FW: Editing as a career?

[JGREY <JGREY -at- MADE2MANAGE -dot- COM>]

> Ron Rhodes wrote: One day I hope to be an editor at a major publisher.
>
> Here's my story, sad but true; this is one data point and YMMV.
>
> My experience is that publishers do not view the editorial process as
> adding value - it is strictly as a cost, a necessary evil.
> Time-to-market is king, which means that the editor is viewed as a
> *hindrance* to getting the book to market. And of course profits are
> paper-thin (pardon the pun) so what you pay the editor comes right out
> of the bottom line. Hence, low salaries and intense pressure.
>
> In the computer-book publishing industry, in which I once worked,
> positions are structured such that the more esteemed editorial
> positions are largely project management jobs.  As an underpaid
> Project Editor, I schlepped manuscripts from the author (who mostly
> cared about when his next check was coming) to a vastly underpaid copy
> editor to a vastly underpaid page layout person to a vastly underpaid
> proofreader, responding to inevitable crises at every turn.  I seldom
> had time to actually edit - I had too many projects to manage.  When I
> was promoted to Development Editor (where I was still underpaid), I
> gained a little more contact with text, but my charge was to make sure
> the author was on track at a high level, not to help him or her
> communicate effectively. The copy editor and proofreader had the
> greatest contact with text, but pay was *so* low and time was *so*
> short that the best they could do with a bad manuscript was fix the
> most egregious problems and send it on up the line.
>
> I'm sure you've experienced the stress of finishing the docs in time
> for them to ship with the product when it is released.  Imagine that
> kind of deadline stress on a weekly basis.  That was my experience in
> publishing.  I had the equivalent of a major product release *every
> week*.
>
> Now that I've safely returned to the comparatively low-stress world of
> documenting computer software, I occasionally do freelance work for
> the computer-book publishing industry.  I have a lot of fun dabbling
> in editing in this way.
>
> I'd also like to point out that my time in publishing built character
> like no other job I've ever had.  I'm a much more efficient and
> thorough worker now than I ever was before because the breakneck pace
> in publishing made me rise to the challenge.  But there's no way I'd
> go back to the low pay and high stress.
>
> Peace,
> jim
>
> jim grey \ Documentation Project Manager
> Made2Manage Systems, Inc. \ jgrey -at- made2manage -dot- com
>
>