How do I get a job as an editor?

I know many publishing houses no longer use an editorial process to polish manuscripts

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Uh, wrong, wrong, WRONG! Every publishing house worth its salt most definitely DOES use live editors at every stage of the process. Acquiring editors, assistant editors, associate editors, copy editors, etc., etc.

You should go over and subscribe to Publishers Marketplace (it's $15 per month) or get a trial web subscription to Publisher's Weekly (free for the first thirty days, but pretty expensive after that. It's $8 per week, or $235 per year). That's where you'll find the jobs postings for editors. Of course, they will expect you to come into an office. It's not a home-based job. But if you're close to some publishers, then that would be your ticket!

Here are the links:

http://www.publishersmarketplace.com
http://www.publishersweekly.com

Here are some of the today's 73 listings from Publisher's Marketplace:

Associate Editor - Temporary/Part Time
Guideposts (New York, NY)

Editorial Assistant
Sterling Publishing Company (New York, NY)

Editorial Assistant for literary scouting office
linda clark associates (New York, NY)

Developmental Editor
Fair Winds Press (Gloucester, MA)

Etc., etc.

When I worked at Harlequin (and even on its Luna books, so not just on the romance series), editors most certainly did do content editing.

Furthermore, if you pop over to www.fmwriters.com, there's a thread on the main community board where someone asks published writers how much editing they go through. Some have answered that they've gone through heavy content editing.

It's true that most publishing houses don't need to pick up the books 'that could be good with a lot of help,' but they still want fantastic stories. There could be a story they love that still needs changes - in those cases, yes, they'll do some content editing/revision suggestions.

Tor, Pocket, Berkeley, DAW, Ace -- they all have content editors. I agree with mistri that they TRY to find books that are as complete as possible. But the content editors most definitely have a say in the plot arc, timeline, characterization, dialogue, etc., of their authors. Many of the authors that I correspond with (and myself included) make major revisions to our books based on the "edit letter" of the content editor.


Remember too, that over half of repeat authors at a house sell on proposal, with no existing manuscript at the time of sale. So without a content editor, how would they publish a book already purchased?


My first edit letter was 24 pages long, that included comments like "the whole scene in Las Vegas doesn't work for me. The motivation isn't strong enough." and "I'm not sure if first person POV is quite working, but maybe if...." EEK! So, yes, there is a market for your skill. You just need to find a good fit.

sunandshadow said:

I have my B.A. in English, and a lot of experience doing constructive critiquing and mentoring of writers to help them create and polish their fiction. How do I go from here to getting paid to edit people's novels? (preferably science fiction and fantasy).

I know many publishing houses no longer use an editorial process to polish manuscripts, they just publish the best ones they get, mostly as-is. So instead of that, I am looking for the sort of job where an author would go to an editing company and I, one of their staff editors, would critique the manuscript and work with the author one-on-one to improve it before they submitted it for publication. How do I get a job like that?

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Cathi and Mistri have given good advice--I also don't know of many publishing houses that don't do some form of content editing, whether it's helping to smooth out the rough spots or really working over a manuscript. But if you're interested in working for a private editing firm, you are probably just as likely to succeed by trying to solicit your own clients as any of other editing services out there. Most are very small, and seem to market themselves primarily over the internet. Why not join a few sci-fi writing lists, get to know some writers and make some connections, offer suggestions in forums like the writing studios here at AW, and then begin soliciting clients? I would suggest that based on responses I've read here, it's very important to establish yourself as a solid editor with excellent skills before you solicit work for yourself. A great way to show you know your stuff is to offer suggestions on the "Show Your Work" sections, or provide critiques of others' work when they ask for it.

The upside to working for a publishing company, though, is that you'll learn a whole lot more than just how to be a better content editor (which is an unlikely place for a newcomer to start, anyway). The more you learn about the entire publishing process, the better editor you'll be (and the more versatile you'll be, too, which will be great for your career).

Good luck! Hope it all goes well for you.

