I want a job as an editor...

First, congrats on making a decision to follow this exciting and fun career path! Regarding your letter, I want to know more about what skills are going to make you a good editor. I also want to know if you've enclosed your resume or if you want me to call you or what. It's short, which isn't bad, but not very exciting, which could be. Also, there are some errors, redundancies, stuff you should make sure is intentional (like not using a comma between independent clauses, serial comma, etc.), and unanswered questions that could reflect badly on someone applying for an editing position, in red text below. I hope it's helpful!

I would like to apply for the assistant editor position at Generic Publications. I have a Bachelor’s degree in psychology and a strong interest in creative writing [[which is relevant to this position in what ways?]]. I worked as the assistant editor of the "arts and living" section of my [[daily, weekly, monthly, semester-ly?]] university newspaper and I also received an award for excellence in writing [[for what exactly?]].
[[new paragraph???]]My previous roles on the media teams for the World Economic Forum and British Parliament gave me excellent experience in working in a fast paced publishing environment, working with many different people at once and handling many different tasks at once.
I love to read [[so what? sell this in a way that translates to the position.]] popular non fiction, romance, fantasy and most other mass market fiction genres. I am excellent at critiquing work [[says who? and how have you demonstrated it?]] and am familiar with common concerns such as handling point of view and developing compelling story structures. [[this is all subjective--show some concrete examples of your skills]]
I am very excited about the opportunity to work as an assistant editor and I hope to hear from you soon. [[and they'll contact you how?]]

Good luck, and let us know how it goes. (And if any of this is confusing, let me know and I'll try to be more clear.)

Cheers,
Kristen

I'm going to butt in with a potentially ignorant question. As far as I know, publishers in NY (or the US generally) still hire editorial assistants. So why are you aiming for a rung higher (assistant editor)?

Generally you have to start at the very bottom unless you have significant experience already (in which case you probably don't need help writing a query letter). Sorry if this sounds downbeat, but I was just curious. While I'm from the UK, I used to be an editorial assistant for a publisher (Harlequin) with a New York office, and I frequently used to correspond with my NY colleagues for a moan about how we hadn't been promoted to Assistant Editor yet

Actually, it does depend on the company, so definitely keep trying for those Assistant Editor positions. I meant more not to look over the editorial assistant jobs, because they can still offer a wealth of experience

You may be in a hurry to post and don't proof your stuff, but the typos in your mails on this thread are a bit off-putting. I'm seeing basic spelling, punctuation, and grammatical errors hopping all over the page, breeding like things that breed really fast.

Also, you should be aware that many a top editor began her career reading through the mountains--not kidding, MOUNTAINS--of slush arriving via snail mail to the publishing house. The job requires separating the utterly hopeless from the moderately okay. You shove the rejects into a SASE or the shredder, then open the next effort. Chances are your critiquing skills won't be called upon for that and you will develop a strong addiction to caffeine. There will be times when your eyes start to bleed, but only after you've gouged them out with a spork. Prior to that you'll wander the halls begging other editors for eye-bleach.

Editing sounds like a really cool job, and in some cases it has to be great, but there is a huge amount of drudge work involved.

You will have to:

pore over endless pages of manuscript--perhaps by a writer who bores the hell out of you--without falling asleep;

fight with the suits upstairs who don't want to buy a book you love;

go to Monday morning meetings with more suits, plus the art and marketing departments, each of them having an opinion you hate, working in lunch with agents trying to sell you stuff, then it's back to your desk for a non-stop influx of e-mails, and more and more MS coming in and stacking up;

dealing with snarky, ego-controlled writers like myself who are PO'd that the publisher changed the book's title or hair color of the hero or forgot to include the epilogue of her magnificent novel to end all novels. Multiply that by however many writers have books placed with the house and you'll find out why editors like to hang in bars.

That's the top skin of the ol' iceberg.

Go ahead and hope to start at the mid-point of the application ladder; it might just work for you. Otherwise I would suggest acquiring that 1-2 years of experience by working at a local newspaper or magazine, or a small press if there's one in your area. You can check monster dot com for things like that.

