How Do You Become An Acquisition Editor?
There are editors and there are acquisitions editors. A standard copy editor is going to take a text and proof it for mistakes. He or she does not decide on which titles to publish. This is handled by an acquisitions editor who can be instrumental on shaping the direction of the publishing company. Start at the bottom. Sorry to break that to you, but if you’re looking for a get-rich-quick guide to the publishing industry, you’re not going to find it here. You should first apprentice to a current acquisitions editor to get to know the ins and outs of acquisition editing. Duties may include copy editing, as well as the time-honored tradition of getting coffee. Work for a literary agent. You don’t necessarily have to work in a publishing house to learn about acquisitions. These days, the literary agent is a very important part of the process–a kind of first line of defense that will weed out the bad books from the better ones. This is similar to the process of acquiring books for a publi
