zensheep

I am a senior History major at college and after this school year I'm at a loss at what I'm going to do. I decided to become a history major because frankly it is what has interested me the most through my childhood and highschool years, and the fact that I'm terrible at science and math. Lately I have had the epiphany that becoming a book editor would be something that I believe would satisfy my career goals and more importantly be something I truly enjoy. The only caveat to this plan is that I do not know where to start.
I am tempted to purchase an e-book detailing the basics of the business and information regarding finding entry positions and knowledge which will help break the ice so to speak and enter into the world of book editing, but I'm not so sure as to its validity and do not want to waste the money if I can help it. So I come here to the great people of the TFP in search of advice. Are any of you currently book editors or know someone who is one and would like to impart some knowledge on a fairly lost almost-graduate of college? Thank you very much!

maleficent

I'm not a book editor, and with my grammar and spelling skills, one might say that's a very good thing. However, most of my clients are in publishing (magazine and newspaper) which have editors so it might be close enough.

I seriously doubt you'd be hired on the spot as a book editor with no prior experience, so what you want to do is get experience.

Look for internships with publishers, you might start lower on the chain of command (and pay) as a copy editor but you'd work your way up. Internships would be your foot in the door to see if it's really waht you want to do.

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Rodney

I would add that you need to learn how to edit. Maybe you could do that in an internship but frankly, back in journalism school, I took courses. Things many editors need to know include: style (standard rules for word usage, punctuation, capitalization, etc.), organization (a must), a really good sense of grammar, how a book should be edited for particular audiences (seventh-grade-level readers, twelfth-grade level readers, etc.), and a course on book design wouldn't hurt, either.

A lot of these things you can learn from taking the right kind of writing classes: not creative writing so much as science or technical writing, nonfiction writing, and so on.

All that said, if you _can_ get an internship, that would be best. No better place to learn than on the job. But these are the type of things you'd need to learn or know.

zensheep

Thank you very much for the replies! I understand the road will be hard but I'm not averse to starting at the very bottom and working my way up. From what I have seen, internships are somewhat related to your particular university, what are the chances of getting an internship after you have graduated? I'm sure there are some outreach programs here to help recent graduates but is it uncommon for graduates to apply and work in internships?

Schwan

Start very low; you can get an internship as a journalist. Alternatlively, if you've got the qualifications or you're really good at it, you can land a position in a newspaper as a junior editor. You'll get to check all the articles that get published and so on. You can also try getting hired in a publishing house as... well, someone else. If you proove to them that book editing is something you are good at, then you might get started at that after a while. I really don't think there is an immediate and easy way to get into book editing.

Schwan

Just nip down to your local paper or publishng comapny and ask around. Don't count on the University. Have a CV handy.

Charlatan

Start calling publishing houses and ask about their internships. Do the same with any local publications, ad agencies, etc.

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