In our journey to becoming a successful freelance translator, today we'll talk about another tip I have for you as per applications - collecting agencies lists. Of course, you can always use the right keywords to apply via each single agency website. However, this is an equally efficient and brutal approach if you're to grow as fast as you can. But growth is nothing without understanding market trends.
Premise on Specialization
First, it depends on your fields of specialization. Put simply: bigger agencies work with a lot of different fields, so they most likely have somewhere you fit in. Smaller boutique agencies are of course more focused on their specializations.
This is not always true, though. We have companies such as Keywords Studios that dominate the European market for the video game market segment of the language industry. This is also one of the reasons why working with AAA games is exploited for FIGS (French, English, Italian, Spanish) - more on that in a future blog post.
Nimdzi Insights's Agency List
Ok, but where to go to find those lists? Nimdzi Insights - an expert in market research. Here you can find a list of the top 100 LSPs for last year:
As you can see, those are A LOT of companies. And you should apply to most of them. You can read what they mainly focus on in the rightmost column of the table. You're into subtitling? Look for 'media localization'. Do you work as a legal translator? 'legal'. Maybe you'd prefer something different, such as software quality assurance? 'LQA' is there for you.
Above each table, you have handy buttons to print or download (e.g., Excel or CSV) the table. This way, you can have a local copy that you can edit and consult at any time. I used to download all those tables as Excel spreadsheets and put an 'x' next to each row for companies to which I sent my application.
Following Market Trends Matter
Down in the reports, you also have graphs that help you understand some trends in the language industry. You should analyze the graphs and possibly focus on fields that are 'going strong'. For instance, video game localization (my main field) is now 'bigger than Hollywood and the music industry combined'.
Of course, not everyone likes video games, and to become successful at something, especially as a freelance - without nobody pushing you - you need to like it. Still, that's something you might consider studying and see if you're fit for it. In that case, specialize. This can be applied to every trending field, of course.
'Why should I specialize?' Because going horizontal in the market is only useful if you're going vertical at the same time. Studying trends and specializing accordingly is crucial if you're struggling to get a constant flow of money. In fact, game localization jobs are rising faster than ever - more about that in the next post. Stay tuned!