Danica Eakins who starts her final year of high school in September loves books and wants to become an editor, but doesn’t know how you go about doing that. Could those of you who are professional editors give her some advice? Tell her about internships and the like?
Here are her questions:
I’d like to know things like, which university courses would be most beneficial, how does one actually find a job as an editor, what are the perks and downfalls of the job, what is the average pay, etc.
I’ve never worked as an editor so I have only the vaguest inkling of the answers to these questions. I realise I don’t even know how much editors get paid. Other than it not being a lot. Not until you’re really senior and running your own imprint. Is that true?
In the US of A do you have to move to New York City to make a living as an editor?
Danica’s Canadian so what’s the publishing centre there? Toronto?
Are there other jobs working with books that you’d recommend?
Well, my students at Columbia often start with unpaid internships—either part-time during the semester or full-time during the summer (some of these are paid, but they’re harder to get)—and then hope to find a full-time position soon after graduating. I’m not sure about how this translates to the Canadian system, but there’s a good class here (here in the US, and here also happening to be at the Columbia Journalism School) designed to get you up to speed and placed in a job at the end of an intensive summer program. The tuition’s fairly high, but I believe it’s well worth it in terms of job placement, especially if you haven’t had a chance to do other internships:
sharyn has a good “so you wanna be an editor” faq here.
and she’s very cool about random teenagers emailing her questions, too.
oh, and the other thing i should have said: you can get really great practice reading your friends’ essays and stories in college, and working on a literary magazine or newspaper, etc. etc. there are tons of opportunities—hours you spend copy-editing or proofreading for friends are money in the bank as far as skilfulness in future work goes!
Excellent point, Jenny.
And thanks, Jennifer, I’d forgotten about Sharyn’s faq. It’s very very helpful.
Cheryl Klein has a post about how she became an editor here, on which several editors comment with their experiences, many of which differ.
I myself never lived in New York, but that’s a hard way to do it, simply because most (not all) of the jobs are in New York. I have no idea about Canadian publishing, but perhaps my experience might help Danica glean some ideas.
Since I couldn’t afford an unpaid internship as an undegrad, I worked my way through college in whatever paid internships and publishing-related jobs I could find. I graduated with a lot more experience editing than many college graduates (mostly because I took longer to graduate)–newspaper, phone books, humanities publications on campus, the student SF magazine, working in the library, etc. So there are a lot of different opportunities in college that would give good experience in at least some aspects related to publishing.
My first job out of college was in Chicago at a trade magazine–I thought I ought to move to New York, but the immediate need to pay the bills was too demanding. So I worked on getting good editing experience at the magazine, then later ended up going to grad school in children’s books (while working part of the time at an educational publisher).
Speaking of the educational publisher, often publishers will either work with a temp agency that specifically deals with publishing-related jobs, or they’ll have their own in-house temping staff, which is what Houghton Mifflin does. I got on as a temp which worked into an editorial job in the social studies textbooks division. It’s a great way to get your foot in the door when you can’t afford to work without getting paid.
While I was at Simmons, Anita Silvey (former editorial director of Houghton Mifflin children’s, who now teaches and writes) suggested that since I had editorial experience, I should try to get experience with reviewers and booksellers, and that advice was invaluable. My internship at the Horn Book Magazine & Guide (unpaid, which was the hardest semester ever financially, but you do get free books) and my semester working at B&N really helped make me a better editor–gave me an understanding of their perspective. I highly recommend getting experience in those fields if possible.
It was only after all these things, including finishing the master’s (if you can afford the Simmons program, do it–you won’t regret it), that I got the job I wanted, editing children’s fantasy. So in my case it wasn’t the linear internship-editoral assistant job-work your way up from there at a New York publisher that I’ve heard others have experienced, but in the end, I have a great job that I love, so it all works out.
I used to really want to be an editor too, but they do more work than reading, even if they have the fawesome perk of not having to wait for new releases. I have also heard true horror stories of how to become and editor and I guess you really have to want to be an editor to go through with it, and the only deication I have is to read alot. So I’d rather be a librarian, preferably specializing in YA novels, I don’t want to be a librarian just because they work in libraries, I enjoy the menial tasks of re-binding books, ordering new ones, reccomending, organizing, checking in or out, searching for what is best, etc. I’ve volunteered and interned. That is the best thing Danica can do, intern, see if she enjoys working her way up, even if it iis hard, grueling and scary work. I’m hungry.
Wow. Thank you guys for the advice! I don’t even know what to say. Just know that this is helping me A LOT, and I can’t express my appreciation.
And Justine, thanks again for doing this. If I ever meet you in person I will bow at your feet.
By the way, danica, there are undergrad programs that let you specialize in editing (BYU does that, for example) or the particular field of literature you’re interested in (Simmons College has a dual bachelor’s-masters that takes 5 years instead of 4 for a children’s literature BA/MA). You should look for programs that let you specialize, if you have a particular interest you know you want to pursue, because they often have support for internships and jobs that another program might not.
You know what dumb? I realized I would *love* to be an editor (I think I have checked and fixed more than like, half of my friends’ papers over the course of high school, I love to read more than anything, I have good grammar….) AFTER having applied to all art and science school.
Sigh? =(
Danica: in Canada, the centre of publishing is indeed in Toronto (which is **NOT** to say there aren’t other opportunities elsewhere).
Ryerson has a great publishing program, during which you can test the editing waters. Not to mention, it’ll put you in the way of many of those internships. There’s also the Editor’s Association of Canada, who offer great workshops from beginning to advanced. Google them for their upcoming seminars.
Something to know, though: in Canada, there are very few full-time in-house editors. Most editors are freelancers. They edit all kinds of work, not just fiction. On the plus side, there’s a lot of work to be had (esp. in Toronto – or Ottawa, if you’re bilingual).
Thank you, Chris! That’s certainly good to know.
Way back when I started as an editor, you got your foot in the door as an editorial assistant and worked your way up–and there was in-house training. Editorial assistants make very little money . . . and being as most publishing is in big cities, it’s tough (VERY!) to live on the salary. But if you want to be an editor, then you have to start somewhere.
Also, NYU has a summer publishing program–post-grad. It is expensive but very well-respected and a good way to both get some excellent practical training and make contacts in the editorial world.
For me, the in-house training program at Simon and Schuster (again, a long time ago) was invaluable. But even practical things like learning the Chicago Manual of Style inside and out, and practicing proofreading is important. If you aspire to end up in acquisitions . . . learning to discern your reading tastes is important–keeping abreast of trends . . . subscribing to something like PW . . . etc.
Good luck! If you love books, it’s a great career.