Acquiring editor jobs such as book editor jobs, online editor jobs, magazine editor jobs, and other editorial jobs are not impossible especially for a person who has a natural knack for it. A love for the English language and all its elements and intricacies will play a big role in the fulfillment of your dream to land editor jobs that are fulfilling, lucrative, and challenging. Being great in your chosen field is one way to bring success in your career. In editor jobs, several things can be done to become a great editor in your area of specialization and here are the top 10 ways of becoming a great editor.
- Editor jobs for books and magazines handle a more critical position since they are the ones responsible with the conversion of the raw copy of the material into a refined product that is ready for printing and distribution.
- To be a great editor in this specific area of publishing you should have exceptional language and writing skills on top of good knowledge of production. It is highly recommended for you to keep a dictionary and a thesaurus handy all of the time. This way you can be assured that you are using the right words in expressing your ideas.
- Another way to be a great editor is to possess excellent editing skills to ensure that there are no grammatical errors. To address this, you can enroll in special courses that will sharpen your grammatical skills. Doing as many editing and proofreading jobs even when not within the context of your job can also help in the improvement of your skills and can further land you better editorial jobs in the future.
- Another way towards becoming a great editor is to be able to have a clear understanding of the target market audience of the company you are working for. When editing the work of writers and contributors, careful attention should be given to the choice of words of the writer.
- The general rule for editors when editing the work of writers is to aim for readers with an eighth grade education. Carefully choosing the words to be used is important in catching the attention of your readers and if you lose this concept within the duration of your editorial career then you might get into trouble with the decline of clients by the losing of loyal subscribers.
- Another tip to consider in becoming great in editorial jobs is that you must be able to determine whether the various sections of the book are in unison while giving attention to word usage to avoid verbiage and details. Your strong skills on thought organization will be of great use to materialize this plan of action. Positive results will be generated if this action will be undertaken by the editors.
- Another way to be a great editor is to be able to give clear instructions to the writers. Writers are not mind-readers, thus it will be helpful for them if editors like you can give them guidelines as to the style of writing to be used for the article or book, the outline of expectations for the material to be prepared and the providing of the contract up-front.
- Another way to become a great editor is to be able to suggest when appropriate sources for the assigned topic to be written by the writers. Deadlines are very stressful especially for those writers who have many other things to do.
- A good editor usually gives a week lead time for the completion of the article assigned. This is just enough time needed for the writers to conduct research, interviews, writing, and re-writing of articles to be submitted and good articles really need time to prepare. A great editor is one who edits to improve and not obscure the writer's writing. The whole idea and tone of the articles submitted to editors comes from the writers and as editors it is not your right to make inappropriate shifts in tone in the article by interjecting your own words.
- Another way to be a success in editor jobs assigned to you is to ensure that writers are paid on time and are notified once the article goes public. Editors must understand that writers are busy and they don't need to be burdened by having to keep track of their pay checks personally. The time spent in tracking down their money can be time used in writing an article.