Now I'm going back to being a writer. Editing can be a cool thing, but I can only take it in small doses.

Good luck!

I think Gillhoughly's comments are right on, and the suggestion to build more experience by working locally is great. I had hoped, although I didn't ask for this, that you would respond with my comments on your letter with some more information about your skills and experience so we could help you more. Next time I'll ask first. This time I'm asking now. :]

Kristen

Gillhoughly said:

You will have to:

pore over endless pages of manuscript--perhaps by a writer who bores the hell out of you--without falling asleep;

fight with the suits upstairs who don't want to buy a book you love;

go to Monday morning meetings with more suits, plus the art and marketing departments, each of them having an opinion you hate, working in lunch with agents trying to sell you stuff, then it's back to your desk for a non-stop influx of e-mails, and more and more MS coming in and stacking up;

dealing with snarky, ego-controlled writers like myself who are PO'd that the publisher changed the book's title or hair color of the hero or forgot to include the epilogue of her magnificent novel to end all novels. Multiply that by however many writers have books placed with the house and you'll find out why editors like to hang in bars.

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nicegrrl said:

Are you sure editing is that bad?

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Heh - it both is and isn't as bad as that sounds. Like I mentioned earlier, I was an editorial assistant for two years, and I had to do all of the above. *But* (and it's a big but), I loved doing it - you have to if you're willing to accept low pay (get used to it in publishing) for a lot of (often) mind-numbing work.

Slush, for example, is bad. Slush is usually boring. *But* slush gives you an opportunity, no matter how small, to find and develop exciting new writers. And even though most MSs that come through slush are dreadful, some are so dreadful they're funny (which is enjoyable in itself). I read (literally) thousands of bad slush, but I also personally bought four new authors from that slush pile. Not bad, I think.

Meetings can be boring whatever industry you're in. And some are surprisingly fun (like when you have to present a fantasy novel at a weekly buying meeting).

Whether you're an editorial assistant or assistant editor, you'll likely have to file too. I hate filing. Haaaaate it. But it's part of the job and the job can be great

At the risk of sounding like my mother, or at least older than I actually am, if you think every job is boring, you will never find a job that interests you. Editing is a wonderful, fascinating, stimilating, rewarding profession and I absolutely love it--even right now, when I'm taking a break from editing possibly the worst medical article ever written.

But it's hard work, and a lot of what you're going to be doing, especially starting out, is going to be, well, boring. You're going to be shuffling papers and filing things and carrying around stacks of manuscript and probably making coffee for people you don't particularly care for while accumulating dozens of papercuts on a daily basis and coming home at night to find that through the course of the day you've stuck about fifty-two bajillion red pencils in your hair (which explains why you couldn't find any in your desk).

If you're not willing to deal with that, you'll find editing just as boring as force feeding cocaine to caged and numbered murine mammal specimens.

Hi Nicegrrl,
I have been an editor forever, and it's a great job. Sure, sometimes it's boring, but not very often, and usually with publishing companies you can move up quite quickly. The pay isn't great--you should be aware of that up front, but the perks are that you are around other people who also love books and writing.
On your cover letter, could you play up your editing experience with the media teams a little bit more--maybe explain what your role was in these jobs? Otherwise, I think your cover letter sounds fine.

Good luck!
Lauri at Nomad

I don't know what the going rate in NYC is for editorial assistants, but it'll be low, whatever it is.
Anyone out there in NYC in editorial positions who could pm nicegrrl, or give us a ballpark of salaries? Publishers Weekly recently had their annual salary review (I think it was mid July), but I recycled my copy.

nicegrrl said:

I want to work as an editor because I want to be a writer and I need some way to pay the bills. So why not editing? Does this make sense?

There is no way reading second rate chick lit is worse than editing a paper about pancreatic toxicology written by a Korean professor that knows no English, which is what I last edited.

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While there's nothing wrong with wanting to be both an editor and writer, I'd caution against going into editing *purely* because you want to be a writer. I'm not saying don't do it - just think about it carefully.

Generally, unpublished writers have no way of knowing if they'll ever be published, never mind published well enough to give up their day job. So what you have to consider is whether you can handle editing as your main career, for however long you pursue it.

