How Much Do Book Editors Earn?

By Dianna Dilworth 

When you are looking for a new job, one of the daunting tasks can be determining your salary requirements. You want to ask for enough to make the job worth your while, but you don’t want to ask for so much that you are not considered. So how much money do editors make?

Using the anonymous job site Glassdoor, we found that the average salary for an editor in the New York area is $53,500 a year. This includes book editors and magazine and newspaper editors. The site breaks out figures from specific companies.

Below, we’ve made a list of what editors at three book publishing companies make–all the figures drawn from anonymous users at Glassdoor. You can use the site to determine the salaries of various positions at other companies. In addition, Folio has released its 2011 Editorial Salary Survey for magazine editors.

At Penguin, an Editor averages $55,125 a year. This figure is based on eight respondents whose salary ranged from $40-75,000 a year. An Associate Editor makes an average of $41,654. This figure is based on two respondents whose salary ranged from $38-$45,000 a year. A senior editor can expect to make $70,000 a year. This figure is based on eight respondents whose salary ranged from $54-93,000 a year.

At Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, an editor averages $49,920 a year. This figure is based on 14 respondents whose salary ranged from $32-77,000 a year. A senior editor makes an average of $58,824. This figure is based on five respondents whose salary ranged from $38-$75,000 a year. A supervising editor makes an average of $71,000 a year. This figure is based on eight respondents whose salary ranged from $59-90,000 a year.

At Random House, an associate editor averages $44,000 a year. This figure is based on four respondents whose salary ranged from $42-$45,000 a year. A production editor averages $52,230 a year. This is based on two respondents whose salary ranged from $42-$62,000 a year.