Hey, I'm currently in University in my final year, and soon to graduate - and I was just curious about one thing! How would you describe being an editorial assistant? I'm interesting in working in a Publishing House considering well.. my relationship with reading and books, so I just wanted to know if I should still pursue a potential (and hopeful) career.
Hey there!
Just for clarification: I’m not an editorial assistant, I’m a literary assistant! They’re decently similar, but editorial assistants work for publishers while literary assistants work for agencies.I talk about my job a little bit in pretty much every publishing post I’ve written to date, so you might want to check out the archives. You should pay particularly close attention to this post if you haven’t read it already because it gives a breakdown of my day-to-day workload (and conveys some ideas of what an editorial assistant does).
For brevity’s sake, I’d would describe my job as incredibly busy and often stressful, but also very rewarding. Anyone who wants to go into publishing needs to understand that publishing is not just working with books (which by itself can be boring all hell on some days, I assure you), it’s also working with people. Some are glorious human beings who I just want to interact with all day. Other are really entitled and have massive egos. Other self-depricate too much. It’s a lot of personalities pushing up against each other, and that can be difficult and stressful to work with.
Publishing is also a profession that you need to put a lot of extra work into. As an assistant, you’ll be salaried for your time in the office. You won’t get paid extra for the work you do at home. And trust me, you will do a lot of work at home.
Basically, this is an industry where you do a lot of work and put up with a lot of bullshit for not a lot of pay. If you love books, enjoy being in an office setting, and can handle stressful work loads and high-maintenance people, it’s also a rewarding industry. But that will vary from person to person.
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On a related note: when you’re writing cover letters and interviewing, DO NOT say that you want a job in publishing because you love books. Everyone in publishing and a great number of people outside of publishing love books. I know a ton of very prolific readers who would HATE this job. Saying that you love books just doesn’t set you apart.
Come up with another reason, maybe gleaned from your experiences as an intern. (If you haven’t been an intern in publishing, you’ll want to focus on that before trying to get a permanent position. It’s pretty much impossible (if not flat out unheard of) for an applicant to be hired without internship experience.)
Good luck applying!
