How do I gain experience in editing?
After years of critiquing fiction as a hobby, I feel like I've gained some skill at editing. I'm now wondering how I can try my hand at actually editing fiction.
While I've got a decent sense of how one starts out as a writer, I have no idea how one starts out as an editor. Editing seems to require a venue to edit for, and writers submitting publishable stories.
Is there a typical development path for editors? Where do I begin? And how do I gain actual, hands-on experience?
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I believe that many if not all of the small literary magazines are edited by volunteers. How those volunteers are selected I am not so sure, but I would begin by scouring their websites looking for any call for volunteers. Failing that, write to them and ask.
Now I would imagine that they will have the same criteria for editing for them as they do for writing for them. They will want you to actually read some copies in advance or perhaps even subscribe. My impression is that very few writers actually do this, because it is quite expensive to do when you are scattershooting your manuscript to every lit mag in Writer's Digest. But I would guess that a prospective volunteer editor would have to actually show some familiarity with and affection for the magazine they were proposing to edit for.
The other option, of course, is to start your own. Pretty easy to do on the web these days, but building an audience is a Herculean task.
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There's a few sites where you can offer your services. Check out Fiverr.com and upwork.com. I've worked with several editors on Upwork before.
Also look for local writers groups. Although, that would be more for practice then for contract work. A good resource for finding local groups is meetup.com
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