How To Get A Job in Publishing: A Guide To Careers in The Booktrade, Magazines and Communications 2nd Edition Alison Baverstock
How To Get A Job in Publishing: A Guide To Careers in The Booktrade, Magazines and Communications 2nd Edition Alison Baverstock
How To Get A Job in Publishing: A Guide To Careers in The Booktrade, Magazines and Communications 2nd Edition Alison Baverstock
https://ebookmeta.com/product/how-to-get-a-job-at-the-
un-2022-new-full-guide-2022nd-edition-united-nations/
https://ebookmeta.com/product/symptoms-in-the-pharmacy-a-guide-
to-the-management-of-common-illnesses-9th-edition-alison-
blenkinsopp/
https://ebookmeta.com/product/so-you-want-to-be-a-brain-surgeon-
the-essential-guide-to-medical-careers-success-in-medicine-4th-
edition-lydia-spurr/
Beginner's Guide to Digital Painting in Photoshop (2nd
edition) 3Dtotal Publishing (Editor)
https://ebookmeta.com/product/beginners-guide-to-digital-
painting-in-photoshop-2nd-edition-3dtotal-publishing-editor/
https://ebookmeta.com/product/caribbean-publishing-in-britain-a-
tribute-to-arif-ali-2nd-edition-asher-hoyles/
https://ebookmeta.com/product/researching-communications-a-
practical-guide-to-methods-in-media-and-cultural-analysis-3rd-
edition-david-deacon/
https://ebookmeta.com/product/how-to-get-a-phd-7th-edition-
estelle-m-phillips/
HOW TO GET A JOB IN PUBLISHING
So you’ve always dreamed of a career in publishing… but you don’t know where to
start or how? You’re holding the key in your hands!
Using insider information, How to Get A Job in Publishing is the newly revised
edition of the classic text for you if you are keen to work in publishing or associated
industries –or if you are already in publishing and want to go further.
Packed with real-life quotes, case studies and practical advice from publishing
veterans, and more recent arrivals, the authors differentiate types of publishing and
explain how roles and departments work together. They discuss the pros and cons
of internships and further study as well as training and lifelong learning, working
internationally, networking and building your personal brand. The book includes
vital guidelines for applying for publishing roles, including sample CVs and cover
letters and a glossary of industry terms, to make sure you stand out from the crowd
when you apply for jobs.
This thoroughly updated edition covers:
A new chapter addresses equity, diversity, inclusion and belonging, reflecting on the
current state of the publishing industry, how to evaluate potential employers and
how to look after yourself and others at work.
Whether you are a new or soon-to-be graduate of Media and Publishing, or are
just interested in a career in publishing or the creative industries, How to Get A Job
in Publishing is an essential resource.
Alison Baverstock worked in book publishing for many years and then played
a pivotal role in establishing the academic field of Publishing Studies. She is now
Professor of Publishing at Kingston University and the author of both many books
and much significant research. She has founded and led award-winning initiatives
to widen involvement in higher education and inclusion in reading, including the
Kingston University Big Read and www.readingforce.org.uk. She is a priest in the
Church of England and a keen singer.
Susannah Bowen worked in educational and academic publishing for many years,
including at Cengage Australia and Open University Press, McGraw-Hill, UK,
and is now with Campion Education, one of Australia’s largest booksellers/school
suppliers. She’s the Industry Associate, Publishing Program, School of Culture and
Communication at the University of Melbourne, and Joint Principal Researcher
for the Australian Publishing Industry Workforce Survey on Diversity and Inclusion.
She’s a cake baker and rides a blue Vespa.
Steve Carey worked for Future Publishing, UK, launching nine magazines
including Edge and PC Gamer. In Australia he was Publishing Director for Australian
Consolidated Press looking after titles including Wheels and MOTOR. He has a
doctorate on James Joyce from Jesus College, Oxford and has lectured in publishing
for Monash and Melbourne Universities. He recently wrote his first screenplay,
Love’s Bitter Mystery. He is now a clinical hypnotherapist and podcaster.
HOW TO GET A JOB IN
PUBLISHING
A Guide to Careers in the Booktrade,
Magazines and Communications
Second edition
Alison Baverstock, Susannah Bowen
and Steve Carey
Designed cover image: Getty Images
Second edition published 2023
by Routledge
4 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon, OX14 4RN
and by Routledge
605 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10158
Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business
© 2023 Alison Baverstock, Susannah Bowen and Steve Carey
The right of Alison Baverstock, Susannah Bowen and Steve Carey to be identified as authors
of this work has been asserted in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the Copyright,
Designs and Patents Act 1988.
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilised
in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or
hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information
storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers.
Trademark notice: Product or corporate names may be trademarks or registered trademarks,
and are used only for identification and explanation without intent to infringe.
First edition published by A & C Black Publishers Ltd 2008
British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Baverstock, Alison, author. | Bowen, Susannah, author. |
Carey, Steve, Dr., author.
Title: How to get a job in publishing : a guide to careers in the
booktrade, magazines and communications / Alison Baverstock,
Susannah Bowen and Steve Carey.
Description: Second edition. | Abingdon, Oxon ;
New York, NY : Routledge, 2023. |
Includes bibliographical references and index. |
Identifiers: LCCN 2022045752 (print) | LCCN 2022045753 (ebook) |
ISBN 9781032226262 (hardback) | ISBN 9781032226286 (paperback) |
ISBN 9781003273424 (ebook)
Subjects: LCSH: Publishers and publishing–Vocational guidance.
