The Job Descriptions of a Book Editor and a Newspaper Editor

Sam Ashe-Edmunds reports:

"Book editors and newspaper editors might have similar job titles, but their roles are not the same. They fashion content for different audiences, work with writers to meet different goals and meet deadlines on the opposite end of the time spectrum. If you are interested in pursuing a career as an editor, it is important to understand the difference between working for newspapers and book publishers...Book editors help writers create works that fit into the publishing company’s brand. Whether she is editing nonfiction or fiction, a book editor must understand the target audience and serve its needs. For example, this might be done by helping a writer make fictional characters more relevant to specific readers by adding cultural references or certain speaking patterns. A non-fiction book editor might work to highlight information that’s important to the company’s target reader rather than what interests the writer. A newspaper editor, on the other hand, has limited space to work with. Most articles are short and to the point, so the editor must ensure that reporters only emphasize the most important facts. Many newspaper editors develop an area of expertise, or a 'beat,' so they are better able to ensure writers deliver the right content...Depending on the type of content, an editor helps shape the direction of a story or an article. Fiction book editors help writers create believable characters by introducing personality traits and maintaining continuity of these traits throughout the book. They help readers visualize scenes by ensuring the writer delivers descriptive prose. A newspaper editor eliminates information that doesn’t get to the heart of a story, even though it might be interesting, based on the limited space he has. Newspaper editors ask writers and reporters questions that readers might have and suggest sources or additional content that will make the article stronger. Newspaper editors also check facts to ensure they are correct. In addition, they work to tighten up long introductions and work to enforce the inverted pyramid style of writing, which requires that the article present the most important information first...Book editors work with writers over the course of months or even years, depending on the value of the writer to the company. Because book writing is such a creative process, editors give writers longer deadlines to allow them to deal with temporary periods of writer’s block. Newspaper editors often work on stories during the day that will go to the printer that evening. The process is even shorter if there is a web version of the story that needs to appear sooner. Editors stay in close touch with writers during the reporting process to get updates and ensure the writer is on the right track. In many instances, newspaper editors make final edits without showing them to the writer before the article is published...Line editing is the process of making each sentence as strong as possible. This includes catching spelling and grammatical errors, eliminating run-on sentences, substituting words or phrases and making the sentence flow naturally in a paragraph. Book editors are at liberty to make sentences more creative, introducing more adjectives and adverbs, while newspaper editors often try to make sentences simpler, relying primarily on nouns and verbs."