Lauri

Could I be rude and ask how old you are? Also, what previous work experience do you have (related or unrelated to publishing)?

If you're still quite young (not sure why I think you have to be young, maybe that you'd be more amenable to a low salary!), then you could try going for Editorial Assistant or even Secretary jobs in publishing companies. I know a lot of editors who worked their way up from these positions, by doing small editorial tasks and then larger ones, while learning the trade. I would suggest that you'd find more opportunities to develop a wide range of skills if you worked for a small publishing house; in a larger one there might be less chances to take on smallish editorial tasks. That's how I started off, before doing my degree in publishing, which brings me to the next suggestion...

Another possibility would be to do a post-graduate publishing course or a professional editing course. I don't know whether these sorts of courses are widespread in the US (actually, I don't know if you're in the US), but they are in the UK. However, you might not be in a position to spend lots of money on one.

Another possibility could be to try for a low-level job in a literacy agency (e.g. secretary, assistant, etc.) where you could be in a position to learn more of the trade.

Finally, some larger publishing houses (in the UK at least) run graduate trainee programmes, whereby graduates get to develop skills in various different departments and/or on various different lists. You might want to check the websites of the larger houses to see if they run anything like this.

Best of luck with your career development!

Editorial Assistant is your 'gateway' job; that's what you should be looking for. Be warned that it doesn't pay very much (indeed, editors don't get paid very much. At all.)

I found my job by applying to a temp agency that specialised in media/publishing jobs. I did a 3-month temporary contract and at the end of that time they offered me the Ed. Assistant position permanently. At the end of that year the editor I was assisting left and I took over her list. The company I work for has never, to my knowledge, directly advertised for an EA, preferring to take people on temp contracts for a trial as in my case.

Be prepared to do a good couple of years' copyediting, proofing and admin before they let you loose on a real live author. You might well find yourself reading a lot of slush, too.

Another gateway job, here at least, is copyeditor - although many houses are now getting rid of their editorial services departments altogether and farming it out to freelancers.

TashaGoddard said:

Another possibility would be to do a post-graduate publishing course or a professional editing course. I don't know whether these sorts of courses are widespread in the US (actually, I don't know if you're in the US), but they are in the UK. However, you might not be in a position to spend lots of money on one.

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I'm not sure if the following is entirely applicable to the pursuit of editorial positions, but NYU does offer postgraduate study in publishing. I'd imagine that this type of program would provide one with the networking necessary to land a good editorial position:

NYU -- publishing

You have to do the grunt work before a publisher is going to let you loose on an author in that way. Sorry. Perhaps those online cos. would be a place to try, I don't know anything about them. Remember, the grunt work is what's going to recommend you to an author as a reputable editor - five years' experience of the industry, working on all kinds of books at all levels, is much more persuasive to an author than no experience at all. (Especially if you are working somewhere that is asking people to pay for editorial services.)
Look, I know exactly how you feel, because that's what I felt like a few years ago when I was starting out. But in the years since then I've learned an awful lot about how to go about working on books, and it isn't just a case of having good instincts. A couple of years learning the trade will really stand you in good stead.

sunandshadow said:

I don't have the money for further education. And no way in hell would I do years of grunt work in hopes that some publisher might give me a content-editing job later. I have the skills to be a great content editor now. I'm really looking more for a job with one of these online editing companies that are hired by first-time authors to help polish their manuscripts before they submit them to a publisher.

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A fair number of those online editing companies are paper mills, and you're not going to be able to make a living wage. If you really want a genuine editing job for a reputable employer, whether at a large publisher, small press, academic press, magazine or paper, you're going to have to start with "grunt work." Having a B.A. in English is nice, but it's pretty meaningless; professional line editing, production editing, copy editing, content editing, and even proof reading, are not what you seem to think they are. You might, perhaps, have "the skills," but you don't have the experience; it doesn't have to be "years," it might just be one or two.

sunandshadow said:

I don't have the money for further education. And no way in hell would I do years of grunt work in hopes that some publisher might give me a content-editing job later. I have the skills to be a great content editor now. I'm really looking more for a job with one of these online editing companies that are hired by first-time authors to help polish their manuscripts before they submit them to a publisher.