I went into editing wanting to do both, and I did learn a lot from it. I also found out editing so much fiction in the day made it difficult to focus on my own work at home (especially if I'd taken a slush manuscript with me). I now work in magazines, where - for whatever reason - the editing I'm doing doesn't affect my fiction writing.

I'm well aware that's just a personal example. There are plenty of happy editor/writers.

The other thing I want to say is that publishing can be extremely competitive. It can take a long time, even with the relevant experience, to grab a job - you have to stand out from all the other candidates in the area, chasing the same jobs with similar qualifications. So just make sure it's something you want to do

I don't mean to sound so miserable. Like I said, I loved my time in book publishing and I'm sure doing it has really improved my writing. I'm just wary whenever (not saying you're like this) people think it's easy to get into, or will guarantee writing success.

If you want to be a writer, then write.

My best friend wanted to be a writer, but took a degree in accounting so she could have a day job to support her habit. When she wasn't at work she was writing.

Now she's got a good 12-15 books in print, is contracted to at least two new series, in demand for anthologies, AND next in line for a VP position at the company were she works.

At times her day job requires 60-80 hour work weeks, overseas travel, and being on call 24/7 to put out fires. With all that going on she kicks out at least four books a year and they're dang good reads.

Last year she did it while fighting off a bout of breast cancer. She won.

Whenever I think I can't do something or it's too much trouble or too boring, I think of my friend, belt up, and get on with things.

nicegrrl said:

There is no way reading second rate chick lit is worse than editing a paper about pancreatic toxicology written by a Korean professor that knows no English, which is what I last edited.

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I agree 100% percent. Insert "hematologic and translational oncology" in place of "pancreatic toxicology" and "any non-native English speaker anywhere" and that's what most of my ongoing freelance work is. :] Thank God for the projects!

kk

Good luck with it all!

I'd probably still be in book publishing if I was willing to commute (but I'm not, so meh!)

Oh, to be young again.

After 20+ books and putting in my time at the publishing grindstone I'm only just barely able to make a living at being a writer. I still have a day job to make ends meet and deal with emergencies like my car needing some Rx. (Words to live by: I cut up all my credit cards in the 90's and am almost debt-free.)

Writers with a lot more books and bigger advance checks than mine have day jobs. Only the ones with an understanding spouse/family supporting them during their million words of drek phase get out of it.

A day job has health insurance, dental plans, 401Ks and financial SECURITY. Only the "lottery winners" of publishing (the NYT Big Name Writers) are earning enough from their wordsmithing to quit and go full-time. Mid-listers like myself would love that sort of thing, but it doesn't happen to everyone even if they are good writers and can deliver 4-5 books a year.

As a personal snark to myself I got to edit a NYT Big Name Writer. I don't know HOW she ever got published in the first place since it was clear she failed fifth grade English. I KNOW I am a much better writer, but she makes the sales and them's the breaks.

I spent 11 hours on her novella, pointing out VP shifts, eyes darting/floating/driving/drifting around rooms, sentence frags, plot holes you could drive a hummer though, and a LOT of word reps (try, just try on purpose to use the word "stroke" 15 times on two pages of narrative)--all for naught.

The other editor let it pass as is. I'm not going postal as I tried my best to fix things, but some Names are too NAME to edit, apparently. Humph. Yet another fun thing about being an editor.

My resume is a patchwork: fast food slave, office temp, piece-work sewing, ticket taker at a movie house, checker at a drug store, manager at a hobby store, retail, more office temp jobs, one really good office job but they fired me anyway, house-cleaning service, with stretches of frustrating, frightening, soul-killing unemployement in-between. I was scarily unprepared for life in the real world, and this was after putting in several years at a university.

Fresh out of college and having to start at the bottom rung on, well, everything, is what's called "paying your dues." It sucks, and no one escapes. It is boot camp. No one likes it much, but not a lot of respect happens for you later if you waste years trying to avoid it.

And when you DO get some success, you appreciate it more. You know you've earned it fair and square. That's how I'm wired, anyway. It was tough, it still IS tough, but I ain't trading for anyone else's life.