Is anyone here in the editing field? What do you think of it?

>>8386197
I'm an editorial project manager, which means I'm basically a middle man between publishers and freelance copy editors. I spend more time reviewing edits than actually editing. So I'm not exactly Gordon Lish.

If you have good self-discipline to hit deadlines, you could make a decent living as a freelancer, and you would have a lot of freedom once you are established and have a fairly reliable stream of projects.

>>8386965

How to get in as a freelancer?

>>8386977
Make sure you know Chicago style, and it wouldn't hurt to know APA (I'm assuming you are American). Being able to follow a style guide is more important that being a grammar wiz.

Scour the internet for job postings. Look on Craigslist. Set up a LinkedIn profile and connect with as many freelance editors as you can. Some of them can probably give you good leads.

It will take some work getting yourself established. Project managers prefer to assign projects to freelancers that they know to be reliable rather than using somebody new. So you're going to have to really work at finding projects and establishing yourself at first. And you'll need to be willing to edit some very boring and/or just plain bad books starting out.

Alternatively, if you are young, you might look at internships with publishers rather than going the freelance route.