editing in the UK

[winterbadger]

I think I've probably asked this before, but I would be grateful if any of my UK readers who are involved in the publishing industry (or work as proofreaders, editors, or technical authors in whatever field) and wouldn't mind my picking their brains could give me a shout, I would be most grateful.

Comments

[davywavy.livejournal.com]

Depends what you want to ask?

[winterbadger]

Basically I'm curious about what the field is like, what sort of opportunities there are, what salaries are like, whether it's regionally concentrated, whether people tend to work more as freelancers or as employees of an editing/publishing firm or as employees on teams within other industries.

I've worked as an editor/writer/indexer in an academic publishing house, as a production manager/website maintainer/reporter in a scientific research organization, as a journal subeditor/process manager in a (educational) membership association, and as a researcher/editor/analyst/database designer in defense-related companies. I've also commissioned work from freelance editors in some of my managing positions, and I'm aware of one or two companies that provide editing and publishing services to companies who don't want to maintain a fulltime editorial staff. So one thing I'm trying to figure out is how typical those experiences are compared with the industry in the UK.

I keep curent with the listings in some of the big employment websites (Reed, Monster) and occasionally read others (Bookseller, S1jobs); mostly what I see are entry level positions (which I'd be overqualified for) and mid-level positions. The latter seem to be mostly in scientific companies or in marketing positions, and they seem to pay in the ~GBP20,000 to 25,000 range (which is roughly comparable to a good salary for the same sort of position over here). The majority of them seem to be in and around London (which is a pretty scary expensive place to live on 20,000 a year). But I also know that a lot of hiring in the UK is done through agencies, rather than by direct advertisment (agencies are rarely used in the US except for temporary office staff or *extremely* specialized staff). So I'm also trying to figure out if those are fairly typical parameters, or whether I'm just not seeing a lot of jobs that don't get advertised in that way.

Other possibilities that occur to me are that more editorial work is done by freelancers in the UK than here, by publishing firms (not common in the US but not totally unknown), or that it's more often just done by someone in-house as an extra duty and not considered as specialized a skill.

I have been in touch with the Scottish Publishers Association, who provided me with some info; I have a raft of professional groups to contact (PA, IPG, PPS, PPA), but I figured I'd survey my friends as well and get a more personal opinion or two.