My first job in publishing was at a legal publisher in Seattle. A neighbor who worked there suggested I apply when I told him I was looking for a job. He knew that I was widely read, and I told him I could spell. I took a proofreading test, told the manager I wanted the job, and was hired as a proofreader. After a while I moved up to being an "editor," essentially an in-house copy editor. The material, mostly municipal codes, with occasional other state and county lawbooks, was on the dull side, but the work turned out to be very good training: I had to take extremely messy material and whip it into shape quickly.
When I moved to New York, I right away got work as a temp legal proofreader, and eventually was on staff at a large corporate firm, but the stuff I was reading there made municipal codes seem like The Demolished Man. But it turned out that several of my Seattle homies, including pnh and tnh, had also relocated to NYC. When I mentioned that I was doing legal proofreading, they hooked me up with the house they were working for, which was doing literary criticism--sometimes a bit dry, but actually interesting reading. Another friend of ours was an editorial assistant at a mass market house and gave me the name of their production editor. At last I was working on actual trade books!
Yes, I now had Trade Book Experience--the necessary hidden power a freelancer must have.
I gradually expanded my freelance contacts: sometimes through networking, sometimes through cold calling and taking tests (and some of those tests can be tricky, let me tell you).
So far I had done only proofreading, as far as trade books were concerned. But I carefully studied the manuscript of every book I proofread. By the time an author's original manuscript is typeset, it often resembles a graffiti-covered bathroom wall--you know, the kind where each writer says something to top the previous one: First the editor makes edits, sometimes very sparingly, sometimes virtually rewriting the whole book, usually somewhere in that vast space in between these two. Then there might be a separate line editor who whips the prose into better shape. Then the copy editor goes to work, often writing her or his queries directly in the margin. (Tor doesn't do this, but many houses do.) The author then may reply to the marginal queries and do additional rewriting, sometimes considerably. The production editor may do some cleanup of loose ends, or the original editor may also add a few last-minute edits. The designer may also insert codes or type specs, and the compositor may also write occasional codes here and there.
If you learn to recognize who is who, this can be the best copy editing course in the world. And as the proofreader, part of your job is to watch out for what all these people missed, so you really kind of have to study it in detail anyway. Eventually, I felt I was ready to copy edit as well as proofread.
Eventually, I was recruited to work at Tor by tnh. I did that for about two years, then felt I needed less structure for a while. Another house was kind enough to put me on staff as a part-time production editor, though it was a tough commute to an outer borough.
After all this, I had enough contacts to freelance indefinitely. In recent years, through other people I've met, I've managed to copy edit at some major magazines as well. Magazine work is very different from book work--more intense and fast-paced, with strict style guidelines, though not necessarily quite as interesting--but generally better paying. I find the ideal situation to be a bit of both magazines and books. I'm toying with the idea of a full-time job again--I think I could use a little organization for a while--but I'm not quite there yet...
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
(no subject)
Date: 2006-04-21 11:17 pm (UTC)When I moved to New York, I right away got work as a temp legal proofreader, and eventually was on staff at a large corporate firm, but the stuff I was reading there made municipal codes seem like The Demolished Man. But it turned out that several of my Seattle homies, including
Yes, I now had Trade Book Experience--the necessary hidden power a freelancer must have.
I gradually expanded my freelance contacts: sometimes through networking, sometimes through cold calling and taking tests (and some of those tests can be tricky, let me tell you).
So far I had done only proofreading, as far as trade books were concerned. But I carefully studied the manuscript of every book I proofread. By the time an author's original manuscript is typeset, it often resembles a graffiti-covered bathroom wall--you know, the kind where each writer says something to top the previous one: First the editor makes edits, sometimes very sparingly, sometimes virtually rewriting the whole book, usually somewhere in that vast space in between these two. Then there might be a separate line editor who whips the prose into better shape. Then the copy editor goes to work, often writing her or his queries directly in the margin. (Tor doesn't do this, but many houses do.) The author then may reply to the marginal queries and do additional rewriting, sometimes considerably. The production editor may do some cleanup of loose ends, or the original editor may also add a few last-minute edits. The designer may also insert codes or type specs, and the compositor may also write occasional codes here and there.
If you learn to recognize who is who, this can be the best copy editing course in the world. And as the proofreader, part of your job is to watch out for what all these people missed, so you really kind of have to study it in detail anyway. Eventually, I felt I was ready to copy edit as well as proofread.
Eventually, I was recruited to work at Tor by
After all this, I had enough contacts to freelance indefinitely. In recent years, through other people I've met, I've managed to copy edit at some major magazines as well. Magazine work is very different from book work--more intense and fast-paced, with strict style guidelines, though not necessarily quite as interesting--but generally better paying. I find the ideal situation to be a bit of both magazines and books. I'm toying with the idea of a full-time job again--I think I could use a little organization for a while--but I'm not quite there yet...