Publishing career

[Aheadfullofwords]

Does anyone work in publishing? My dream job is as a proofreader. I'm about to start year 2 of my degree in English Literature and Creative Writing with the Open University. And I was wondering how one gets into that career.

Having RTFT I wouldn't employ you with your rude attitude.

Hi, I'm an Editorial Director within an STM imprint within the big five. Proofreading is definitely still done, but it's done out of house by freelancers so you'd need to set up as a contractor. Rates are low, I'm afraid. Once you've got in and done a good job on a few projects then you are likely to get regular work. A specialist niche subject knowledge is useful if you were keen to copy edit too as this makes you stand out for imprints publishing in that area.

My advice, as someone on the fringes of the publishing industry would be,don't do it! As others have said the pay is lousy and there are lots of other people who want to do what you're hoping to do. The 'proper' jobs are mainly in London where living costs are high. It's challenging dealing with precarious freelance work. (Probably helps if you have rich parents/a rich partner. An awful lot of people working in the industry do.)

The competitiveness of the industry can also lead to a lot of nastiness, half-concealed under the banner of EDI. This is especially true in sectors like young adult and children's publishing.

I would try and keep a very open mind about the future - and look at a variety of careers, training schemes etc - even if you love books and writing.

I did a law degree and then a publishing MA then spent 20 years working for a big legal publisher. Got made redundant back in 2022 when it was farmed off to India.
Now work as a freelancer for my old company plus another legal publisher. For me (and another who were made redundant) there is quite a bit of work around but not sure how long it will last
it pays ok actually but one company can take 2 months from completing to get paid and money comes in adhoc

I have three friends who work in publishing.

One has a science background and works on scientific publications.
One has a languages background and works on books that has been translated from the languages that she speaks. (She doesn’t do the translating but does something to make the translation work in English I think but I don’t really understand as my understanding of linguistics is low.)

One has an incredibly cool sounding job working for one of the main publishers. However, in order to get it she did:-
1 years unpaid internship
A few years extremely badly paid internships
A couple more years as someone’s assistant’s assistant’s assistant
Many more years as someone’s assistant’s assistant
Several more years as someone’s assistant
And finally, in her forties, she has the most amazing sounding job but the pay is still pretty poor.

I used to be a publisher 😂

she is really unpleasant isn’t she. Asks for advice and opinions but then snarky and dismissive

What have you found AI to be replacing specifically in your area?
Do you think that publishing companies will work in different ways or that they will cease to exist?
I've said above that my role seems to be safe, at least for now, as my area is fairly niche, but I am concerned that if the authoring process changes or is completed by AI, that my role will then be affected.

Yes this is correct. If you want to be part of the creative side of book publishing I’d look at other types of roles. Think about whether you’d prefer to be in- house or freelance, work in fiction/non-fiction/academic/ schoolbooks etc. proofreading is the last stage of the editorial process so there is almost no scope for editorial input.