Why I Quit My Dream Book Publishing Job to Be a Freelance Book Editor
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For many people who are interested in writing and editing, who maybe even got a degree in English or Creative Writing, working at a Big Five publishing house is a dream come true. The Big Five publishing houses—which include Penguin Random House, Macmillan, Hachette, HarperCollins, and Simon & Schuster—are seen as the cream of the crop when it comes to publishing. Editors and authors are drawn to them because of the high caliber of books that they produce and the reputations of those who are published by them.
As a result, editorial jobs at Big Five publishers are quite competitive and difficult to get. Working in the editorial department at a Big Five publishing house was my dream job when I was coming out of college, and I was lucky enough to get a job at Random House. But in 2018, I quit my editorial job and started developing my career as a freelance book editor.
Since making that shift, I've gotten a ton of questions about why I would leave a book publishing job like that to freelance, so in this article I want to talk through some of the reasons why I left Random House and explain why I've never looked back.
It Allowed Me to Edit More
The first and biggest reason why I left my book publishing job to freelance was that it allowed me to do more of what I love. This might sound counterintuitive, but the truth is that editors at Big Five houses do a lot more than sit around and edit books. In fact, many times, editing falls at the end of their to-do list and is pushed to off-the-clock hours, nights, and weekends instead.
That's because Big Five publishing houses are large corporations and, as such, there is a lot of administrative work that needs to be done during the day. Editors are not only responsible for editing, but have to keep an eye on other departments like design, publicity, and marketing. They attend cover design meetings, help write the jacket copy that goes on the book’s back cover, and send out advanced review copies of books to generate buzz and get blurbs. There are many other tasks that fall on their plate besides actual editorial work.
A huge shift for me when I transitioned to freelancing was that I could spend much more of my time actually sitting down and editing books, which is, at the end of the day, what I absolutely love to do. It was refreshing to have that time and it allowed me to grow much more as a developmental book editor because I was able to dedicate more time to working on storytelling issues within manuscripts.
Of course, with freelance work, I still have administrative tasks such as emails, taxes, and social media management, and they do take up more time than I would like. But overall, a much larger percentage of my time now goes to editing and communicating with authors than it did when I was at Random House.
I Can Work More Flexibly
The second reason why I quit my book publishing job to freelance was that I can work more flexibly. One of the factors that spurred my decision to leave my editorial job was that my long-term boyfriend got a job in Boston. At the time, we were based in New York, which is where all of the major publishing houses and literary agents are headquartered. I never envisioned myself leaving New York because I always intended to have a career in publishing; I just expected to stay there forever, slowly working my way up the ranks and eventually becoming an executive level editor.
Since this was in 2018, remote work within publishing was not a viable option. I began to like the idea of exploring a new city and not having to equate my job with where I needed to live, especially considering the extremely high expense and stress of living in New York.
Being self-employed now means that I can work whenever and wherever I want, which has been freeing. It allowed me and my partner to move to Boston and then San Francisco, allowed us to get a dog, because now I have the time to take care of him throughout the day, and allowed us to freely travel because I can take my work with me.
That said, it's not all sunshine and rainbows, obviously. It is very hard to establish a clear work-life balance when you work for yourself, and from home, because you have no designated working hours or holidays. This is something I'm still working on and continually trying to improve, but overall I definitely do prefer the flexible working environment versus going into an office and being expected to commit certain days and certain hours.
I Can Connect With More Authors
The next factor that went into my decision to leave my dream job was that freelancing actually allows me to reach more authors than I ever would have if I had stayed in my book publishing job. This is because in a publishing house setting, you are working with a select list of authors whose books you are ushering through the publishing process. The publishing process, in a traditional publishing setting, takes years, so while it's nice to develop longer term relationships with authors, you don't see the results of your labor for a long time. Plus, there's only so many authors that you can support at any given moment.
Because I am now solely committed to the developmental editing portion of the publishing process, I'm actually able to work with more authors, reaching and connecting with people I never would have encountered otherwise. These are authors who don't have agents, who have never published anything before, who are based in Germany or Dubai or Australia. It has been so rewarding to make those connections and help them pursue their writing and publishing dreams.
Sharing YouTube videos, Instagram posts, Substack newsletters, TikToks, and of course these blog posts has allowed me to connect with so many writers and author hopefuls, which I am incredibly grateful for. It's something I never expected, but is very fulfilling to me.
I Can Choose My Own Projects
The last reason why becoming a freelance book editor appealed to me was that I'm able to choose my own projects. In a publishing house setting, editors are working with a certain number of authors, and are also typically working within a select number of genres that are considered their specialty. In a perfect world, the genre that an editor works with aligns with their own reading interests–but that's not always the case. Because publishing is a business, sometimes an imprint will need coverage in certain genres, so editors may take on projects that don’t exactly suit their tastes or interests.
It's also harder for an editor to break free from the genres that have kind of been assigned to them. If they did, they would have to convince the higher-ups in the editorial department that they are the right editor for this different genre, even though that hasn't been the type of work they have had a history of working on thus far.
Anytime an editor leaves or transitions to a different imprint within the publishing house, their authors and books get reassigned to the other editors. Thus, most editors will have books and authors on their list that they have inherited, meaning they didn't actually acquire that book themselves. It doesn’t mean they don’t like those authors or books, but they also didn’t necessarily choose to work with them.
As a freelance editor, I get to choose all of my own projects, which is amazing. I review sample pages and a summary of all the manuscripts when people reach out to request a quote from me, which allows me to feel much more confident that we are a good editorial match. It also means I'm usually more personally interested in the story that they are writing.
I have found that since editing is such a subjective and creative endeavor, the more a manuscript aligns with your personal taste, the more productive and exciting the editorial process will be. As a freelance book editor, I have more ability to pursue the projects I'm interested in than I would if I was an employee at a publishing house.
Despite the difficulties and challenges with being self-employed, I truly haven't looked back since I quit my book publishing job, and I can't imagine doing anything else!
Thanks so much for reading, and happy writing!