publication departmentAn American Editor
March 18, 2015
So, You Want to Be an Editor — Why?
Filed under: Business of Editing,Future,Miscellaneous Opinion,The Business of Books & Publishing — americaneditor @ 4:00 am
Tags: changes to profession of editing, publishers and packagers, seeking a rationale for becoming an editor, shift of responsibility, should you become an editor today, thoughts about why editing
A few times a year I am asked, “How can I become an editor?” or something along those lines. It is usually a college student who thinks being an editor has a certain amount of mystery and prestige or a person who has lost her job and is looking to make a career shift for whom the idea of working as a freelancer has some mystical appeal who is doing the asking.
I struggle to give an answer that isn’t flippant. I have learned — 31 years later — that being an editor is neither glamorous nor mysterious nor prestigious nor just about anything, except that I love what I do and can’t imagine going into another career. But the key here is “31 years later.” The answer that I need to give has to relate to now, not then.
It is true that I am successful, that I have developed a certain level of reputation for highly skilled, high quality work. But I began my career in the dark ages of editing, when the market was country-centric not global, when consolidation among publishers was still a gleam in corporate accounting’s eye, when pay was actually enough to give you a middle class life, when clients cared about quality and were not hesitant to return a manuscript riddled with questions for the editor