Kit de supervivencia en el mundo editorial
Context
Freelancers from the Colombian publishing world (particularly the youngest and recent graduates) tend to suffer from the informality in the industry. Most of them don’t have proper contracts, don’t know how much to charge for their job as there aren’t official standards or facts, and most don’t take into account that they have to cover their own social security.
As part of that world, us as Serifa, experienced first hand the consequences of that informality both as freelancers and as employers. That is why, when we won a summons by the Ministry of Culture, we immediately knew what we wanted to do: tackle some of the main problems of our industry however we could.
Objectives
The main objective of the project was to design some tools to help freelancers to define prices and good practices for the industry.
The end result is a website where users can access a manual to learn about their rights and where they find a price calculator that helps them decide how much to charge for their work.
Research
Surveys
The objective of the surveys was to explore the main needs and concerns of the people in the industry. We wanted to know if our diagnostic as Serifa was accurate and to discover possible pain points and goals that we hadn’t taken into account. The results of these surveys were used for the discussion sessions, where we shared how common certain concerns were. For example, not knowing how or how much to charge for their work or the lack of proper contracts.
Discussion sessions
These sessions were divided into two: one with proofreaders and editors and one with translators, as we notices through the surveys that there were some specific issues that pertained each group independently.
The discussions worked as exploration sessions in which both industry experts and freelancers discussed some of their problems and concerns about the industry and came up with ideas and possible solutions.
Workshops
The objective of these workshops was to share with the participants some practical information about ways to make their work easier, as well as to compile information from the freelancers and their experience working in the industry. The idea was to generate an exchange of useful information and to come up, together, with agreements regarding best practices. For example, the prices of different services, the phases of an editorial project, the role of a proofreader or a translator, and the extra costs of a project that were sometimes hidden.
Designing a solution
Defining the concept
After the discussion sessions, workshops, and surveys, we decided that we needed a tool that was easily accessible and simple to use. Thus, we agreed that a website would be the best solution within our budget and time frame.
Thus, we started working with a designer and a developer to bring our concept to life.
The website is the space where we synthesised everything that we had learned into two main parts: a handbook and a calculator.
After the usability tests, we included a mailbox where people can send their questions and recommendations. That way we guarantee that the project stays alive and relevant.
The handbook
The handbook works as a map or guide that explains in an easy way how to navigate the publishing world in Colombia. It has two parts. A first one, where we discuss the main legal and contractual issues that a freelancer faces in Colombia. This is a short introduction into their rights as contractors and how they are different to other types of employees.
The second part focuses on how to undertake a project, its phases, and the topics to take into account on each phase. Here we touch on subjects such as fair pricing, assertive communication with clients or the proper way of issuing an invoice.
The calculator
The calculator is exactly that. It is a didactic tool that helps translators and proofreaders decide how much to charge for their work taking into account different variables like the complexity of the work, its length, and how much time they have to do it.
If a person doesn’t understand or doesn’t know, for example, how a price was set, they can go to the handbook to read how all the variables are taken into account and how this decision was made by a group of people in the industry during the previous stages of the project.
The project today
Launching event
The launching event was scheduled to take place in the middle of the Covid pandemic in April, 2020. Thus, we decided to do it on Zoom, which allowed the participation of more people. In total, in the different events that we organised, we had around 150 participants.
In these events we presented our objectives and the website, and answered questions from the participants. We also used a hypothetical case to discuss all the components of the website, and discussed some of the limitations of the project. The two main limitations were how to make it known and turn it into a standard within the industry.
Socialisation process and feedback
To tackle one of the limitations of the project (how to make it known), we created social media campaigns. In some, we presented the project in a more general way and in others we went into details such as how to use the calculator or how had we arrived to the price per page that a proofreader should charge.
The website was well received among the workers of the industry and it is used weekly to this day. It still has to become the industry standard, but many people know about it, and associate Serifa with the fight for better work conditions in the industry.
Further steps
Taking into account the feedback that we received in our launching events and talking with people about our project, we defined three areas where we could work to maintain the project alive.
First, we talked to universities to organise workshops and events with Design, Literature, and Languages students who were close to graduation to tell them about this tool and how to use it as they enter the workforce.
Second, we decided to research an overlapping industry: design. We talked to designers who work in the publishing world about their pain points and goals. The objective is to eventually launch a 2.0 version of the calculator that includes prices for illustrations, covers, etc.
Finally, as Serifa we have decided to focus part of our attention on improving our industry and creating more tools to help freelancers. This is an ongoing mission and one we are very passionate about.