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Hah! You've got a BA in English (as have a million other would-be editors) and have critiqued other people's work (as have a million other would-be editors) yet there's no way in hell you'd do grunt work? Good luck finding a job.

It took me a year after uni (Yep, had a BA in English), working in a bookshop, and lots of applications, interviews and rejections, before I got my first job as an editorial assistant. I thought I knew a lot about editing, but surprise surprise, there was still a lot to learn. You *think* you have all the skills you need, but maybe you should open your mind to the possibility that you could learn a lot in an entry level position.

Even as an editorial assistant, I managed to prove myself and was allowed to edit books from start to finish. Please don't be so snobby about working as an editorial assistant. Finding jobs even at that level is extremely competitive and it's going to be extremely difficult to find one higher than that without any professional experience.

I wish you luck, and maybe you'll be the one person to get a more senior role without any real experience. Is that really fair on the authors, however? I'm sure most would prefer editors with real experience.

Furthermore, even getting a job at an online place won't necessarily be easy. I co-founded one myself a year ago (and that is one way to get such a job, if you've got the energy to set up the business and website yourself) and my business partner and I had plenty of emails from people who had *years* of experience working for publishers. There's a lot of freelancers out there looking for work. How are you going to stand above them with no experience?

As a final bit of advice, when I did do editing work via online jobs, I didn't earn very much and there weren't that many jobs. Writers are growing more and more aware that they can get critiques on the net free from websites such as this one. Why then, would they want to pay to get one from you, especially as you have no professional experience? I had much more money working fulltime at the bottom rung of the career ladder than I did striking out on my own. If I were you (and I do realise that I'm not, btw), I wouldn't turn my nose up at the opportunities out there.

Sorry, if I sounded harsh.

Bear in mind though, that it's not *all* grunt work. When I was an editorial assistant, yes I had to do filing and photocopy manuscripts, but I also got to write cover copy, choose cover artwork, manage authors, content edit and line edit manuscripts, negotiate contracts, present books at acquisition meetings, read slush and even buy the really good stuff, go to conferences and much more!

Bear in mind also, that even at higher levels there is still filing, database work, and photocopying to be done.

Last thing - like I said, it's a competitive business. You have to be very persistant and *really* want the job even to get one. This may involve even accepting a bit of 'grunt' work and low pay. Do you even know what the pay would be like? We all bandy around the words 'low pay', but my salary went up by 50% when I moved from fulltime bookselling to publishing. When I moved from book publishing to magazine publishing my salary went down again. It would've been nice to earn more, and people in different career paths certainly did (accountants, lawyers, etc), but I knew those paths weren't really for me.

I'd never say 'you'll never be a content editor' because I hate people who say 'you'll never be a writer', but if you're not prepared to start at the bottom - and show you love the work that much, it will be much harder, because there will be thousands of people waiting to take your place. Maybe you'd be better off following a different career path.

Editing

sunandshadow said:

I'm talking about content editing, not acquiring and copyediting. Gardern Dozois, one of the most famous editors of science fiction and fantasy, told me himself that content editing is largely not done by publishing houses anymore because the amount of skilled labor it requires is not justified by it resulting in any additional profits - they already get more acceptable maniscripts than they can buy and print per year, they don't need to spend money making borderline ones better, especially when the author may refuse to make requested changes, or not make them well enough that the quality of the book improves a lot.

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Gardner Dozois or not, this is simply wrong, wrong, wrong. I don't know where he gets this from, but he really ought to know better. Though I can't remember him saying anything like this.

Publishing houses still employ just as many editors as they ever did, and these editors still do the same job editors always did, and still need the same skills.

No publishing house gets more already acceptable manuscripts than they can publish. That's nonsense. I have yet to see a single ready to publish manuscript arrive. Period. I doubt I've seen a dozen manuscripts that weren't content edited.

