In the past, did you wonder how to become a book editor? As I've worked on three young adult anthologies, I've been asked this question a lot. When I talk about how to become a book editor, I only talk about what I know. A lot of people have different ways of editing books so I asked a few of them for help. When someone edits a book, they can do it in many ways. If you want to work on an anthology with a publisher, you can be a book editor on the side. You work with the publisher or on your own, but you aren't an employee of the company you work for.

Even when you're editing books, there are a lot of different ways to do it. You can find content editors and copy editors and proofreaders as well as managing editors and a lot more. But the question of how to become a book editor often comes from people who want to know how to actually edit books, like how to put their eyes and pens on the book itself and give advice on how to make it the best it can be both content and story-wise. This guide will focus on that. How to become a book editor is a whole book in itself, so this is more like field notes. It won't be able to answer all of your questions, and it will most likely be a small amount. Those who are still trying to figure out what they want to do in life, as well as those who are looking for a new or extra job.

How To Become A Book Editor

The Editing Process

It is different for each person and for each book. It looks like this: I write a project proposal, which my agent and I work on together. It goes to my editor, who will either buy the project, ask for a change and resubmit, or decide it's not something she wants to work on. People who want to be contributors are asked to do so, and we work back and forth with them to improve their writing to the best of our abilities.

For some contributors, this could mean a lot of back-and-forth discussion about how to organize, structure, or make the piece work together. My own editing style is to think of myself as a reader first and foremost when I look at a piece of writing. How do I ask contributors questions? I know who the book is for and what I want it to achieve, so I use that information to figure out where I'm either confused, think the author could go deeper, or think they're not getting their point across in the way they want to. With early drafts, I try to be very hands-off. I think that editing from the point-of-view of a reader and asking questions helps writers shine more brightly. It also lets their own writing voices shine through, and it doesn't make them try to fit into a certain mold or worry about how their story should look to me.

It might not be necessary for other people to edit their work, and the piece is in such good shape that it's ready for me to send it to my own editor.

It's done when I finish editing. My books then move on to my editor. She and I both make sure that the book's overall tone, as well as the individual pieces in it, match the goals that were set out in the text. Make sure threads in pieces come together at the end in as clear a way as possible, make sure the book really speaks to teens instead of being a YA that speaks to adults, and make some more fine-tuned language edits (which have, of course, become ingrained in my own brain and are things I look for now as well). My contributors will go through another round of editing, and my editor will make any more suggestions. Then, we'll move the book forward.

It's at this point that my publisher hires a copy editor to check the grammar and sentence structure of the book, as well as other small parts. In the process, copy editors are very important. When a contributor says they're bad at grammar and commas and other things, I always say there's someone who can do that work. Copy edits come back to me, and I have to decide which of them to keep and which to throw away. Often, I ask other writers to help me with that.

When I talk to the managing editor (sometimes called the production editor), I don't usually talk to her until after the copy edits have been done. She oversees the whole process of the book and makes sure that deadlines are met to keep the book on track. In my own experience, they'll be the person who talks to me about page proofs for final reads, which is usually the last time an editor looks at the book before it goes to print.

Each of the people who help me make my own anthologies has a different job, different strengths, and different goals. Some people who want to be an editor should figure out where their interests lie or what it is that they like most about the job. People who are more organized, can work well under a lot of deadlines, and want to see the bigger picture might be good at production editing. People who just love catching grammatical mistakes or fact-checking might be better at copy editing or proofreading.

Breaking Into the Field

As a book editor, I love putting together work that fits a certain theme and I have a talent for seeing how a small piece of a puzzle can lead to something bigger. I'm good at this. As a librarian who worked with teenagers, I could see where there were gaps in the great nonfiction that adults already had. I thought I could take advantage of the chance to fill them in. When I went to college, I learned a lot about how to make anthologies. That, along with my interest in working with teenagers, came together very well.

When I was learning how to become a book editor, I used my skills as a journalist and as a writer myself. In the past, my experience was just one, as I said above. My full-time job at Book Riot is to be an editor, but I also work as an editor at other places. I edit books as a side job. I reached out to a few book editors to find out how they became interested in editing books.

Plot to Punchline is a freelance editing service that Jason Black owns and works for. He says that after getting a bachelor's degree in technical writing and writing several books of his own, he learned how to write better by practicing.

Because so many people told me that they would pay for my help with editing and critiques, I started charging. Every book I write has something new to teach me about writing. Before now, I've been very good at figuring out what's going on, explaining the dynamics of what's going on, teaching clients how to find and fix things, and so on, said Black.

