*dimsumdolly* - the different morsels of the life of a foodie

What I Do

For those of you who haven’t met me before and if you’re to do so sometime in the future, you’re most likely to ask me what I do for a living. My answer to that would be “Editor”. But do not follow that up (in my case) with “Which magazine?” or “Which newspaper?”

‘Cos much as I would like to say I work at some glossy magazine, I don’t.

This may or may not interest you, but I thought I'd just give you a better understanding of the publishing industry aside from that of newspapers and magazines (where an editor’s role is quite different). The information below was something I nicked from a presentation my boss gave, but here are the different kinds of editing explained:

Commissioning / acquisition: Identifying market needs; specifying book contents and format; clearing interval approval for projects (budgets etc); selecting and briefing authors; shaping sample units; managing projects — authors, editors, freelancers.

Development: Working with authors and authors’ manuscript to shape the material. Usually involved at a content/evaluative level—do activities work? Is the level of difficulty correct? Are the topics interesting/relevant, etc?

Copy: Language editing, usually not requiring specialist knowledge of the subject. This usually involves checking for grammar and punctuation.

Production: Liaising more directly with designers, responsible for overseeing page make-up

Editorial Support: Sometimes tasks such as indexing, copyright clearance and other administrative tasks can be done by assistant editors or freelancers.

However, there is often overlap in all these roles. I find myself doing everything mentioned above in my job. So there, I hope I’ve given you a better idea of what I do!

Posted by DSD at June 3, 2005 9:20 AM