It's just weird. Do you think it takes any less skill to be some kind of editor that doesn't edit for content? The same people do both jobs, and content editing skills are required for any and all editors who work for a publisher. An editor who can't content eidt is unemployable.

It simply costs not one penny more to content edit. You pay teh editor the same amount, content editing or no content editing.

Now, it's true that editors take the best manuscripts they can get, but even the very best manuscripts very often need content editing.

It is, to put it bluntly, just absolutely nuts to think publishing houses no longer polish manuscripts. It is just nuts to think publishers no longer content edit manuscripts. Anyone who thinks this is light years away from the inside of an editorial office, and just hasn't seen enough edited manuscripts.

Borderline books really have nothing to do with it. Books that aren't borderline, that are wonderfully written, very often still need to be content edited, revised, rewritten, and polished. A book that doesn't need this may arrive once a month, if you're lucky.

Of course, as far as I know, Gardner has never worked as a book editor. And he's apparently been fired from Asimov's. The closest he's come to being a book editor has been compiling anthologies. But if he did say this, he's so far wrong it's hard to believe.

sunandshadow said:

It was not my intention to be snobby. But if my only choice is to start as an editorial assistant doing grunt work for minimal pay, I will pursue a different carreer path instead.

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You'd better find a different career path. No one starts at the top. You have to learn the job and the skills first, and from what you've said about yourself, you don't have anywhere near the experience you need to be a book editor. Or the skills. The things you describe doing are simply not things that qualify you to be a book editor.

You may find a job as an editor at a very small magazine, but the pay will be extremely low.

Editorial assistants aren't doing grunt work, they're doing editorial work, and are learning how to be real editors. Every one of them is ahead of you in line for the job of editor. And every one of them knows more about editing than you do. That's why they became editorial assistants. They actually wanted to learn how to do something right, rather than thinking they already knew how.

I am looking for the sort of job where an author would go to an editing company and I, one of their staff editors, would critique the manuscript and work with the author one-on-one to improve it before they submitted it for publication. How do I get a job like that?

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There simply aren't any jobs like the one you describe wanting except as scams. Thank God.

Writers, real writers, do not go to editing companies, and real editors don't need them to. Real editors, meaning ones that actually have jobs as editors at pubishing companies, happily do this job for writers, and anyone who can't or won't do this job simply isnt qualified to be an editor anywhere, for anyone.

You can always start your own "editing" company, and charge writers for doing whatever it is you think you do that helps. But it's just ludicrous to think publishers dont employ good editors, skilled editors. It's just silly to think writers need to pay anyone money to do the kind of job you describe.

If you really want to be an editor, then you have to actually edit. You have to start small and work your way up. You have to learn the business, and all it entails.

Or you can just hang out a shingle that says you're an editor and you'll work on a wirter's novel for X amount of dollars. You won't actually help any writers, but you'll make some money from those who believe the nonsense about publishers not editing, content or otehrwise, these days.

if my only choice is to start as an editorial assistant doing grunt work for minimal pay, I will pursue a different carreer path instead.

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You won't find it any different in any other career. You ALWAYS have to start at the bottom and work your way up. Even Bill Gates busted his buns for years to learn how to program computers and learn the skills he needed to take advantage of the opportunity presented to him by IBM that ultimately made him stinking rich.

If you take an entry level editing job and work hard, in a few years you could be right where you want to be, a professional editor. If you decide to pursue a different career path because you don't want to start at the bottom, then when a few years have passed you won't be a professional editor. Your choice.

It's a pity that professional editors seem so discredited in the US; where I live, in the UK, they are considered perfectly respectable and it's quite common for a beginning writer to employ them in order to get their manuscripts into a good shape for submission. However, those professionals, if they are worth their salt (and a writer's money) have worked for years in the industry, either as an editor ina publishing house, or as an agent. So I'm afraid you WOULD have to start at the bottom.

Here's a interview with one such professional editor; as you can see, she has years of experience as a major agent behind her. You should demand no less of yourself.

http://www.writewords.org.uk/interviews/lisanne_radice.asp