Publishing editor
A publisher's editor ( Latin lector , reader), usually just called a lector , is an employee who works in the publishing industry to select, correct and evaluate manuscripts .
The job title and access to the job are free, there is no regulated training or study. Lecturers have often completed a degree in the humanities , mostly German , English and linguistics . Lecturers in specialist or scientific publishers have mostly completed a degree in the subject they supervise. The path to book publishers often leads through a publishing internship.
The publishing department to which editors are usually assigned is called the editing department .
Freelance editors not only work for book publishers, but also, for example, for PR and advertising agencies or for public institutions. One such activity for book publishers is called external editing.
activities
In addition to the selection, correction and evaluation of manuscripts, the other tasks of a publisher's editor include:
- looking for suitable authors and manuscripts for planning the publishing program ;
- suggesting manuscripts for inclusion in the publisher's program;
- the editing of manuscripts in collaboration with the author ( editing );
- accompanying the finished manuscript through readiness for printing through to publication;
- Coordinating marketing activities in collaboration with the advertising department (the editor usually drafts advertising and blurbs );
- the supervision of publishing authors in his area of responsibility, also independent of the individual project ( mediating role ).
The tasks of an editor overlap with those of the editor ( editing ) as well as with those of the proofreader and go further than these. It is not possible to sharply delimit activities from one another, they are at best historically understandable. The influence of the rapidly developing information and data processing has changed these professional fields for decades. Depending on the medium (book, newspaper, magazine, internet ...) the area of responsibility of the editor, editor and proofreader is tailored differently.
The activities also differ depending on the type of publisher: general publisher ( belletristic publisher, non-fiction publisher, advisory publisher), specialist publisher and scientific publisher.
Editors shape the publishing program with their personal profile to such an extent that authors sometimes join them when they change publishers.
Freelance workers often do the pure text work ; Especially editors who work for literary magazines and literary publishers are in low-paid, precarious employment.
Since the 1970s, the field of activity of the publishing editor has expanded to include tasks related to target group and market-oriented development of the publishing program ( product management ); this extension is reflected in job titles such as product manager or program planner.
See also
literature
- Association of Independent Lecturers e. V .: Guideline for free editing , 11th edition 2018, Bramann Verlag Frankfurt am Main, ISBN 978-3-95903-001-4 .
- Günther Fetzer: Professional goal of editing. Activities, basic knowledge, paths to work . 2nd, revised and expanded edition. Tübingen: A. Francke 2018. ISBN 978-3-8252-4927-4 .
- Walter Hömberg (with the assistance of Susanne Pypke and Christian Klenk): editor at the book publisher. Representative study on an unknown communication profession . 2nd edition, Konstanz: UVK 2011, ISBN 978-3-86764-338-2 .
- Gunther Nickel (Ed.): Crisis of the editing? Göttingen: Wallstein 2006 (with contributions by Thorsten Ahrend, Momo Evers, Ekkehard Faude, Gunther Nickel, Katharina Raabe, Hans-Ulrich Müller-Schwefe, Denis Scheck , Daniela Seel , Jörg Sundermeier and Dieter Wellershoff ).
- Gregor Reichle: Product management for specialist media . Frankfurt am Main: Bramann 2003, ISBN 978-3-934054-15-8 .
- Klaus Roehler : Job description: Lecturer . In: Freibeuter, Heft 33 (1987), pp. 75-78, ISSN 0171-9289 .
- Ute Schneider: The invisible second. The professional history of the lecturer in the literary publishing house . Göttingen: Wallstein 2005, ISBN 3-89244-758-6 .
- Michael Schickerling, Birgit Menche and others: Making books. A manual for editors and editors . 2nd Edition. Frankfurt am Main: Bramann 2008, ISBN 978-3-934054-31-8 .
- Johannes Schneider, Martin Bruch (Ed.): In the workshop of the editors: 10 discussions . Hildesheim: Universitätsverlag 2007, ISBN 978-3-934105-15-7 .
- Thedel von Wallmoden (Ed.): Tight rope dance. The author and the editor . Göttingen: Wallstein 2010, ISBN 978-3-8353-0741-4 (with contributions by 45 authors, including Jörg Albrecht , Hugo Dittberner , Durs Grünbein , Martin Walser ).
Web links
- Association of independent lecturers
- German Lectors' Conference
- Exchange Association of the Book Trade: Lecturer
- Workshop report : External editing , led by Miriam Mandelkow, report by Ulrich Blumenbach , in Translate , Zs. Des VdÜ , 2, 2006, p. 6f.