New translators: you may well find yourself being asked this question (in the future)

So you want to be a freelance translator?

First of all, good luck - but this is not really an in-depth study of what you "should" be aiming to do on a regular basis, or of how to approach translation projects, or anything like that; this is but a piece of friendly advice.

Sometimes when you register with new translation agencies they will ask you on their application form how many words you have translated professionally since you started. I have registered with new translation agencies that would ask this exact same question, but I could not give an answer because I had no idea how many words I had translated; and it took me ages to find out!

The point of this blog is pretty clear. Keep a record of how many words you translate, so you won't make the mistake I did.