Copyediting for International Organizations

Global Agencies Offer Plenty of Work for Freelancers

Nov 9, 2009

International organizations like the United Nations and the World Bank outsource much of their copyediting to freelancers. Working in this market has pros and cons.

Want to edit for clients with deep pockets and a never-ending supply of work? Do you enjoy (or at least tolerate) sprawling bureaucracies and long lists of acronyms? Are you prepared to copyedit a book with 700 pages, 95 tables, and 57 figures cobbled together by 25 authors scattered around the globe?

If so, editing for international organizations could be for you. In this specialized market, rates tend to be high, and the agencies are relatively recession-proof. If you’re interested in global issues, the work can be meaningful and engaging.

But freelancing in this environment is also demanding. In many agencies, contractors and staff are subject to heavy workloads and tight, rapidly shifting deadlines. There are cumbersome contracting rules, and annoyingly hierarchical systems of document review. And while some of the material is interesting, much of it is not, unless you are excited by the incremental capital-output ratio or the strategic orientations of the Basic Sanitation Program, Zone Three.

Biggest Players: The United Nations and the World Bank Group

So-called intergovernmental organizations (IGOs) work in many of the same sectors as nongovernmental organizations (NGOs), but they are funded by member states rather than private sources. There are hundreds of IGOs, many of them headquartered in New York or Washington or in other world capitals such as Geneva or Rome.

The United Nations system dominates the landscape, with its dozens of programs, funds, and specialized agencies—UNICEF, the World Health Organization, the World Food Programme, and the United Nations Development Programme, to name just a few.

The World Bank Group and the International Monetary Fund are nominally part of the U.N. system, but they are really a universe unto themselves. Both are headquartered in Washington; the World Bank also maintains offices in many developing countries.

Then there are the scores of regional bodies such as the Organization of American States, the Inter-American Development Bank, and the Asian Development Bank.

IGO Publishing Offices

Most of these organizations publish books and reports written by their own staff members or outside authors. Some of the larger IGOs have in-house publishing offices that function much like university presses, publishing 100 or more books a year.

These in-house publishing offices generally maintain a pool of freelance copyeditors (and proofreaders and designers). Depending on the agency, the job, and how you negotiate, you may be designated a short-term consultant or a vendor and paid an hourly, daily, or project rate.

As with government contracting, expect the process to involve onerous paperwork and delays, at least initially. One long-time freelancer for the United Nations warns that contracting with the U.N. is subject to “mind-boggling bureaucracy” and that the agency takes forever to pay.

Once you freelance regularly for a particular organization, however, the process usually flows more smoothly.

Finding Work With IGOs

Scaling the bureaucratic walls can be tough. Begin by exploring which agencies work in areas that interest you. The Northwestern University Library offers an online list of links to the websites of several hundred IGOs. You can also consult an organizational chart of the U.N. system.

If an organization has a publishing office, find out if that office uses freelance copyeditors, and if so, who hires them. In a phone or e-mail inquiry to that person, stress your professional experience and your familiarity with the field in which the organization works.

Equally important is technical proficiency in the computer programs the agency uses to prepare documents for publication. Almost all copyediting for international organizations is done electronically in Word, using the track changes function. Editors who only work on paper are at a disadvantage. In addition to Word, some proficiency with Excel is helpful, and you need Adobe Acrobat for viewing and working with pdf’s.

Multiperson shops that can handle several stages of the publication process may have an edge, but there is plenty of work for individual freelancers too. After a successful first assignment, one job can lead to another as staffers pass your name around.

The copyright of the article Copyediting for International Organizations in Freelance Editors is owned by Cathy Sunshine. Permission to republish Copyediting for International Organizations in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.