Wanted: Keen Eyes, Sharp Intellect, Thick Skin

If you think you have keen eyes, sharp intellect and thick skin and more, we need you. There is no pay involved, as these are voluntary positions.

We are one year old and are attracting more and more readers and writers.

What does it take to be a good editor?

A knowledge of English is a must, along with keen eyes to spot mistakes. An awareness of current affairs, literature, names, places and an ability to check and verify helps. And you must own a dog-eared copy of Fowler.

You must also be willing to work with the writer. This is where thick skin enters.

If you have submitted any article to Desicritcs for publication you will know what it entails

Before you put it in draft you have to enter the main body of your article, enter a headline, assign sub categories, ASIN or ISBN numbers, a short header of twenty words or less. Hopefully, the writer has already spell checked the article carefully.

Editing and publishing such an article would involve minimal efforts for the editors. They would fine-tune the heading, tweak a phrase or two, run a quick spell check and bingo it is ready to go.

But this is where reality takes a bounce.

And you come into the picture. Initially, many would-be writers have to be walked through the process. The first step to learn is to communicate effectively with the writer.

Since blogging is a requisite to be a Desicritic, all our writers have a blog. It will become your job to break to them the difference between writing for one’s own blog and writing for an e-zine that has much wider readership with a higher standard than that of a personal blog.

You will learn what sandwiching means. And no it is not a Kama-Sutra position.

You will also quickly learn that each writer has a big ego. You will learn to be patient. And you will earn to ignore. This voluntary position will hold you in good stead in your real life – be it rearing children, managing adults in a corporate environment or plain dealing with others in every day life.

So if you have the keen eyes, sharp intellect, thick skin and have the time (minimum of two hours a day) to volunteer please contact me, Aaman or Sujhata. Send us an email at editorsdc@yahoogroups.com with a brief introduction and CV.

We need editors (read willing slaves) in different time zones.