Media & Communication
How to become a Publishing Editor
Also known as Commissioning Editor, Copy Editor, Proofreader. Everything below comes from the same database our assessment scores against.
The route in
1. Undergraduate
3 years- Qualifications:
- B.A. English, B.A. Literature, Any bachelor's degree
- Entrance exams:
- CUET, University merit
- Typical cost:
- ₹40,000 to ₹7 lakh
What does a Publishing Editor earn in India?
Entry level
₹2 lakh – ₹5 lakh
per year
Mid career
₹5.5 lakh – ₹18 lakh
per year
Indicative. These bands are an editorial estimate assembled from public reporting, and have not yet been reconciled against a named dataset. Treat them as a shape, not a promise — the same title pays very differently across a service company, a product company and a start-up.
Outlook
Hiring demand
Stable — steady, predictable hiring.
Exposure to automation
High. A substantial part of what this role does today can already be done by software. It is not a reason to rule it out, but it is a reason to aim at the judgement-heavy end of it.
What does a Publishing Editor do?
What this actually looks like
A day as a Publishing Editor
Written about this role. The references behind it cover media & communication as a field rather than publishing editor specifically.
What you would actually be doing
- Reading submissions and deciding what is worth acquiring
- Working with an author through structural edits they did not expect
- Line editing and copy editing until the prose does what it should
- Managing a title through design, production, printing and a publication date
- Working with sales and marketing on positioning, jacket and launch
Who you work with
- Authors, at their most invested and least objective
- Copy editors, proofreaders, designers and production staff
- Sales, rights and marketing teams
- Literary agents and printers
What you work with
- Manuscripts, tracked changes and style sheets
- Production schedules and title budgets
- A house style guide, and a reference shelf
- Sales data on comparable titles
Where and when: A publishing house office, in Delhi, Mumbai, Bengaluru or Chennai, with a great deal of reading done outside working hours. Trade, academic, educational and children's publishing are quite different businesses. Lists are planned a year or more ahead.
Working conditions
- Typical hours
- 8 to 9 hours
- Remote possible
- Yes, at least partly
- Travel
- low travel
- Physical demand
- low physical demand
Reality check
Before you choose publishing editor
A report that only lists what is appealing about a career is an advertisement. This is the other half. Written about this role. The references behind it cover media & communication as a field rather than publishing editor specifically.
What people like about it
- You shape books, and the good ones outlive everyone involved
- Working closely with authors on their work is a real privilege
- Editorial judgement deepens for decades and is genuinely valued
- Educational and academic publishing are stable and growing
What is genuinely hard
- Trade publishing pays modestly for the qualifications it attracts
- Much of the reading happens in your own time
- Commercial pressure decides acquisitions more than editorial enthusiasm does
- Author relationships can be difficult when the edit is extensive
- Who tends to enjoy this work
- Read critically and constantly, can tell an author something hard about their book kindly, and hold a long production schedule in their head.
- What the education journey is really like
- A degree in English, literature or any subject with serious reading, then an editorial assistant role — publishing is learned inside a house. Publishing courses exist and help with entry. Educational and academic publishing hire subject specialists, so a science or commerce background is an advantage there rather than a drawback.
Other legitimate ways in
The first route does not always work, and it is not always the best one. These are real alternatives, not consolation prizes.
Editorial assistant into commissioning
- Degree with strong reading and writing, plus internships
- Editorial assistant, then assistant editor
- Commissioning editor with your own list
The route everyone takes. The assistant years are where the judgement is formed.
Subject specialism into academic or educational publishing
- Subject degree — science, commerce, law or education
- Editorial role in academic or educational publishing
- Senior editor or publishing manager for a subject area
Steadier, better paid than trade, and the subject knowledge is exactly what is being hired.
Who may not enjoy being a Publishing Editor?
Nothing here is a judgement about you — it is what the job is like, listed so you can decide whether it is what you want.
- The hours look like this: 8 to 9 hours.
- More of this work is exposed to automation than most, so the parts of it that are valuable will move during your career.
- Entry pay starts low — from about ₹2 lakh a year — and rises with what you can show rather than on the day you qualify.
The four hardest things about the work itself are listed above, under what is genuinely hard. If those and the points here describe things you would rather not sign up for, that is a real answer and worth having before a stream or a degree is chosen around it.
What skills does a Publishing Editor need?
What the job actually asks for, split four ways. The assessment tells you which of these your own scores already speak to.
Technical skills
- Structural editing and manuscript assessment
- Line and copy editing to a house style
- Commissioning judgement and list planning
- Production scheduling and title management
People skills
- Telling an author something difficult about their book
- Holding an editorial standard against a deadline
- Advocating for a title internally
Digital and AI skills
- Editorial and production workflow systems
- Typesetting and proofing workflows
- Sales and market data for comparable titles
Industry knowledge
- How trade, academic, educational and children's publishing differ
- How rights, royalties and advances actually work
- What a title's commercial case looks like before it is acquired
If Publishing Editor appeals, also look at
Chosen by how far the interest pattern and the weighted activities of each one overlap with this. The reason is printed so you can disagree with it.
Media & Communication
People move between these two often. Experience in one counts toward the other. Both use language & writing.
Media & Communication
People move between these two often. Experience in one counts toward the other. Both use language & writing.
Librarian & Information Scientist
Media & Communication
People move between these two often. Experience in one counts toward the other. Both use accuracy & verification.
Media & Communication
Uses the same language & writing and accuracy & verification skills. You get in a different way.
Education & Social Sciences
Built on the same language & writing interest. You get in through B.A. Education.
Streams this is reachable from
Exams worth knowing about
Where an exam has its own page, it lists every other career it opens — useful if this one turns out not to fit.
- CUET
- University merit
Where this qualification also leads
The degrees on this route open other doors too. Worth knowing before you commit to one destination.
Who tends to be happy here
People who rate these highly tend to stay in this work. If none of them sound like you, that is worth taking seriously.
- Independence
- Working conditions
- Achievement
Are you sure Publishing Editor is the career you want?
Everything above describes the job. None of it tells you whether it fits you. So it is worth asking plainly, before a stream or a degree gets chosen around it.
- Not sure? Then this is exactly the question the assessment exists to answer. It compares you against Publishing Editor and 196 other careers, and shows the arithmetic behind every score, so you can see why rather than being handed a verdict.
- Quite sure? Then double-check anyway. Being certain is not the same as having checked, and the cost of finding out late is counted in years rather than in the 45 minutes this takes. If it confirms what you already think, you carry on with a reason instead of a hope — plus the education route, the entrance exams and a ninety-day plan.
And if it does not line up, nothing closes. Publishing Editor stays on your list with the gap named and a route attached, next to the careers your profile already reaches — so the answer is something to act on either way.
Other Media & Communication careers
Last verified 2026-08-01. This is a career-guidance instrument. It is not a clinical or diagnostic tool. It does not measure intelligence, IQ, or a person’s worth. Its results are one input among several, and are intended to be interpreted with a trained counsellor.