People in Editorial Department

I’ll start by introducing who’s who on the editorial side of the business:

• Editor-in-chief: Oversees the editorial direction and related policies of the imprint or publishing house, including content, style, budgets, and the editorial staff.
• Acquisitions editor: Works with the editor-in-chief to acquire content and make decisions about upcoming title lists. The role varies from publisher to publisher: This person can have the actual title acquisitions editor or can be called an editor, senior editor, or executive editor depending on seniority and on how much staff and list management responsibility the position carries. Some acquisitions editors are heavily involved in editing, and others do the acquiring and then assign the actual editing to a more junior editor.
• Associate editor (or editorial project manager): Works with the acquisitions editor in preparing manuscripts for production. This person works directly with the author and is the acquisitions editor’s right-hand guy or gal. An associate editor will begin to acquire books as well.
• Assistant editor: Handles some of the more mundane (but absolutely crucial) editorial and administrative tasks, such as researching competing titles, logging and doing reader’s reports on submissions, logging contracts and royalty statements, and writing copy for sales sheets.
  
• Developmental editor: Sometimes works with the acquisitions editor and author to help the author further develop a manuscript. This person may actually play the role of the author if the author cannot do the recommended or necessary rewrites.

Not every editorial department has each of these editors on staff, and not all positions are needed for each book. A developmental editor, for example, is only called upon for certain situations. Position titles can also vary between publishing houses.
Why isn’t the copyeditor on this list? The copyeditor is part of the team of people who polish a manuscript.