How to Become a Book Editor
If you’ve ever been curious about becoming an author or a book editor, brace yourself because this is where you’ll learn some valuable tips that can help you kick start your editing journey.
Book editing isn’t as hard as writing a book. Still, it needs strong attention to detail, a sharp sense of detecting significant errors related to storey elements, and other minor mistakes that can make the book look polished.
So if you want to become familiar with what you need to know to become an editor and step into the world of publishing, learn some brilliant tips and tactics below. Many individual editors and book editing services swear by these steps because they have helped them kick start their own editing journey.
Learn what it takes to edit a book
Everybody can use a beta reading tool to run their manuscripts and documents, but there is a high chance that the tool can miss out on some major errors. There’s still no tool that can replace a human eye.
To start with, you need to learn the different types of editing to decide what you’d do best. There are three main types of book editing:
Line editing - Line or developmental editing focuses on the bigger picture of a story. It works on aspects like plot, theme, character development, and story progression to fix all the major gunk.
- Copyediting - This type of editing refers to editing word usage, grammar, language, and all the minor things that can make the book look more smooth and professional.
- Proofreading - Proofreading is the last stage and focuses on fixing spelling, typos, punctuation, errors, and formatting.
How to break into the field
It always takes passion, willingness, and skill to do something and not necessarily a degree or a specific background unless the subject is way too technical. Some editors have a master’s degree, but that’s not a requirement.
You can become a book editing if you have a knack for solving a small piece of a puzzle that can make a big difference. You can start editing by doing small projects initially, along with your full-time job. Gradually, you can take more and make a shift to full-time editing if you think it can become a stable career for you.
Remember that networking also plays a crucial role in starting something new. You can search for small book meetups in your town or online meetings to get to know more people in the industry who can help you kickstart your journey.
The process of editing
Depending on what your client requires, a book editing process can take a variety of shapes. Editing a book starts with reviewing a manuscript as a reader first because you want to offer critique to your client that could make their own voice shine by fixing a few things.
If the client wants you to work on their book, you can offer them a sample of your ghostwriting style to assure them that it matches their own. Typically, editing a 250-page book will take you up to 4 weeks unless it’s urgent on the client’s end.
The journey to becoming a successful editor can be pretty challenging at the start because not many people will hire you or trust you with their projects. What you can do to resolve this is by doing a few pro-bono edits for some clients so that you can grow your portfolio and show your work to potential clients.