My Start in Publishing
Published by Deanna Hoak April 20th, 2006 in copyeditingThe story of my first publishing job is awfully straightforward. I got my bachelor’s, whipped through my master’s coursework in a year, and decided I wanted to go into publishing. I was in Fort Worth at the time, and the only big gig in town was Harcourt Brace Jovanovich College Publishers. I sent them a resume (the only resume I sent out anywhere), went on an interview, and was offered a job. I didn’t know anyone there, so I guess I was either lucky or impressive. :-) I worked there for four years, and during the third one I decided I’d rather be doing fiction.
In order to get my first freelancing job, I looked at who published all my favorite books, called those publishers, and asked for the person who hired freelance proofreaders and copyeditors. I noted to them that I was currently in charge of hiring and supervising freelancers myself, told them I loved science fiction and fantasy, and asked if they might send me some work.
Some people were really rude and cut me off; some were nice. Ballantine/Del Rey sent me a test that I passed with flying colors, and I’ve freelanced for them ever since–a dozen years now, I guess. I eventually branched out to other publishers, and that’s where I stand today.
A lot of people have asked me how to get a job freelancing, and I suppose that my description makes it sound easy. It really is not, though. The critical factor in that conversation was that I mentioned I was in charge of hiring freelancers. That served multiple purposes. First, it told the person I was talking to that I had at least some notion of what I was doing. Second (and I’m sure this sounds awful to some people, but it’s the way the world works, folks) it implied a networking and possible freelancing contact.
Here’s something a lot of you may not realize: The proofreader or copyeditor who’s doing your book may very well be a production editor or editorial assistant or even an editor at another company. It happens all the time. (And it’s another reason to be polite. ;-)) Publishing does not pay particularly well, and the turnover rate is pretty damn high. People in publishing often freelance on the side. When you’re in publishing, making contacts with people at other companies is honestly essential–not only for if and when you switch jobs, but in case you want freelance work. I’m a full-time freelancer, but we aren’t very common: It’s pretty difficult to make a living this way.
13 Responses to “My Start in Publishing”
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I'm a freelance copyeditor specializing in fantasy and science fiction. SF/F novels I have copyedited have been finalists for (and have sometimes won) the Hugo, Nebula, Arthur C. Clarke, Golden Spur, John W. Campbell Memorial, Quill, Locus, Philip K. Dick, British Science Fiction, British Fantasy, and World Fantasy awards. In 2007 I was short-listed for a World Fantasy Award for my copyediting.
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What is your master’s degree in? I’m thinking of going back to grad school, but would like to invest time and money in a degree that will enhance my ability to get paid.
Hm. Well, get an MBA, then. Mine won’t get you paid: It’s in linguistics. :-)
Deanna–Thank you for talking about this and for describing the realities of it. I have debated seeking part-time freelance work as both a publisher’s reader and as a proofreader, but since I also am working toward becoming a writer myself, I was leery of the conflict of interest angle–the fear that I might read something unpublished and inadvertently use it in my own work, and cause a copyright problem.
I suppose that seems like a silly thing to worry about, since writers read books from bookstores all the time, but it has still made me very hesitant to seek such freelance work, even though I think I would enjoy doing it. Alas, I don’t have the networking contacts in the publishing business that you had, so I don’t know what my chances would be, regardless.
Chantal
If it’s something you want to try, you should. Learning the business in the first place is the most critical factor. Contacts are something you make as you go; I didn’t have any outside my own publisher when I started freelancing.
Publishing does not pay particularly well, and the turnover rate is pretty damn high. People in publishing often freelance on the side. When you’re in publishing, making contacts with people at other companies is honestly essential—not only for if and when you switch jobs, but in case you want freelance work.
Yep. When I was working in my first (and only) in-house copyediting job–after wandering through other work–my boss was freelancing on the side, and she recommended me to the publisher she freelanced for. That was the beginning of my transition to freelancing, which I’ve been doing for a bit over 20 years. She later moved on to other jobs, and in three different ones she could hire freelancers, so she hired me many times over the years.
