What are the duties of an editorial assistant?

The specific duties that the editorial assistant performs and the level of responsibility that they have depends on the size of the organization, as well as the type of publication that is being produced.

However, an editorial assistant role is typically an entry-level job for careers in the editorial industry. This means that typically editorial assistants perform a range of administrative and low-level editorial tasks necessary to the production of publications.

Typical duties of an editorial assistant may include:

• Supporting editorial staff in all activities leading to publication, including acting as a personal assistant to commissioning editors and overseeing tasks such as issuing contracts and dealing with royalties

• Liaising with other in-house teams, writers, photographers, printers, designers, and production staff to negotiate and monitor timescales for stages in the publishing process

• Dealing with the administration of work commissioned to freelance writers, picture researchers, photographers, stylists, and illustrators

• Organizing and researching projects to tight deadlines

• Correcting manuscripts

• Obtaining rights to use materials from other publications

• Writing articles and reports

• Using specialist electronic publishing packages (e.g., QuarkXPress or InDesign).

• Responding to copyright queries from writers and other publishers