Editors

Job description

The job ranges from line-level correction, catching spelling, punctuation, and factual errors before anything gets published, to much bigger-picture work like shaping a story's direction or deciding whether a submitted manuscript is even worth pursuing. Editors regularly go back and forth with writers on structure, style, and content, and often generate their own story or content ideas with an eye toward what will actually interest readers. At some outlets, an editor's role extends past the words themselves into overseeing the whole production process (artwork, layout, typesetting, and printing) all while keeping an eye on deadlines and budget. The pace is often fast and deadline-driven, and it's overwhelmingly team-based work rather than something done in isolation.

A typical day

The manuscript on the morning screen has a strong voice and a broken spine: the editor reads the first fifty pages and writes the letter every writer both dreads and needs — the second act sags, the protagonist's motivation vanishes in chapter seven, and here, specifically, is how it might be fixed, phrased so the author can hear it. Line work follows on a different project: sentence-level surgery where a paragraph loses forty words and gains all its force. The afternoon holds fact-checking traps (a date that's wrong, a statistic whose source evaporates under checking), a pitch meeting where next season's content gets argued into shape, and a diplomatic phone call with an author who rejects every change — the editor's real skill being the persuasion that protects the work from its writer's blind spots. Deadlines rule everything; the red pen never quite rests.

Tasks at the job

• Read copy or proof to detect and correct errors in spelling, punctuation, and syntax.
• Verify facts, dates, and statistics, using standard reference sources.
• Read, evaluate and edit manuscripts or other materials submitted for publication, and confer with authors regarding changes in content, style or organization, or publication.
• Develop story or content ideas, considering reader or audience appeal.
• Prepare, rewrite and edit copy to improve readability, or supervise others who do this work.
• Oversee publication production, including artwork, layout, computer typesetting, and printing, ensuring adherence to deadlines and budget requirements.

Workplace & working conditions

Work happens indoors in a climate-controlled setting, and most of the day is spent sitting at a desk.

The pace is often fast, with real time pressure to meet deadlines, and you're expected to exercise significant independent judgment day to day. Precision and accuracy are essential to the work, and the work is highly structured, following set procedures. Almost all of the work is done as part of a team.

Education necessary or common

Bachelor's degree

Common college majors

Career path

Related fields

Courses to take

• AP English Language — rhetoric, structure, and argument
• AP English Literature — narrative instincts and close reading
• Journalism — editing under deadline with real stakes
• Creative Writing — editors who write understand writers
• A world language — grammar consciousness doubles

Clubs, activities & competitions

• School newspaper or literary magazine editor role — the direct apprenticeship
• Yearbook copy editing
• Writing center peer tutor
• NCTE or Scholastic writing competitions

First steps you can take now

• Edit three friends' essays this month and practice feedback that helps instead of stings
• Learn a style guide (AP or Chicago) and apply it to your own writing
• Take an editor role on any school publication
• Read a book's acknowledgments — note how authors describe their editors, then read about the craft

Related videos

day in the life of a book editorKatie WolfWhat does a book editor do?Penguin Random House UK