At a fairly late age of 56, I am in full-time employment as a Publications Editor with a Ugandan civil society organization that has over the last ten years campaigned for debt relief for the poorest countries. It also advocates for the adoption and implementation of policies that aim at reducing poverty among marginalized communities and fighting the scourge of corruption that is endemic in our small countries.

As a Publications Editor, I am responsible for compiling the weekly e-newsletter circulated to stakeholders and lobby groups, compiling and editing a monthly 12-page Policy Review Newsletter, circulated as an insert in one of the country’s leading daily newspapers, and preparing other research and review reports for publication. On the organizational organ gram, I am ranked among senior program staff, which entitles me to a monthly salary of about $1,300. This pay is not a reflection of the way editors would be generally paid here, but has more to do with the rating of the length of my experience in the field.

As a graduate of Literature and Theatre Arts of the early 1970s, the job is challenging to the extent that I am expected to exhibit mastery of the latest developments in civil society and what determines its relations with government and the general body politic and ensure that I spearhead efforts to trumpet policy advocacy issues.

The qualities required essentially include the ability to read widely and grasp new subjects and topics and handle them so ably as to become an effective advocate, especially in the way they are projected in the organization’s publications. Advocacy and lobbying are about persuasion to win others, and particularly those in high policy-making levels, to buy your point of view and support it to change the way society is run.

This means that as Publications Editor, I must be up-to-date, topical and relevant in my selection of issues to focus on in each publication. Essentially, my organization can only remain of interest to the public if the issues it espouses strike the inner cords of their most pressing concerns. The weekly e-newsletter is the most challenging since it must circulate every week. Not everyday is bountiful; and there are weeks when I pry around to get tidbits to fill two pages.

For the Policy Review Newsletter, the practice is to call an editorial committee meeting of senior program officers to agree on main themes to focus on for each issue. Once these are agreed on, it is my duty to prod my senior colleagues to write on the selected topics. These colleagues also have to go out in the field to work with communities. When they do so, chances of getting articles from them diminish. Yet, as a monthly analyzing burning policy issues, the newsletter must come out on a regular basis.

After getting the articles, my work involves editing them to ascertain correctness of content and quality of style. I also allocate the articles to respective pages, write headlines, select photographs and write captions. I also have to write an opinion piece. The whole lot, once done, is passed on to a graphic designer at the newspaper that prints and circulates it who does the layout. In consultation with my colleagues, I approve the final proof of the layout before printing can commence.

Over the last 15 years, I have also been taking on freelance editing jobs for institutions and individuals. These tend to be in form of journals/magazines, research papers to be compiled into books or academic dissertations to be edited and transformed into commercially viable publications. I have encountered three major problems here.

First, the fact that English is a second language to most users here means that many writers face difficulties as they search for the right words to communicate intelligible ideas on difficult concepts. As an editor handling such manuscripts, I have to go an extra mile to unravel the authors’ linguistic maze and select simpler words for more direct communication without distorting intended meaning.

Second, for fear of paying for editorial services, many institutions and individuals opt to publish reports and other publications that have not been properly edited, thereby compromising quality and denting their image. Third, because many institutions and authors think they can dispense with the editing requirement, it is generally difficult to set standard professional fees.

If I tell someone that the charge for editing one page is the equivalent of US 75 cents, he or she declines and opts to push his or her work ahead without it being edited. This also means that it generally difficult for one to survive as a freelance editor in this part of the world. Indeed, there are very few who try to live off this vocation. Which brings me to the inevitable lure of breaking into what I imagine is the more rewarding American freelancing market.

Questions, however, remain whether the cultural differences and the late development of information technology in Africa will not undermine ones attempt to break into that market. I can sense many other professionals in some of our countries, who, like me, would love to be exposed more to the basics of getting into that market. Something close to some ‘do’s and ‘don’t’s. Also, perhaps some attempt at demystifying what it entails so that more people can pluck the courage to venture into it. Over to you, Yuwanda, and other enterprising people out there!