The easy part and the difficult one

My last post, which was full of food for thought (not mine, but due to the often against the trend ideas of Luigi Muzii), has caused some – not many, indeed - comments on Langit.

In my opinion, one of the key points for translators, and thus a way to exit from the swamp in which too many of them are self-condemned, is marketing. And marketing doesn’t (at least no longer, if it ever was) mean getting on customers’ nerves off, but is made of much more subtle tools such as a well-made website, an effective tag-line in emails, a properly presented business card and so on. (I’ll take for granted the fact that the service offered is not less than excellent.)

For example, what Seth Godin did yesterday to promote his book (in a word: only online promotion, in the form of interviews with him by the most listened to and influential bloggers) is marketing of the best kind; and you aren’t even forced to talk to anyone.

Too many translators declare themselves – in words and in deeds – unable to sell, preferring to focus on what they do best: translating. An example: the overwhelming majority of résumés that I get seem to be done with the stencil (although, of course: who am I to judge?) but I ‘d like to receive a proposal that solves a problem, not knowing that in the summer of 2001 that translator has done an internship somewhere.

And so, alas, what is easy (translating) with time becomes difficult (effective marketing of your services); but when we challenge our limits, the difficult becomes routinely easy – and fun.