Any advice from those of you in publishing? - YouLookFab Forum

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Any advice from those of you in publishing?

Mander

(website)

Veteran

I noticed in Irene's recent thread that several of you are, or have been, involved in publishing. This is something that I am pondering trying to move into, as my academic career is pretty much dead in the water (and I don't really have much interest in trying to revive it). But I've always had a knack for copy editing and giving feedback on other people's work, and I actually enjoy many of the more tedious aspects of production. I even started my own little business doing copy editing.

My story in brief: I moved from the US to the UK to do a PhD in archaeology, took way too long to finish, didn't do enough stuff like writing articles and teaching to compete in the academic market, and got a bit burnt out on my research subject. I'd much rather be working with something with a bit more of a practical impact and a concrete product. I've been looking for a job for the past two years without any success at all (not even in stop-gap fields like admin or customer service), so clearly I need to try a different tactic and a different field.

Anyway, I was wondering if those of you who are already in the industry would be able to give me any pointers or advice on getting into it myself. I'd really appreciate any wisdom you can impart!

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18 replies

Latest reply was from ironkurtin

ironkurtin

Veteran

I have a lot to say on this but short answer: Print publishing pays terribly. If you can, enter on the digital side of things so you can eat. Also, print publishing is overwhelmingly in NYC, with some smaller branches elsewhere; digital publishing can be anywhere.

What aspect of publishing do you want to tackle? There is a wide variety.

rabbit

Veteran

I worked (awhile ago now) in web design and online training and second that there used to be plenty of opportunities for writing and copy editing for online content -- I'd imagine that still holds true.

ETA: we didn't have separate copyeditors, the writers of online content who either specialized in online training or in information design did that -- most of our work wasn't consumer focused but in-company training -- I have friends who still do that for large corporations.

rachylou

Veteran

Uh... not only does it pay poorly, publishing and copy editing books is dead. The work is piece work. There are no jobs. You have to be set up to handle everything online, remotely.

You'll have more success, I think, if you can do copy writing - blurbs for online catalogs and websites, marketing campaigns, commercials and advertising, Twitter and Facebook publicity campaigns, social networking in general (Instagram etc. etc.), SEO (search engine optimization). Consumer-oriented stuff. But again, you'd have to cobble a living together and chase the money. It's good that you have your own copy editing business; because experience - and current experience - is a must.

Here's a link to a website where people go to find work. You might have better luck these days trolling Twitter and LinkedIn.

https://www.odesk.com/

Desmo April

(website)

Veteran

I was recently laid off from print publishing, it's a dying industry. The copy editors were the first to go, they were let go from my former company years ago.

The only future is digital but the pay is low and seems to mainly be freelance.

Any job leads in Los Angeles?

Angie

(website)

Fashion Stylist

What Desmo April said. Unfortunately, print publishing is a dying business. It's all digital.

Irene

Veteran

I'm a Romantic and struggle to accept that print publishing is dying. I do agree that certain types of publication are dying: magazines, encyclopedias, dictionaries, reference books...

I don't think we'll ever stop reading Shakespeare on paper though. I just can't picture that. And since I want to publish Literature... well, I don't really care about encyclopedias and reference books. No offense.

My experience in publishing has nothing to do with Literature though. I was a copy writer and did coffee table books on interior and product design. No joking. Won't say which titles, but I am an author on Amazon. When I eventually publish my super incredible novel -which will happen, ok?- I'll have to publish under a pseudonym.
To the point, I don't think coffee table books are going anywhere either. We need them, physically. Otherwise our tables would look naked. Or just not as pretty.

rachylou

Veteran

Coffee table books are probably the last stand. Those have to be in print.

rabbit

Veteran

I agree with Rachy on the coffee table books -- especially design, photography, art, and craft books since it's all about the large hi-def image.

ironkurtin

Veteran

You know, I don't think print will ever fully die. I really don't. I love physical books, the way they feel and smell, the experience of holding them, and I know I am not alone there. I believe traditional publishing will *transition,* however. HOW they will transition is a different matter, and I'm no longer in NYC so I don't have the connections I did to know fully how it's working.

I do know that if you like to copyedit, there ARE jobs but you kindof have to make them in companies that don't consider themselves to be traditional print.

Liz

Veteran

Publishing jobs are changing a lot, and I think you'll have a better chance if you can do a heavy dose of writing along with the ability to do some editing. And being able to work in print and digital is a boon. Be flexible in what you consider "publishing." A business, for example, might be looking for a communications person to maintain their website, do some copy writing, and write a company newsletter and blog--you'd be working for the marketing department there.

