5/23/2023 0 Comments Does carriereditor still workIt can be hard to know what to anticipate earnings-wise. Unlike a salaried in-house employee, you’ll get paid per project, and certain factors will impact what you can charge (and thus earn) - namely your skillset, experience, and editorial niche. However, you need to view your income differently if you go it alone. With the ability to set your own rates, pick projects that align with your interests, and employ a flexible schedule, working as a freelance editor is an increasingly attractive prospect for many professionals in the publishing industry. That said, even if indie publishers have less titles to release each year, they tend to work in smaller, more tight-knit teams that are a little more dynamic when it comes to work delegation - which is a work life that some editors may prefer. When it comes to managerial roles, Big 5 publishers often pay more because of the scale and scope of production, even if base book editor salaries are similar across the board. As of the publication of this article, mid-level editorial jobs at Hachette are paying $45,000, whereas graduate roles are around the $30,000 figure - the latter of which is an industry standard, whether you’re at a boutique firm or a publishing juggernaut like Hachette. However, these bells and whistles don’t necessarily mean they will be paying more. Many would-be editors are attracted to these big publishers because of their glittering backlists, company perks, and industry clout. The Big 5, for those not up to speed with publishing parlance, means the industry heavyweights (in the US, at least) - Penguin Random House, Hachette Book Group, Harper Collins, Simon and Schuster, and Macmillan. Top publishers don't necessarily pay top dollar This unsurprisingly reflects differences in costs of living and where centers of commerce are located. The differences across states can be stark - with the lowest annual salaries mostly being found in the West and South: Montana ($41,030) and Louisiana ($42,340). According to this Forbes article, the highest salaries can be found on the East Coast, with Massachusetts coming in at first place ($89,280) and New York a close second ($83,070). How much book editors make varies from city to city, partly because of different costs of living, and also depending on how concentrated publishing houses are in certain cities. Big city editors get bigger bucks (in general) The broader your skillset and the more advanced you are in the career, the greater the possibility of earning better salaries, particularly if you take on the extra responsibilities of a managerial role. Like the majority of industries, the salary publishing houses are actually willing to pay you is subject to negotiation - especially if you’re more experienced. Of course, real life doesn’t fit into neat boxes in the way that data does. That being said, editor salaries are certainly nothing to scoff at, considering they come in around the average wage of a US worker. Note also that many editorial professionals start with unpaid internships. It’s worth remembering that starting salaries in many publishing houses (even the most prestigious ones) are notoriously low, as many will gladly accept a salary that barely exceeds the minimum wage to work in a desirable industry. These median salaries are constitutive of the wage a person could earn if they’ve been working in the industry for a number of years. Meanwhile, The Bureau of Labor Statistics puts the number for editor salary at $63,400 per year (roughly $30.48 per hour). Average in-house editor salariesĪ middleweight editor in a traditional publishing house will earn approximately $55,491 according to - a figure that is based on the aggregation of 802 salaries (as of March 2021). But how much do editors make? In this article, we'll look at the range that editor salaries fall into, and what factors contribute to it. A desk piled high with manuscripts, brushing shoulders with authors at glitzy book launches, getting a first glance at the freshest fiction around - working as a book editor is a pretty dreamy prospect for lots of people.
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