, Daniela. I recommend not including rates in your cover letter. The reason is because you want prospective employers to work with you because you’re qualified, responsive, nice to work with, etc., and I think including your rates puts the emphasis somewhere else (namely, on how much you charge). Let’s say that you indicate your rate in a cover letter. If it’s too high for the agency, your email will likely be deleted or ignored. If it’s lower than what the agency is willing to pay, then you’ve lost your chance to negotiate a better rate. You’ve got to discuss rates at some point, of course (likely in the next email exchange or phone call), but I wouldn’t lead with that information. I’ll be very frank: when a translator does communicate her very low rates to me right off the bat, I immediately think, “Doesn’t she have any faith in her own abilities?” And when a translator sends me rates that are through the roof, I immediately think, “This person has no idea what’s happening in the market right now.” Again, the focus goes to rates when the initial contact should be instead about demonstrating competence, meeting a need, etc.
Thank you! That was very clarifying. Exactly what I suspected. Quite a few times, I’ve been asked to include my rates in the cover letter/initial contact. I didn’t do it, and I received no replies from them. I’m guessing now that they were looking for bidders rather than professional translators. Thanks again!
Best,
Daniela
Nice article. I like it, very practical. Useful information in introduction part.
Nice article, Matthew. I have been on the translation market for more than 30 years and have a very clear picture of what is happening on it, however, I discuss the rates first (not in the cover letter) and only then sign my contracts. And yes, my rates are way higher than the dumping rates on the local market, whereas my work pertains to a very small niche of translation, where the local translators cannot compete, so this really depends on many factors. I would not hire a person with very low rates though and as an interpreter would not sit in one booth with a dumping ‘colleague’ either.
Best,
Iveta Kopankina, MA
This information is clear, concise, and very useful. Thank you for the time you took to share this with the world! I really appreciate the advice.
You’re welcome, Jillian. I’m glad you found the article useful.
Hi Mathew,
I can’t but think that bolding the second to last sentence is too aggressive. Of course I’m a total beginner on the translation industry.
Maybe you can enlighten me?
Thank you.
Marcia Neff
Haha—it may well be too aggressive! But I try to bold various lines in my posts because a wall of text that looks all the same can be a drag to read for people who are pressed for time. And I want people to share the post: it’s my call to action!
I love the concise article but you touched a sore note with me and lost me at: (And the absence of this skill is concerning considering the profession.) I know the use of ‘concerning’ as other parts of speech instead of its intended use as a preposition is becoming popular. Perhaps it is now correct usage and I am an old fogey. I just had to write you concerning this matter.
Thanks for your note, Michelle. And I tip my hat to you for the zinger in your last line! Usage is a thorny issue for many people. I can’t say that I remember ever thinking that concerning is incorrect when used as an adjective, so I decided to do a little digging. While you’re right that the word can and often does function as a preposition, I’m not sure that I agree with you about its “intended meaning.” Intended by whom? In a quick search of online dictionaries, I could only find one dictionary that doesn’t list concerning as an adjective. All the others include a definition of “disturbing, troubling, etc.” for the word. It appears that the way I used it (as an adjective) is primarily British usage. (I’m American, yet the word is part of my idiolect. Go figure.) Merriam-Webster, an American dictionary, doesn’t list concerning as an adjective. Still, the meaning of “troubling,” “worrisome,” “disconcerting,” etc. has been around since at least the 17th century. In fact, no less an authority than Samuel Johnson wrote, in A Dictionary of the English Language, that the verb concern means 1) to relate to, 2) to be of importance to, 3) to interest, 4) to disturb; to make uneasy, and 5) to be busy. It’s from this fourth definition, of course, that we got concerning meaning “disturbing.” Of course, language is in a constant state of change, and these definitions are good examples of this phenomenon. Consider that at one time the word concerning meant “important”!
Matthew, thank you, a very good, useful article.
I am a Russian & Ukrainian language freelance translator based in Ukraine. I translate technical, medical, environmental, educational, and general science texts. I have worked with many CIS LSPs.
In my experience, the US & West European agencies very rarely responded to my job applications.
And even those ones, which responded, gave me zero factually paid projects.
So, the only thing remaining for me is that I must collaborate with CIS LSPs, the per-word rates of which are from 0,5 to 2 US cents. Of course, I would gladly work with the US and/or European agencies. Can you give a hint, what is the matter? Btw. what about your Company? In need, I can send you my CV 🙂
Hello, Alexander. I can’t say with certainty why you aren’t having luck with U.S. or European agencies. What I can tell you that is we get very few requests for Russian and Ukrainian. In addition, our translators have exceptional B-language skills, in many cases because they have spent significant time living in countries where their B language is spoken. Best of luck to you.
Thank you Matthew,
Your answer is a constructive one. For now, I understand the problem.
I really loved your article, Matthew!
The most valuable tip for me was that of the CTA. I’ll make sure to improve my use of it.
Besides, the overall style and structure of your article offer an additional inspiration as to how to lay out successful cover letters.
I also appreciated your comments on the idea of including rates to cover letters.
Yet, in my humble opinion, I would say it’s difficult to be categorical on that issue, as opinions vary a lot in this regard.
I recently attended a seminar on translation dos and don’ts where applicants were advised to give out all relevant information to the vendor manager, in order to avoid mutual waste of time.
Therefore, I would suggest —as a sort of bridge— that rates are included on the résumé instead, thus allowing the employer to form their opinion about the applicant based on their well-composed cover letter, then have a complete grasp of applicant’s expectations and skills thanks to their résumé.
Next step, probably in ONE email, will simply be about telling the translator how their company actually deals and co-operates with freelance linguists.
Thanks for your comment, Patient Xavier. Regarding when to disclose rates, yes, I agree with you and said as much in an earlier response to a commenter. Rates certainly become part of the discussion at some point, but I don’t think they need to be disclosed upon first contact (unless, of course, the recruiting agency specifically asks you to include rates in your application).