I kinda fell into publishing myself… my senior year in college I had no clue what I wanted to do, and publishing sounded related to my English major, so I went to the university press, where lo and behold, they actually TAUGHT me something useful! I did desktop publishing and freelance typesetting and proofing (for a typesetter) for years before I got into editing. Eventually I was doing about 20 hours a week of freelance on top of a full-time job, and I decided to just drop the full-time job. I find there are tons of freelancers in this business, and it’s fairly easy for me to make a living–but I won’t get RICH! Editing from home is a way for me to make a living without much overhead. Networks of freelancers are important, you’re right. Most of my contacts were all introduced to me from other clients/friends. My major client found me when I met a crucial person there at a social function, we hit it off, and found out we’d been working for the same clients for a while… she eventually hired me as a freelancer, and has since put me in touch with other clients who have also hired me.
I find it fairly simple to get editing work because so much of it IS freelanced out. Practically NO ONE has staff manuscript editors… managing editor, production editors, and assistants, but no simple copyeditors on staff.
I’ve had many friends fail at full-time freelancing while I’ve succeeded, and I know far more people who freelance on the side than who dedicate themselves to it. You have to be good to make a living this way, and even then it’s a huge help if you have health insurance from an S.O. :-)
Thank you. I’ll look into it, then.
Chantal
Freelancing is ALL about networking. And I periodically try to expand my contacts. It can be tricky. A place that gave me steady work for over 5 years had a change in personnel. I have no quarrel with the new person, and she has given me work, but not on the regular basis that her predecessor, who loved me, did. So…I’ve found new places. Just today I discovered by accident that a fellow freelancer is now a production editor, and discussed some upcoming projects.
These days, a lot of the big publishers have databases, so it pays to specialize. If they’re looking for someone who knows about such-and-such, and you have that listed as a specialty, your name may come up, and you’ll get a call from someone you’ve never heard of.
Many of my prime contacts have come from friends and neighbors–people I’ve gotten to know outside of work, who turned out to work in publishing. But that’s New York for you…
I suppose it helps that where I am (central NC), the cost of living is fairly low, so making enough to live on isn’t *too* difficult to achieve. I’ve been making a living working from home for nearly a decade. A lot of people DO freelance on the side. It also helps that my rates, like my skills, have more than doubled since I started.
I would agree on the health insurance thing, but until recently my husband was *also* self-employed, and be both paid handsomely for our own health insurance. In fact, he won’t be covered by employer insurance for another month, but WOW that will certainly help our finances! :)
Whoops, that “anonymous” post was me. I thought I was logged in.
Yeah, two self-employeds would be tough. I actually had a self-employed insurance before I married that was very reasonable and was fine for standard care, but it would have really sucked if something truly major went wrong.
I haven’t had a problem making enough money to live on, but making a living is about more than money. Despite the fact that my rates have gone up too, they still aren’t commensurate with what I would have had I spent twelve years in the same corporation, working my way up to ever-higher levels. And for many people, the isolation of freelancing is too much to take.
I love copyediting, but the most difficult thing I face in it is that I’m always very hungry for new challenges and seldom have them anymore. I know copyediting backward, forward, and upside down. Even when a project comes in that’s a lot of work, it’s something that I already know how to do. If anything ever leads me to go in-house again, it will be the desire to learn and practice new skills.
When I started in the business, I was a very good proofreader and soon advanced to be a copy editor. Then I began reading manuscript submissions, and the constant contact with bad spelling and atrocious grammar–that had to be left alone, and preferably, merely skimmed–turned me into a lousy proofreader and a lazy copy editor. I even have trouble now with the correct spelling of certain words that I once knew cold, because so many writers do not spell them correctly.
So I would warn you not to mix editorial imperatives. Work that is directed at content is very different from what is directed at technical form.
And yes, the best copy editors are often conned into rewriting the incoherent sentences of authors who know a topic but not how to write. But that is line or substantive editing and should be paid, openly, at a different (and higher) rate.