If you have a text for translation, please send it to us via e-mail or fax, or forward us a reference to a relevant web site. Best of all – just call us! We will provide you with a detailed estimation of your order cost within one hour.

Prices and Services:  FAQ
1) Why can’t you just quote the price of a translation in terms of cost per page?
2) Is it worth seeking out a “freelance” translator who charges less?
3) How can I reduce my translation costs?
4) How does the actual translation cost relate to the time of translation?
5) What is the method of calculation?
6) Can anything be done for free?
7) Are there discounts?
8) What kinds of translators are employed by GLAGOL to translate from Russian?
9) Does GLAGOL set a minimum on the volume of an order?
10) Does GLAGOL pay commission?
11) How does GLAGOL ensure confidentiality?
12) Does GLAGOL provide PERMANENT CLIENT service?
13) We have staff translators; how can we cooperate?
14) How can you translate a text which you’ve never seen before?

1. GLAGOL does not set a fixed price for a page translated, as a translator will  spend a different amount of time translating different types of texts. For instance, more time may be required to translate one or two words (a trade mark or an advertising slogan) than a full page of a “technical” text. The cost of translation is determined by the volume of the text to be translated, as well as by other factors. Thus, as we want to charge our client a MINIMUM rate, the cost needs to be calculated on a case-by-case basis. If someone quotes you a “fixed” price, it means that either the price is too high, having been calculated on the basis of the most “inconvenient” text to translate, or it is understated and, as your order is being fulfilled, you’ll find yourself having to pay extra for practically everything and, the final price will end up being a far cry from what you were originally quoted.

2. “Freelance translators” 
Should you decide to build a house you have two options:  hire a team of builders or contract a building company. In the first case, you would have to supervise the builders yourself because in the absence of such supervision, the results could be rather sad. Such control also requires special knowledge and, of course, time.
The situation with translation is very much the same: if you do not exert close control over the situation, your translator will produce a “raw” translation, abound with mistakes. The translator will do the job the more CONVENIENT way rather than the way REQUIRED. Translation quality can be ensured only by an editor.
Other specifics of “freelance” translation should also not be overlooked:
- “Your” translator can be on leave, fall ill or accept a more remunerative order. He/she may fail to meet deadlines for a variety of reasons (“the computer broke down”, “ the internet could not be accessed”) and you, therefore, may find yourself desperately searching for another translator. Thus, you do NOT have a real guarantee that a “freelance” translator will do the work on time.
- There are no universal translators. Each translator specializes in a subject or a number of subjects. Thus, a translator whose strong point is the translating of contracts into German is sure to produce a bad translation, in Russian, of an engine tuning manual.
- It is not simple to find a “freelance” translator. Everyone has studied a foreign language at the university; the Internet is teeming with offers from “translators” with a “university” level of knowledge of a foreign language. You are most likely to use the services of a person who would just continue studying the language at your expense.
- It is very unlikely that a translator could do more than 8 pages per day. Some of the translators, of course, do translate thoughtlessly, as fast as the keyboard stroke rate allows, and can produce 20-30 pages per day. In this case quality only suffers.
3. How the translation cost and time can be reduced:
3.1 You can order a translation which entitles you to discounts.
3.2 You can submit your text for translation in an electronic format (files on a CD or transmitted by e-mail) rather than in hard copy form.
3.3 Inform us of urgent translations no later than a day before it is to be received by us.
3.4 You can assign a competent employee who will communicate with us while your translation is being processed in order that he make decisions on the formatting of the text, the translation of certain terms, etc.
3.5 You can provide us with translations of similar texts so that we might use them as  examples.
4. Our additional costs (related to the immediacy of your translation) are illustrated below:
One translator can, on average, produce 7-8 pages a day. Should you require the translating of, say, 24 pages in one day’s time, we will have to set up a project group comprising of three translators (3x8 pages), a project manager and an editor.
Suppose, you have a voluminous contract translated. Some of the translators will translate “Contract No. 17” as “Contract No.17” and some as “Agreement No. 17”. Or, one translator will use a 14-pt. font and another, an 8-pt. font. It would be nearly impossible to read the translated text! A project manager coordinates the work of the translators and ensures that such slip-ups do not occur.
An urgent, highly sophisticated translation can be produced only if other projects are suspended.
5. The majority of our clients can pay upon completion of a translation, whether they are paying in cash or, through a bank transfer. In certain cases, in which a large volume is to be translated and the client is a small company, we may ask for partial prepayment upfront. Prepayment entitles you to a discount. Large translations are paid for in installments.
6. We estimate the cost of your order free of charge and provide relevant consultations. Test translations are made free of charge as well (usually, they do not exceed one page and are made for major and medium sized clients).
7. We offer the following discounts to major clients:
- accumulative (calculated on the basis of the of translations produced during the previous month)
- one-off discount (the price difference between the translation of 3 and 300 pages may come to quite a considerable percentage)
- discounts for  PERMANENT CLIENT service  
- discounts for payments in advance
8. A quality translation can be produced only by a native speaker. One should bear in mind that charges for a foreign/native speaking translator for the same service can come to tens of dollars per page. Thus, to save on costs, even the largest Russian companies still use Russian-speaking translators. We offer the following method for translations from Russian, including translation/editing by our partners in Ireland and Germany (Düsseldorf), into English and German respectively, and the most effective way – translation by our Russian personnel who have lived in the relevant language environment for 10 plus years. Thus, the level of their linguistic competence is close to that of a native speaker.
9. We translate texts of any size. Cooperation with our major client began simply with us editing a letter of less than a page translated by the director’s secretary!
Today a client might need to have a manual translated, tomorrow – a contract and the day after tomorrow – a video recording. It is convenient to have this done by the same company. GLAGOL does ALL types of translating.
10. Commission. If you are interested  in securing an order with us, we are willing to consider ANY means of cooperation. We do not impose limitations on the commission rate, as it is determined by specific factors. Furthermore, we are willing to pay you a certain percentage of the price for each translation produced for the client throughout the entire period of collaboration on a project. 

