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Topic: edit assist magazine VS edit assist book pub
| Author | Message |
| runronnierun | Posted – 9/9/2007 1:59:06 PM | show profile can someone compare and contrast the typical candidate for editorial assistant at a consumer magazine with the typical editorial assistant at a book publisher how are their skill sets different? i have been led to believe that book publishing is for people who can't keep the pace of the magazine world...but im sure its a little more complicated than that here is my thumbnail sketch of an editorial assistant at a magazine: harvard or yale or columbia good enough writer driven interested in things like food and fashion maybe a cokehead, but it doesnt show clever and opinionated relishes a spotlight basically my question is: am i wrong in thinking that the book publishing world will be kinder to more bookish people? |
| Vox-o | Posted – 9/9/2007 10:08:59 PM | show profile This thread is a joke, yes? Very stupid and lame. |
| runronnierun | Posted – 9/10/2007 9:27:34 PM | show profile so set me straight |
| SPF 30 | Posted – 9/10/2007 10:24:17 PM | show profile Cokehead? Seriously? This has to be a joke. Oh, and punctuation is good. Easy to learn, too. |
| JimmyG | Posted – 9/11/2007 3:54:44 PM | show profile Okay, I'll bite. These would usually be the same people looking for whatever entry level job will have them. My first job was in books, though that wasn't my first choice. Book publishing -- and you don't say what kind (trade, text, fiction, etc) -- works at a much slower pace than magazines and there is likely less chance than an edit asst at a book publisher would have any substantive impact on the products unless they work for a very small house. Whether or not that makes it better or not for a bookish person depends on the office environment, content, etc. Magazine work is quicker, and you may have opportunity to write department items and participate in planning sessions. Myself I found book publishing to be too sluggish a process to hold my interest, but then I wasn't exactly working at Harper Collins. I would say there were more "intellectuals" on the edit staff there than on the magazines for which I've worked, but that I think was more a function of people being hired with advanced degrees in English and Education who were looking to work but not teach. The magazine people I've worked with seem to be more eclectic in their backgrounds, but that's just my opinion. And I've encountered far more potheads than cokeheads in my travels in publishing. |
| runronnierun | Posted – 9/13/2007 11:07:19 PM | show profile cokeheads was the wrong term. i was getting carried away thanks for the in depth response |
| pennpixel | Posted – 9/14/2007 4:44:54 PM | show profile edit assist magazine VS edit assist book pub I started as an ed assistant at Random House but this was a long time ago. I was practically the only non-Ivy assistant, and one of a very few who came in through human resources. Things may have changed, but I would dispute the assumption that book assists get less hands on work. I was reading and rejecting manuscripts from my first day on the job. It will be typically a few years before you have your own book to edit (at least under your own name) but there is a lot of meaningful work to be done in the meantime. And, I believe there is more to learn as well since book editing skills are not typically taught in schools unlike magazine writing. Book people are, in my opinion, also a slightly more interesting bunch since the nature of the job requires that you be curious about almost everything, and up to date in your chosen fields. You get promoted because you can spot bestsellers, not because you can line-edit. Not every editorial assistant will be promoted to editor. The work is very complicated - if you write a magazine article that no one reads you get to try again the next month. Publish a book that doesn't sell and you could ruin the writer's career. |
