--- title: "Book Editor" description: "Acquires manuscripts for a publishing house and works with authors to shape them into finished books." canonical: "https://nuecareer.com/careers/book-editor" last-updated: "2026-10-09T10:57:55.138Z" --- # Book Editor **Category:** Arts, Design, Entertainment, Sports, and Media · **SOC code:** 27-3041 · **O\*NET-SOC code:** 27-3041.00 Acquires manuscripts for a publishing house and works with authors to shape them into finished books. Also advertised as: Trade Book Editor; Developmental Editor; Senior Editor (Publishing); Associate Editor (Publishing); Editorial Director. ## At a glance - **Median annual wage:** $77,920 (BLS OEWS, May 2025) - **Median hourly wage:** $37.46/hr - **Wage range (10th–90th percentile):** $41,250 to $153,700, with the middle half between $57,300 and $106,100 - **Total US employment:** 91,690 - **Typical entry education:** Bachelor's - **Preparation required:** Medium preparation — O\*NET rates this "Job Zone Four: Considerable Preparation Needed" - **Projected growth:** -1.1% over 2025–2035 (BLS EP, 2025–2035) - **Annual job openings:** 7,900 openings a year - **AI-resilience score:** 34/100 — a NueCareer heuristic over O\*NET work activities and context, not a BLS or O\*NET figure ## Pay National wage distribution, BLS OEWS, May 2025, across 91,690 US jobs. | Percentile | Annual wage | | --- | --- | | 10th | $41,250 | | 25th | $57,300 | | 50th (median) | $77,920 | | 75th | $106,100 | | 90th | $153,700 | | Mean (average) | $90,060 | ### Pay by state The 15 highest-paying states, by median annual wage. The cost-of-living-adjusted column divides the state median by that state's BEA Regional Price Parity, so the columns answer different questions: the first is what the job pays there, the second is what that pay buys there. | State | Median annual wage | Cost-of-living adjusted | Employment | | --- | --- | --- | --- | | NY | $101,480 | $94,032 | 16,800 | | CA | $98,030 | $88,539 | 14,830 | | CT | $85,950 | $82,955 | 1,050 | | DC | $83,920 | $76,360 | 3,310 | | MA | $83,170 | $78,643 | 3,100 | | NJ | $81,680 | $75,070 | 2,120 | | VA | $80,590 | $79,710 | 2,720 | | RI | $77,960 | $76,222 | 340 | | CO | $77,870 | $75,564 | 1,830 | | WA | $77,850 | $72,748 | 1,860 | | GA | $76,650 | $79,601 | 1,920 | | IL | $76,060 | $76,092 | 4,560 | | MD | $75,550 | $71,980 | 1,850 | | DE | $75,020 | $75,164 | 170 | | FL | $73,950 | $71,509 | 3,790 | 36 more states with published wage data are omitted here. The full table for all 51 states is at https://nuecareer.com/careers/book-editor/salary-by-state, or as JSON at https://nuecareer.com/api/v1/careers/book-editor. ## Outlook BLS projects employment to move from 105,000 in the 2025–2035 base year to 103,800 by the end of the cycle — a loss of 1,100 jobs, or -1.1%. Declining: -1.1% against 3.5% projected for all occupations over the same cycle. About 7,900 openings a year are expected on average, counting openings from growth as well as from workers leaving the occupation permanently. Source: BLS EP, 2025–2035. ## How to get in - **Typical entry education:** Bachelor's degree (BLS Employment Projections). - **Preparation level:** Medium preparation — O\*NET's preparation band for this occupation is "Job Zone Four: Considerable Preparation Needed". - **Related work experience typically required:** Less than 5 years. - **Typical on-the-job training:** None. ## What the work involves - Read and evaluate manuscripts and proposals from literary agents - Pitch projects at acquisitions meetings and negotiate offers - Write editorial letters on structure, pacing and argument - Line edit manuscripts with authors - Write jacket copy and brief cover designers - Present books to sales and marketing teams - Manage schedules from manuscript delivery to publication ## Skills and knowledge ### Essential skills - Reading Comprehension — importance 5.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale - Writing — importance 4.4 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale - Active Listening — importance 4.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale - Speaking — importance 4.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale - Critical Thinking — importance 3.9 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale - Active Learning — importance 3.3 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale - Monitoring — importance 3.3 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale - Learning Strategies — importance 3.