By the time this is uploaded, today marks the tenth working day since I started my new editing job. To celebrate my unusually productive week-and-a-bit we thought I should feature it as this month’s blog post. (Though I’m sure Brittany can weigh in if the mood strikes!)1 It’ll be more interview-style than essay, but I’ll be going into a little of what I do, how it relates to publishing and what it’s like actually being paid to do the thing you’ve been working towards for eight and a half years.
So what do you actually do? Are you in publishing?
Not quite. Not in the book-publishing sense, at least. I’ve got a lovely job editing educational resources for schools, which has so far involved a lot more learning than doing. Understandable, of course, I can’t expect to master the complicated internal system within the first day, but I am looking forward to being a useful contributor in the next little while! My new colleagues are amazing and welcoming and kind, and I’m hoping I can put the skills I learned from eight and a half years of study to good use soon.
I know it’s not The Industry, but I’m really happy because I’m in a position to securely support myself by working with words and fellow word-nerds every day. Isn’t that why we want to get into publishing to begin with?
What is it like being a professional editor?
It’s actually quite fun, considering I’m going to be doing it 8 hours a day, 5 days a week for the foreseeable future. Those numbers used to seem so abstract… ah, I’m such a student still!
We use the same style guide that we were taught with in class, so that made it easy to start. There are of course changes according to house style, and formatting is throwing me off a little (it was always my weak point) but I’m getting the hang of all of it by closely studying previous projects.
Ours is a little team that essentially only focuses on the editing, formatting and proofing part of the publishing process. Other people handle the actual content development and distributing aspects. With so many documents, though, I never run out of opportunities to improve my editing skills. I also have a safety net consisting of my patient and supportive colleagues, who all check my (and each others’) work and answer all my questions. There are many!
Of course, being the editor doesn’t give you the last say. Even the editors get edited (usually by the other editors!) and I have no doubt that before my first month is up I’ll have a lot of corrections and notes swirling through my head. But you can’t take it personally. If you’re reading this, you probably already understand the importance of constructive criticism, though it never hurts to write little reminders to yourself that you are a good editor, really!
Were you anxious when you started?
(She asked herself publicly knowing nobody actually wanted to know…)2 Ummmm… yes!! Never mind my specialised education and lifelong passion for figuring out the best way to stick words together and make them pretty, I walked in there feeling like the biggest impostor. That feeling’s calmed down since then (and after my weekend-long sleep to recover from my first full-time, 9-5 work week), especially after realising I can use editing words like ‘stet’ (or, ‘leave as-is’) on a daily basis, which is fun.
In all seriousness, I have an emotional connection with the material we publish due to childhood reasons I won’t delve into here, so I want to make sure I get everything right for the people who read it. I can only do my best.
So, will you ever get into trade publishing?
Undoubtedly yes. I’m very much enjoying it here, but my contract isn’t permanent so I’ll have to look for another job in a few years. In the meantime, I’m going to enjoy my stay. It’s an amazing way to establish financial security and gain experience which I can transfer to the trade publishing industry, so that I can get closer and closer to getting paid to publish amazing stories like the ones we offer on Banksia Journal.
The main takeaway is this: don’t feel like you have to go straight from uni to an internship at Random House to get into The Industry. We learned in class that most people end up in publishing from seemingly completely different career paths, so why not use that to get yourself in a financially secure place first? Plus you can enjoy knowing that your unnecessarily extensive grammar knowledge will be useful instead of annoying—apparently, even if you miss the interview, they still really want to meet you!
Brittany’s notes
1. Hi! I don’t actually have much to say here; I’ll leave it to Lauren. [back]
2. I would like to remind Lauren that I do actually care how she feels. And, if no-one else wants to know, why are they reading this blog? I’m sure it is reassuring to many other people starting new things that they’re not the only one with nerves. [back]
Lauren Hancock-Coffey is the co-founder and financial manager of Banksia Journal. She’s also a writer and devourer of historical fiction with a speculative twist and an avid fantasy RPG-er with more books and games than sense. She’s a full-time editor with a BA in Linguistics and an MA in Professional Writing and Publishing.
Congrats, Lauren! I’m so pleased for you. I’m sure you’re absolutely killing it!
Lauren I loved reading this! Your writing is captivating 😊