Career change: how to break into editing?

Going through a career change and would like to know where and how to start a career in editing. Any advice?Career change: how to break into editing?
The best way to break into the field is by gaining the knowledge and skills you'll need as an editor. Many local college campuses offer editing and proofreading courses that can help familiarize you with grammatical rules, editorial styles and proofreading marks. You'll want to purchase a couple of manuals for yourself:



AP Style Manual -- Often used by newspapers and other publishers.



APA Manual: Frequently used by academic publishers; often the style guide that is followed for writing upper and undergraduate papers.



Chicago Manual: Followed by many publishers for magazines, fiction and non-fiction.



These are by no means set in stone, but they are the most commonly used style guides. There are other guides on the market, but unless you are working in a specialized field (medical, for instance), you are fine learning the guidelines in these three.



Each of these style manuals presents a different way of editing. For instance, if you were editing a sentence that used commas, you would not use the serial comma if you were editing using AP, but you would with APA. (';I like apples, bananas and peaches'; versus ';I like apples, bananas, and peaches.';) Both of these are correct -- the most important part is to be consistent and stick with one style. Your employer will tell you which style the company prefers to use.



As far as job opportunities, look beyond publishing houses. Most businesses need someone with a good eye to look over their documentation or publications. In the newspaper, you'll find jobs listed under several headings including advertising, communications, editorial marketing and public relations.



On your resume, you'll want to highlight the courses you have taken that demonstrate your interest in editing. Make sure to mention any sort of editing you've done in your past positions as well. Your experience will give any future employers the confidence to hire you!



To be an editor, you must have an eye for detail and truly enjoy working with the English language. I hope this helps you as you start your new career! (And please forgive any typos in my reply to you -- I'm taking a lunch break and couldn't resist answering your question! :)