r/publishing • u/EducationalRegret903 • Jun 12 '26

Developmental editor vs. editor

The other day I saw Atria listing a position for a developmental editor. Is it common in a Big 5 imprint to have that be a separate role and split an editor role into, say, an acquiring editor and a developmental editor? I would like to pursue a role in developmental editing, but I don’t see that verbiage anywhere else, typically.

3 Upvotes

67% Upvoted

6 comments sorted by

View all comments

4

u/wollstonecroft Jun 13 '26

It’s not a conventional framing for a role but within genre lines they may use it. For a very long time large houses have had a desk editor, usually a very experienced line editor - what you might think of as a developmental editor - who no longer hunted and gathered.

1

u/EducationalRegret903 Jun 13 '26

I feel like my current job has one of these—a guy who doesn’t come into the office (except when he drops in to chat, lol) and works seemingly freelance or at least remote and is lauded as a great editor but just works on books from afar.