When passing through the Vancouver Airport recently, I was surprised to see a friend that I know through multimedia circles working there as a security guard. While Rob checked my bags for fertilizer bombs, his partner in crime (fighting) asked me what I did for a living.

“I’m an editor.” I replied.

“Oh.” (I pretended not to notice the flat, bored tone in his voice.) Then he piped up, “What do you edit? Newspapers?”

“No, actually I’m a book editor. Mostly business and lifestyle topics.”

I was moving over to get my laptop back from the x-ray conveyor, when he eagerly stepped up at my elbow and panted, “Wow! Really? How do you get into that racket?” Suddenly, I felt like a rockstar.

Good question. I sometimes ponder this myself, because when I started out, I had no idea that I’d ever end up working in the publishing field. I’ve had a very roundabout journey to this career, from dreaming about being a writer as a child, to an application to a Cordon Bleu school. My original stint in college was all about fine arts, but I left when I became convinced that a life as an artist was a quick path to starvation.

I did make an actual living working in technology for over 10 years, but when I realized that the next generation of kids were coming along, I started to feel my age and became bored. I needed serious change.

Around Y2K, knowing that I needed to get back to my literary roots, I was able to spin my experience in technology into a writing career, mostly focused on technical writing and writing for the web /eLearning. This turned out to be immensely rewarding. I went back to University, and attended the SFU Writing and Publishing Program. There I took my first editing class, and when I found myself debating the merits of apostrophe placement and charting sentences, I knew I was hooked.

According to the EAC, the Editor’s Association of Canada, most editors don’t start out to be Editors, and many of them fall into it by accident. In fact, the EAC’s certification (or rather, recognition) of professional editors is by a test that has no preparatory guide or course. It’s constructed so that only an editor who has a history in the business can pass it. The paradox of doing the job for a number of years before one can call themselves certified is interesting, yes. The value of experience is something less and less respected in a world of 6-month specialized training programs.

Although it’s true that what really makes an editor’s heart beat faster is a love of language, Editors perform a wide variety of tasks that all have their roots in quality communication strategies. Photo editors, fact-checkers, project managers, and all the other aspects of this job require a wide variety of creative and technical skills. These cover art and design all the way to production and logistics management, and in my case, a strong element of salesmanship. Editors are like vaudeville performers: part dancer, part singer, part comedian.

All of this means that ongoing education is a very important element in my job preparation. Like a mechanic working in the pits of the racetrack, I am always reading manuals, upgrading my technical knowledge, and ogling new tools. (Remember, I’m the one who collects vintage dictionaries. For fun.) I enjoy aspiring to emulate those grease monkeys, working on the sidelines to do a dirty job with as much style as possible, and make my authors (drivers) look as good as I possibly can.