Roger Howard – Texts in English

Foto: Victor Brott, Fotojournalisten

Mail: roger (at) beep (dot) se

Mobile: 0708-85 05 26

I help you with texts in English

I began writing in one form or another long before it became my profession. It started back in the early 1980′s when I discovered the forerunner of the Internet, then known as BBS (Bulletin Board Systems). There were no graphic pages, everything was plain text. Even the computer games were text based. Since then things have changed dramatically.

Born in the USA

Born and raised in the USA. During the 1990′s I was employed in the highly competitive grocery merchandising business in Southern California and the western USA. Those years taught me a lot about sales at store level and what really attracts people to certain products. Even if your product is lucky enough to end up on the right shelf, it takes so much more than just nice packaging, a stylish logo and a quick slogan to gain attention. Market communication is a two-way-street. If you want to reach people, first of all you need to give them a good reason to want to reach you.

Focusing on the readers

In 1997 I moved to Sweden and started working as a translator and editor in close collaboration with my Swedish colleague at Beep. Today I also do voice work for companies (visit Voice over for films and sound samples). In my spare time I enjoy cooking, music, traveling  and documentaries. I am constantly looking for other people’s perspective on things. My varied interests help me in my work, especially when it comes to text adaptations for specific target groups. If you want your message to shine through, focusing on the readers always comes first.

I am inspired by…

One of the things that inspire me the most about my work as a freelance translator and writer is the many different things I learn with each new assignment.  I now know  some of the secrets behind making a top quality horse hair bed, what it takes to start and operate a large safari ranch in South Africa, and everything one can imagine about the color red – all in a day’s work. As Aristotle once said, “pleasure in the job puts perfection in the work”. Need I say that I love my job?