This is an interesting question, and it’s a question that almost every freelancer has struggled with at some point. The brief answer is that any specialization can be viable, but of course it depends on your income needs and your enthusiasm for marketing.
Here are some factors to consider when you’re looking at potential specializations –
What’s your interest in (or knowledge of) this specialization? These are the most important questions you need to ask yourself if you’re looking at a technical subject-area. The answers will outweigh most other factors.
What’s the demand for the specialization you’re considering? Let’s say you’re considering legal translations: these are generally so content-heavy that having sufficient work isn’t really a concern. However, there may be a demand in terms of the number of clients for other specializations like (say) restaurant menus, but the size of each individual project will be minimal.
One question that many translators overlook is: ‘If you plan on specializing, who will your clients be?’ Do your homework on this, because some specializations (pharmaceuticals, software) have become almost exclusively the domain of agencies. The reason for this is that most of the end-client companies are so big that they prefer not to use individual freelance translators. But, on the opposite end of the spectrum there are many niche specializations that tend to be exclusively the domain of direct clients. There are translators out there who specialize in cook-books, horses, skiing, stamps, and many other topics; so if you’re outside the scope of big business areas like financial, legal, pharmaceutical, medical, patents, IT, and so on, you must ask yourself if you’ll be happy working only with direct clients – or primarily with direct clients.
Are you prepared to market your business? And this is an important question because, as you know, legal translation companies and law firms are easy to find and there are certainly lots of them out there. However, cook-book publishers requiring a Russian translator? Yes, they’re out there too, but it’s not going to be very easy to find them.
Will the income from this specialization be sufficient? Obviously there’s a huge variation within each specialization, but generally speaking you can’t dedicate yourself to translating poetry if you need to make a decent living from it, and you certainly wouldn’t translate important financial documents just for your own personal enjoyment.
How important is it to you that your work be meaningful? It’s sad to hear that many people working in IT or legal translations are only working in these areas because they have to, and certainly not because they want to. It’s very important for job satisfaction that you choose an area of specialization that really interests you. It’s also important that your clients appreciate the quality of your translation work.
