So, while it wouldn't have occurred to me to do so on my own, I've been encouraged by a couple of people I know to make an attempt of my own at joining the fray of furries who offer their professional services to other furries on FA. While someone may more readily think of furry commissions in terms of visual artwork or sewn crafts, the community has also been known to have given a place to musicians, writers, dancers and even jewelers, so what can an attempt cost me? My own training is in English/French translation and in proofreading.

I graduated with honors in French translation just a decade ago, and I've done and been paid for both proofreading and translation contracts for several clients who have never heard of furry since then. I mention this so you know I'm not just some random person who's leveraging regular bilingualism on its own, if that makes sense. I can translate from French to English as well as from English to French, and I can proofread just as well in French as in English.

The local scene here in Montreal in particular seems to have a lot of people who write and/or commission stories from others. It also seems to have a lot of people who are either stronger in English than in French or stronger in French than in English, while still having to navigate between the two of them. In this context getting some demand for language-related services doesn't seem altogether outlandish.

Right now I'm testing the waters and tentatively thinking of charging $4/page for translation and $2/page for proofreading, counting 1 page as 550 words. The cost is to be calculated in the original language text which is first handed to me, not in the translated target language text which you will receive from me. There will often be a slight discrepancy in the number of words since French and English formulate things differently, and I want you to know that you're being charged for what you wrote even if the translation is longer, that it's not longer to inflate the price artificially.

For proofreading I will offer several possible choices, all of which cost the same: 1st choice is, you give me the text, I proofread it all on my own, I make the corrections myself, and I send the corrected version back to you. The upside of this "hands off" choice is it's less of a hassle for you - the downside is you have to trust I did any actual work. I can either highlight the parts where corrections have been made so as to "show my work", or send you a highlighted version if you want to make the corrections based on my indications yourself.

Or! If the "hands on" approach appeals more to you, one thing I've already done for the same person more than once informally is, when you have time, you send me the file over chat and, as I read through it, I can tell you which parts of the text need to be corrected by page, paragraph and line so you can correct them "live" as I go along. The downside of this is that it's more work for you. The upside is that the more you do it, the better your English (or French) will get, the less likely you are to make the same mistakes again which, if you're having something proofread in the first place, you might care about.

A French version of this may follow.

Questions? Comments? Ask away!