11. Some clients (auditing and legal companies, as well as banks) find confidentiality to be paramount. We are willing to discuss with  you the complex measures we employ in order to ensure confidentiality.
12. PERMANENT CLIENT service:
You forward us a typical text as a sample and tell us what the approximate quarterly volume is (for instance, 100 pages). We offer two types of fees: the first is for a once-off translation of small texts and the second, which is considerably lower, which applies when the volume of your translations per quarter is not lower than the agreed (100 pages in our example). Clients, who have selected a PERMANENT CLIENT service, also receive a number of additional services, such as:  free-of-charge consultations, 24-hour access, etc.
13. The majority of our clients are large Russian and Western companies in which all employees speak a foreign language and which often have their own translations departments. Here are a few reasons why they employ our services:
Translation cost. Sometimes it would appear cheaper to have a translation done in-house (translators’ salaries are often quite low). However, make a more precise calculation: how much time would your translator need to do this translation? Also, don’t forget your office equipment costs and office rental charges. In addition, you would need someone to oversee your translator (a senior translator or an editor?) At GLAGOL translators and equipment work non-stop while the entire technological process has been optimized, achieving the lowest possible translation cost. For this reason, we are entirely confident that if you add up all of your costs (including indirect costs), translations done by GLAGOL will, in the end, be more efficient than those done by in-house translators.
Force Majeure. Quite often there is a need for a translation to be done immediately - sometimes on the weekend. Your in-house translators may not have enough time.
The time it takes. We will translate large texts faster.
14. We have a well-developed methodology for translating highly-specialized texts, including those that we have never come across before, and which are not even in Russian. This includes a preliminary analysis of the text, agreement of terms with the client, a search for similar texts in our Internet databases and, the compiling of glossaries to be used by all our translators.