I’d love to be a writer or an editor one day. I have excellent writing skills (although, as you will likely notice, poor spelling skills) and a general love for publishing. Plus, the publishing industry is based in New York, which is where I would like to be.
Through high school, I worked as an editorial assistant for a small newspaper that focused on state politics with a primary audience of state employees. I mostly did research and general office tasks.
I also edited my high school literary magazine, and produced a “zine” of my own, although I doubt that counts for much.
In college I majored in Film and Digital media, and graduated this June with college and departmental honors. I took a lot of creative writing classses on the side, and produced some excellent but somewhat narrowly focused written work for my film classes. Sadly, I did not work on any student publications.
Right now I am working as a researcher/editor for a wierd guy that is writing a book. This job is really wierd and I’m working on quitting it. The guy is a legit published author, but I’m not sure what the terms are for the book he is currently working on because it is a more personal issue. If I play my cards right, though, I might be able to write whole chapters. Right now I am doing a lot of editing- where I sit down with him and help him rework chapters word for word. I’m really good at it and I enjoy it. But I doubt any employer will believe I was editing books right out of college, and it might hurt me if this book really is a vanity piece. Will this job help me get ahead?
I’ve applied for a ton of jobs that I seem qualified for, and gotten rejected from all of them. But part of that might be because I am in California and they are in New York.
Are these dreams do-able? Is my background strong enough? Is there anything I can do to make it stronger?
Been in medical publishing the last 9 years or so, in typography before that.
With good grammar and spelling skills, you could be a production editor or manuscript editor. With the current emphasis in publishing (as in other fields) on managing others, you would likely be checking the work of freelancers with the same skills and spending other parts of your day reviewing page proof, hassling authors and editors on the phone, tracking and trafficking proofs to and from authors and to and from typesetters. You may be expected to size art as well.
Publishing is going through some weird times right now, thanks in part to the internet. Publishers are also subject to the same consolidation tendencies at play in almost every other business right now. The companies are getting bigger and the staffs are getting comparatively smaller.
If I had to do it all over again and still wanted to be in publishing, I’d learn the difference between production and content. I’d seek a job (almost any job) where I worked for an acquisitions editor. The acquisitions editor signs up the writers and so influences/controls the content. That’s a bigger deal moneywise and responsibilitywise than influencing the style, at least in the eyes of the folks who decide how much your paycheck is worth. I’d also learn as much about marketing as possible, because generally, you only want to sign a contract for a book that can be successfully marketed.
You seem to have enough experience to at least get an assistant writer’s position. I doubt that you’re being turned down because you’re from California. The market is really soft right now, and flooded with people looking for a job. Several of my friends are running out of unemployment. Magazines with solid circulations (1 mil and over) have folded simply because of lack of ad dollars. Your best bet now is to get in with some freelance writing. Is there some niche that you would be knowledgeable enough about that a trade might pick you up for? (Jewelry, Insurance, Woodworking, left-handed pink monkeywrenches --you name it there’s a trade pub for it) Check out mediabistro.com they have classes, bulletin boards and job listings in the industry.
The publishing scene in New York is a fairly tight-knit community. Proximity helps a lot. You may be in for a long wait, plus the risk of moving across the country for an entry-level writing gig (and those level jobs may be more available if you do live there, as opposed to online file transfers) is fairly high.
Consider applying for editing work closer to home to build up your portfolio and experience. The advice given prior is excellent. Trade publications are more interesting than one might think. Also consider corporate communications departments and contract writing/editing agencies. They pay better than most publications–I really enjoyed a prior career as an editor and writer for a large corporation.
What Geoduck said, plus: Entry-level editorial assistants for publishers in NY get paid bubkes, work hard, and are much more assistants than editors, but you can move up fast if you’re willing to stick with it and good at it.
There’s more money in corporate communications.
Being able to polish and refine something is not a skill that’s highly valued, because that in itself doesn’t generate income. Therefore those jobs are poorly paid and are considered quite expendable in a tough economy, of the sort we’re in now. The big NY publishers are reshuffling and redistributing. The people who get to stay around are the people who create profit. But lots of jobs require good writing skills. The trick is to develop some other expertise that will enhance your writing/editing skills.