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Subject:Editing vs. Writing From:"Tony G. Rocco" <trocco -at- NAVIS -dot- COM> Date:Tue, 4 Mar 1997 14:11:41 -0800
Hi, Carolyn,
Sorry to hear of your choice to go the editing route. It's a respectable
profession and good editors are very important, but the employment
prospects are a fraction of what they are for writers. At most companies,
writers also function as editors of their own work. Only larger firms can
hire full-time editors, and they don't hire as many of them as they do
writers. Also, editing work doesn't pay nearly what technical writing work
does.
If you ask me, writing is where the action is. You get hands on with the
technology, with the people who develop it, and with the users of it. The
writing end is multifaceted and offers a very wide range of opportunities.
The editing side will always remain pretty much the same regardless of the
subject matter, i.e., editing is editing is editing.
Reconsider the writing side, Carolyn. Full-time editing is a dead-end
route, IMHO.
Writing is like getting married. One should never commit oneself
until one is amazed at one's luck.
-Iris Murdoch
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