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale ### Transferable skills These are the skills that carry into other occupations, and they drive the related-occupation and career-change rankings on this site. - Time Management — importance 3.4 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale - Complex Problem Solving — importance 3.3 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale - Judgment and Decision Making — importance 3.3 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale - Social Perceptiveness — importance 3.1 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale - Negotiation — importance 3.1 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale - Management of Personnel Resources — importance 3.1 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale - Coordination — importance 3.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale - Persuasion — importance 3.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale ### Knowledge areas - English Language — importance 4.8 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale - Communications and Media — importance 4.8 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale - Customer and Personal Service — importance 3.9 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale - Design — importance 3.8 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale - Administration and Management — importance 3.6 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale - Computers and Electronics — importance 3.3 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale ### Abilities - Written Comprehension — importance 5.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale - Written Expression — importance 5.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale - Oral Comprehension — importance 4.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale - Oral Expression — importance 4.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale - Fluency of Ideas — importance 3.9 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale - Near Vision — importance 3.9 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale ## Who it suits O\*NET rates every occupation on the six Holland (RIASEC) interest areas, on a 1–7 scale. This occupation's strongest areas are Artistic (A), Conventional (C), Enterprising (E). | Interest area | Score (1–7) | | --- | --- | | A — Artistic | 5.57 | | C — Conventional | 4.72 | | E — Enterprising | 4.51 | | I — Investigative | 2.90 | | S — Social | 2.56 | | R — Realistic | 1.03 | ### Personality fit These scores are **derived by NueCareer**, not published by any government agency: they are cosine similarities between a personality type's trait profile and this occupation's O\*NET interest and work-style ratings, expressed 0–100. Treat them as a starting point for exploration, not as evidence that a type belongs in a job. | Type | Fit score (0–100) | | --- | --- | | ENFJ | 68.6 | | ENTJ | 63.7 | | INFJ | 63.2 | | ENFP | 61.3 | | ENTP | 57.4 | Best-fitting types: ENFJ, ENTJ. ## Related occupations O\*NET's primary related occupations, in its own ranked order. - [Editor](https://nuecareer.com/careers/editor) — median $77,920 - [Proofreader and Copy Marker](https://nuecareer.com/careers/proofreader-and-copy-marker) — median $51,120 - [Film and Video Editor](https://nuecareer.com/careers/film-and-video-editor) — median $75,420 - [News Analyst, Reporter, and Journalist](https://nuecareer.com/careers/news-analyst-reporter-and-journalist) — median $62,200 - [Poet, Lyricist and Creative Writer](https://nuecareer.com/careers/poet-lyricist-and-creative-writer) — median $76,910 - [Writer and Author](https://nuecareer.com/careers/writer-and-author) — median $76,910 - [Technical Writer](https://nuecareer.com/careers/technical-writer) — median $90,390 - [Producer and Director](https://nuecareer.com/careers/producer-and-director) — median $90,360 - [Desktop Publisher](https://nuecareer.com/careers/desktop-publisher) — median $55,290 - [Public Relations Specialist](https://nuecareer.com/careers/public-relations-specialist) — median $74,750 ## Sources - **O\*NET** — O\*NET 31.0 Database, August 2026. https://www.onetcenter.org/database.html - **BLS OEWS** — BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics, May 2025. https://www.bls.gov/oes/ - **BLS EP** — BLS Employment Projections, Table 1.2, 2025–2035. https://www.bls.gov/emp/ - **BEA RPP** — BEA Regional Price Parities by State, 2024. https://www.bea.gov/data/prices-inflation/regional-price-parities-state-and-metro-area --- This bank includes information from the O\*NET 31.0 Database by the U.S. Department of Labor, Employment and Training Administration (USDOL/ETA). Used under the CC BY 4.0 license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). O\*NET® is a trademark of USDOL/ETA. NueCareer has transformed the data by joining it to BLS wage and projection data and deriving facet, personality-fit and AI-resilience scores. BLS and BEA data are public domain (17 U.S.C. §105). O\*NET content is used under [CC BY 4.0](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). How these figures are sourced and derived: https://nuecareer.com/careers/methodology JSON representation of this page: https://nuecareer.com/api/v1/careers/book-editor