Books are still being published, and will be. But my take is that publishers are cutting editorial staff (developmental editors, copy editors, proofreaders) and cutting back on the level of shaping and crafting the books are getting.

Anonymous

Here is an idea, look into procedure writing or the textbook industry. Two not so dying fields IMO.

Gigi

Veteran

Others are right in that I do believe that the print side of things is dying. But I too believe that it will not die off completely. However, in the last decade, more and more of the publishing work has been outsourced to overseas. Now even copyediting and proofreading are done by nonnative speakers of English overseas (especially in India).

I have a friend who used to oversee these foreign copyeditors. She basically spent her entire day fixing their errors. But people don't want to pay for the native English speaker to edit their book. Quality has really fallen off, imo.

What still remains in the U.S. (or UK, or Australia, or wherever), I believe, is project management. Someone in the publisher's home country has to manage the different stages of the manuscript to get it to the stage of printed book. Back when I worked in-house, the job was called "production editor." I think others may call it "project manager." But even the project manager jobs are sometimes outsourced . But I do think that they are outsourced to "full-service" firms (they are maybe also called "book packagers") in the home country.

It is also true that the pay is abysmal. If you want something that pays better, copywriting (writing ad copy, say, for promotional e-mails and direct-mail pieces) is pretty decent. Also, you can be paid more for proofreading ads and the like than proofreading books. You could try to get hooked up with an ad agency, which is where this type of work is found. Some ad agencies don't hire proofreaders and copywriters directly, though; rather, they go to a temporary staffing agency and get a contractor. That would probably be my best suggestion for you: try to find a temporary staffing agency that would be willing to hire you as a proofreader. That type of job is nice because you are generally sent around to all kinds of places, so you start to get an idea of how everyone does things, not just one company.

Regarding what Zap says, I have heard that technical writing pays pretty well—I think that may be what she calls "procedure writing." But I have no experience with this area myself.

Mander

(website)

Veteran

Thanks for all your comments!

I suppose I'm thinking more along the lines of academic publishing, such as journals and other professional periodicals. Ideally it would be something to do with my academic background, but it's something I set aside as being impractical (like archaeology isn't, duh!) and never pursued. Digital would be lovely but I'm not sure what area within this -- there are so many variations!

I also never thought I'd be in a position to move to either London or NYC, but now my husband is actually working in London so it seems like an opportune moment to explore the idea. I clearly need to do more research, though!

rachylou

Veteran

That's the term I was looking for, Gigi - production editor / project manager!

Tech writing (my field) is dead. There are gigs but not really jobs. People will ask for tech writers but they mean something else by it... regulations specialist, business analyst, programmer.

I'm not sure about academic journals. In the sciences like chem and physics, I don't know who staffs these journals. I imagine it's small. I seem to remember authors' admins doing all the editing and formatting in LaTeX for the journals. Not the journal people at all.

...But there's a possibility. Big universities and labs do newsletters and websites, and hire writers for those.

Suz

(website)

Veteran

Actually, in Canada, at least, some academic or professional journals and most academic publishers do hire editors. Often the work is contract based and not terribly well paid, but it is absolutely possible to get jobs -- depending on your field, of course. I have several friends who have done this in different areas -- geography, law, etc.

I would find the journals/ publishers in your field that you respect and perhaps give them a call. It can't hurt to get more information.

The advantage of this type of job is that you are always learning in your field. It is also quite portable and flexible, as a rule.

rabbit

Veteran

Yeah, I was hired as a 'technical writer' when actually it meant learn html and help us design databases for content (this was a decade ago). Later I was a project manager/producer for various kinds of online content -- usually tech related, which was a natural extension.

The little I've gathered from friends about journalism now, creating training content, or tech writing is that it can be very useful to know or learn the niche field -- once you know a gadget down to the nuts and bolts you are the natural person to write about version 2.0 as there is little learning curve necessary. So I'd maybe start by looking for any kind of writing or content related to what you studied at an advanced level.

Anonymous

Yes, technical writing. We call them "procedure writers", in my industry because they write our procedure manuals.

ironkurtin

Veteran

Mander, I really don't think you can make a living doing copyediting for professional and academic journals, but I would be very happy to be proved wrong. My take would be that these organizations are also incredibly insular so unless they know you, you might have a hard time getting in, but again, I'd love to be wrong.

This might sound crazy but a good place to start, if you actually want to write and not do admin, are websites with a lot of content turnover. Like animal rescue where they do a pet of the day, stuff like that (just off the top of my head). There is also a lot of marketing and B2B work, powerpoints, brand strategy... sometimes copyediting is combined with legal proofing etc.