North Star Editions Managing Editor Mari Kesselring said, "I was always a big fan of reading and writing fiction, which made me want to work in publishing." In college, I worked on a literary journal and started a club for people who write. Writing and editing were two of the jobs I did during college. As much as I liked both, I was more interested in editing as a job and writing as a hobby."

People who become editors read a lot, and they learn how to read quickly and also read carefully over a long period of time. So many things from my time as a bookseller still help me. I learned how to navigate the children's section, and I also saw which books sold or were requested. In Alvina Ling's words: "Publishing, especially editorial, is still a job, and I learned a lot on the job. I learned a lot." "I've always been a bookworm," Ling says. "I was a full-time bookseller at B&N for over a year, and I did an editorial internship at Charlesbridge Publishing, and I did an internship at the Horn Book Guide," she says.

People who want to be editors don't have to have a lot of education in communication or literature or English. Some editors do have masters degrees, but it isn't required. There are a lot of publishing programs that award certificates to people who want to learn more about the field. People who want to edit technical books or educational books should study in fields where their background would help them in their editing jobs. For example, math textbook editors who study math are going to be better at their jobs, and those who have a strong background in technology would be better at editing technical books, for example.

A Day In The Life of a Book Editor

The more you know about what a typical day for an editor looks like, the better you can figure out how to become a book editor. In addition, it gives a good sense of how typical "typical" is and how much work can be done in a certain amount of time. This is important when you're trying to figure out if this is a full-time job or a part-time job.

"My job is mostly acquisitions, so I spend a lot of time reading literary journals, blogs, and social media to look for new authors to solicit. I also meet with potential authors to talk about their ideas and what we're looking for at Annick, and I meet with my coworkers to talk about projects in development. I also write feedback and revision notes for books that are already in the pipeline."

This is what one of the copy editors at a big comic book publisher said: "I mostly read superhero comics for spelling and grammar mistakes; I also read marketing materials like packaging for collectibles and blogs, theme park signs and encyclopedia entries, but my whole day is spent reading for spelling and grammar. "

They said that they started out as a proofreader, then moved to production editing, then editorial editing, and then back to proofreading again.

At their desk before 8, they work until 3 or 4. Because I enjoy it, I eat breakfast and lunch at work. And I spend that time working for the editing business: editing, taking care of administrative things, and so on.

Black, a freelance editor, said that a typical day starts with getting up. Get the kids to school. Go to a day job in a different field of software. Dinner, read to the kids, and write until bedtime.

The editor for an educational book company said that he or she does a lot of project management, team-leading, managing writers and translators, and other things like that every day. "It's a mix of project management, team-leading, managing writers and translators, and editorial work," he or she said.

In addition, Ling said, "No day is ever the same!" Most of the time, I have different meetings on different days. I try to do what I can on email in between, as well as look over picture book mechanicals, jacket mechanicals, various kinds of copy (jacket copy, catalog copy, title fact sheets, and so on), and so on. On Fridays, I work from home and try to get a head start on editing for the weekend. I usually do my editing on the weekend.

The Challenges of Book Editing

It may sound like a lot of fun to be a book editor from the typical day-in-the-life descriptions, but there are a lot of things that aren't so fun.

As a book editor, you don't make a lot of money. According to Payscale, the average US salary for a book editor is $51,349. This figure includes people who live in a different place, have more years of experience, or have a different job title, as well as people who are just starting out in the field and need help. Most book editor jobs in the United States are in New York City, which is the center of publishing in the United States. The median pay for a book editor job isn't very high.

Editing books is also a job that's hard to get, but it's not the only one. In this case, there are more jobs than people who want to work in publishing. People who want to work for themselves or start their own businesses as freelance book editors can still get work.

There are other problems as well, but this is the main one.

"Amazon and self-publishing caused a lot of chaos in the field, and we haven't been able to get back on our feet yet." Publishers are having a hard time competing and can't pay more than pennies for books. On the other hand, many indie authors don't want to spend money on professional editing. In this case, both sides want us to do a full edit (which can take 50–60 hours) for a few hundred dollars. Editors are in the middle of this. Because this is a very specialized and well-educated field, it can be discouraging.

One educational editor said, "[In previous jobs], [management] was very resistant to any kind of change, even if it meant bringing in more diverse authors and cutting back on jobs."

People who work in this kind of business can't make enough money to live on. Expectations about working outside of work hours are the same. One copy editor told me that publishing needs labor unions.

"Workload and burnout have been the perennial challenge in the almost twenty years I've been in the business."

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