CHALLENGES FACED BY INTERNATIONAL FREELANCE EDITOR FROM AFRICA

International freelance editors that do not live, and are not citizens of developed countries especially the United States, United Kingdom or Canada face a myriad of challenges ranging from legitimacy, a shrinking pool of jobs to mediocre pay. However, freelance editors from Africa have to deal with the aforementioned problems including racism and discrimination.

Legitimacy and Stereotyping

Online scams such as phishing, romance scams and many more are now on the rise and keep evolving in the kind of techniques that are used. Unfortunately, some of these scams have been perpetrated by Africans while some such as the Nigerian Prince scam have even been named after an African country. This and the reports on the media about corruption in Africa inadvertently profile Africans as corrupt and scammers and therefore undermine the credibility of editors who come from Africa despite having legitimate training and experience in the field. Many of the target authors and companies offering editing jobs have never traveled out of their countries and therefore their world view is greatly informed by what they see on the news and what they read online.

A shrinking pool of Jobs

Organizations advertising for freelancing jobs recruit from the United States, United Kingdom or Canada, the other option is companies that have outsourced to countries like the Philippines and India who then predominantly recruit from these countries, ironically these are countries whose primary language is not English, unlike most countries in Africa but because of their friendly trade policies, they are given preference. This makes it difficult for international freelance editors from Africa to compete in the online global market.

Mediocre Pay

A casual glance at freelance job websites such as Craigslist, Freelancer, Guru and Upwork, one can instantly identify freelancers from developing countries by purely looking at their hourly rates. Ongoing debates are divided on the opinion that many freelancers charge a lower fee because of their low cost of living while others argue that freelancers from developing countries are forced to charge lower rates in order to attract clients and get reviews which is a significant component of these sites since the reviews act as a referral system from previous customers. The jury not out yet on why people charge low rates but the fact is those affected are predominantly from developing countries.

Racism and Discrimination

Online business highly depends on one's prejudices and experiences. Many international freelance editors from African countries use pseudonyms that are western to attract customers. For instance, a freelancer will use the name, Cathy Andrews[1] on their website and other job boards to attract clients and get judged on merit. The client will only realize the editor was from an African country when they are billed after building trust. Otherwise many clients shy away from contracting African freelancers based on the above reasons.

In conclusion, African freelance editors may need to form professional editorial bodies as a step towards legitimacy and credibility. As it is now many editorial bodies that exist are purely for journalists and rarely address the needs for academic and fiction editors and authors who are forced to join western bodies which charge high membership fees.

[1] This is a fictional name and does not refer to any freelancer.