• Careers in Publishing
• Becoming an editor
• Freelance Editing Work
• Publishing a Children's Book

Careers in Publishing

Hello, I periodically read messages here that recommend publishing as a career. I've looked into it superficially over the years, and had the impression that people were entering the field through unpaid internships or previous editorial experience. In the last couple of years, my line of work has pretty much dissolved, and people I respect have been telling me I should go into publishing. Yes, but how to go about it? I have a Ph.D. in the liberal arts, have published a lot of articles, and I grew up around writers and editors, etc.--but I have no editorial samples, for example, to submit for such a position, or practical experience in some components of the job. I also don't know where the job boards are for these jobs--there must be something more efficient than going to the websites for individual publishers. I will appreciate any guidance here--as I say, I've seen people write on this group who sound very knowledgeable about such work. Interested in Publishing

Becoming an editor

I am looking for advice on becoming an editor in the publishing industry. I have a BA in journalism and several years of experience editing at a daily newspaper. I have this notion that I might enjoy publishing, but I really don't know anything about it -- and I am unsure how to find out more because I don't know anyone in the industry. I'm hoping there a members of this network who can help me. Among my questions are the following: Is it highly competitive? Is it youth driven (I am in my late 30s)? How should I start looking for a job? I'd love to hear whatever words of wisdom you have to share. Thanks so much. Book Worm

You may want to explore marketing and publicity. Some people have the notion that editorial is the most exciting department, but I have always thought that marketing is much more fun, and if writing is what you like, you end up doing a lot of writing in the marketing department. I don't think that it is youth driven. I am in my mid-thirties, and recent hires in my company are older than me. In my company of 20 employees, a third is my age, a third is older (40s, 50s and 60s) and a third are in their 20s.

You mention you don't know anybody in the industry. A good place to meet people is in the NCBPMA (Northern California Book Publicity and Marketing Association) monthly luncheons on different publishing topics. These luncheons provide a great informal way to meet Bay Area publishing professionals. They publish a directory of Bay Area Publishers which is an excellent starting point to get the picture of how many companies are around and what they do. Check out their website http://www.ncbpma.com/

Good luck! In book publishing and loving it

1) Northern California Book Publicity & Marketing Association (www.ncbpma.org)

2) Bay Area Editor's Forum (not sure of the web address; there might be a link on the ncbpma site)

3) Bookbuilders West (focus on production issues)

The best thing to do is to try to hook up with one of these organizations and start going to their events to meet people in the industry. The NCBPMA website has a job board and others may too. There are also job postings in the back of Publishers Weekly magazine, the industry magazine. Kristen

First, I don't believe one makes a lot of money in publishing. Many publishing firms struggle with the bottom line.

Second, there are many kinds of book publishing, and some of them may be more fulfilling to you personally than others. There are university and other non-profit presses that deal with academic and some literary works, there are presses that deal only with technical publication, and other very specialized presses. Some book publishers produce items that literature-lovers would scarcely acknowledge as real ''books.'' I would say that you would have to be comfortable with and interested in the type of book published by the press in order to be happy.

For academic publishing you should have some knowledge of one or more of the fields published by the press as well as editorial expertise. It helps with other types of publishing too to have some background knowledge in their specialization.

Working efficiently and accurately are important skills. My impression is that one often works in a kind of apprentice position (copy-editor, assistant editor) before moving into more interesting work. The pay at these starting positions is often low.

If you have additional questions I might be able to get a contact name and info for you with an academic publisher and a non-profit publisher.

Good luck! Linda