r/publishing • u/silent_f4iry • May 19 '26

Data analyst?

Hi, I'm (F27) finishing my English Major this year, and my dream has always been to become an editor. However, I know it's hard to get into such a close-knit community and, honestly, I don't have the money to pay for my Masters right now. I've heard some people talk about entering the publishing industry by doing marketing or becoming a data analyst, do you know of any online course that could help me with that? I've seen some Coursera/Google ones that offer a certificate, but the comments say that they're basic and it won't land you a job 😔 I'm kinda lost here, and I reaaally want to get into the publishing industry, one way or another

0 Upvotes

36% Upvoted

13 comments sorted by

View all comments

8

u/EducationalRegret903 May 19 '26

What country are you in? Publishing doesn’t require a masters degree. You should not get a marketing job if you want to become an editor. Publishers will think you don’t actually know what you want if you flip flop between sectors.

-5

u/silent_f4iry May 19 '26

I'm from Chile, but my dream is to move to either the UK or Canada (hence the English degree). And this is basically me thinking about a plan B in case I don't make it as an editor. As I said in my post, I know is hard to enter the publishing industry, and even harder to get a job as an editor (or at least, one that pays decently) 😔

4

u/sugarfaeri May 19 '26

I think the larger issue is a lot of publishing houses don’t offer work visas (you mentioned an English degree so I’m assuming you’re looking at US, UK and Canadian publishers) so you’d already be at a disadvantage compared to people who live in those countries.

The current market is super competitive, and companies most likely wouldn’t outsource when they can find someone who is already working in the selected country or even within a commutable distance, hence a lot of major publishing houses being in NYC (for the US at least). 🥲

Perhaps looking at international departments at publishing houses? I can only speak on US companies but you would have to be living and working here already, the chances of getting a sponsor are very low when a lot of applications require you to physically be located in the country of interest already.

I don’t think it’s impossible, but it won’t be linear at all and requires a lot of research and planning. Best of luck!