Editorial Assistants

Any experience writing and editing will be useful for aspiring editorial assistants.

Good editorial assistants are fanatics for the written word. They read a lot, across many topics, and know how to think clearly and communicate what they are thinking. When they are curious about something, they take action and research the subject. They are not satisfied with not knowing things.

You must be detail-oriented to succeed as an editorial assistant. You must also be patient, since you may have to spend hours painstakingly tracking down hard-to-find facts and figures. You must be good not only at identifying problems but also at solving them, so you must be creative. The ability to work well with others is also important, as editorial assistants work closely with editors and other publishing professionals.