Classification: LCC Z278 .B37 2023 (print) |
LCC Z278 (ebook) | DDC 070.5023–dc23/eng/20220927
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2022045752
LC ebook record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/20220457
ISBN: 978-1-032-22626-2 (hbk)
ISBN: 978-1-032-22628-6 (pbk)
ISBN: 978-1-003-27342-4 (ebk)
DOI: 10.4324/9781003273424
Typeset in Bembo
by Newgen Publishing UK
CONTENTS
Introduction 1
I wanted a job in publishing. It was a truth held to be self-evident that it wasn’t pos-
sible to get a job in publishing. I didn’t know anyone who had anything whatsoever
to do with publishing, but I wanted to work with books. I loved books, always had
done. As a keen childhood member of the Puffin Club, I had noticed that legendary
Puffin editor, Kaye Webb, had the same initials as me, and, frankly, I felt it was a sign
that I too could work in publishing.
After university, jobless, I spent a few months at my local further education
college learning to touch-type on an unforgiving electric typewriter with the
letters on the keys whited out with Tippex as I had never before used a keyboard
(I know), learning shorthand (never, ever used), learning audio typing (where you
typed letters dictated by someone else from the words on a mini cassette tape played
on a machine operated with foot pedals) and learning basic computing on a com-
puter with green letters and numbers on a black screen.
I spent hours in my local library, researching publishers, by which I mean looking
at the spines of books, and then looking up the publishers in the Writer’s and Artist’s
Yearbook to find their postal address. Now, with this wise and information-packed
book in your hand, and so much up-to-date information available on the Internet,
your job of finding a role in publishing is considerably easier. I wrote letters to
scores of them. Really, scores. Lots of my letters were ignored. I received a lot
of letters of rejection. But I got some interviews, and I would go down on the
overnight coach from Edinburgh to London and wander round London until the
time of the interview, eking out coffees in pre-coffee-shop-chain cafés, eating foil-
wrapped sandwiches from home, and then rocking up at the interview to mess up
the typing test before getting back on the overnight coach and arriving home at
pretty much the same time as the posted rejection letter from the publisher. My
typing was inadequate –I was slow and inaccurate. I didn’t get the jobs.
viii Foreword: On Books
Finally, after several months of living with my parents and working café shifts
to fund the coach trips, I was interviewed at Faber, and, after the interview itself,
which went really well, I was asked to do the typing test, but I said (and I can’t quite
believe that I got away with it), that I would come back in a couple of weeks to do
the test. When I got off the coach in Edinburgh the following morning, I began a
14-day marathon of copy-typing Vera Brittain’s Testament of Youth for ten hours or
more a day. A fortnight later, I was able to give Faber the good news that I’d doubled
my typing speed since I’d last seen them… and the bad news that I’d lied to them
about my typing speed when I’d first met them. They gave me the job.
Yes, I was persistent and, yes, I worked hard to develop the skills that publishers
then required, and, yes, I was honest and I made them laugh… but I am also
aware of my privilege then and now: I am white, and middle-class and Oxbridge-
educated and a cis-gendered woman. I know that I looked like the kind of person
who should get a starter job in publishing in the mid-eighties.
What, if anything, is to be learned from this ancient history? Maybe that some
things are the same: persistence plus relevant skills –some of which may need to
be polished –are key. Standing out, perhaps through honesty and humour but per-
haps in some other way, in an interview is helpful: if you’ve interviewed as many
people as I have, you’re looking for something distinctive that makes an impression.
But I hope that some things are different. I think that the candidates we look for
is changing. We want people with a wide range of backgrounds and perspectives.
For example, we know that over a third of children in UK primary schools are
not white children, and we want people to help us to create books that provide
authentic mirrors for those children, and authentic windows into those children’s
experience for white children.We want people whose sexuality and gender identity
make them sensitive to assumptions some of us might bring to family structures.We
want people who will help us respectfully and accurately represent children with
disabilities. In short, we want a range of opinions and perspectives to enable us to
make new kinds of books and engage with new audiences.
My first job in publishing was basically audio-typing and photocopying, nei-
ther of them skills with much relevance to my own work today, or to the work of
people starting at Nosy Crow. But I had to learn new skills with every new job, and
within every new job. I had to be flexible and open right from the start: like lots
of people, I wanted to be an editor, but the job I got was in the rights department.
What I learned there –from the way that the value of a publisher is essentially based
on the copyright it controls, through the differences between markets around the
world and how to negotiate, to how to ‘decode’ organisations and their politics –is
the basis of everything I do now. I didn’t want a job in rights, but I was open to it,
and rights work is the spine that runs through my career.
And the learning and flexibility never stops: I would say that I learnt more
through the pandemic –how to run a company when everyone was working from
home, how to manage my own anxieties and those of others, how to publish when
bookshops are closed and there are no international book fairs –than at any point
in the previous three decades.
Foreword: On Books ix
Note
1 John Lewis boss: Over-50s quitting the workforce fuels inflation, BBC 9 August 2022.
FOREWORD: ON PUBLISHING
EDUCATION
Professor Claire Squires, Director of the Stirling Centre for
International Publishing and Communication, University of
Stirling and Chair, Association for Publishing Education
Publishing is one of those industries about which many myths exist. Perhaps this
makes sense, as one of publishing’s key outputs is storytelling; the intellectual prop-
erty that underpins other creative economy sectors, including film, TV and theatre.
Publishing has a certain cachet, a sense of glamour, and an abiding pull to work in
roles which lead to the production of books, magazines, journals and related digital
products. But when individuals try to get into that industry, those myths –and the
perpetuation of them in reality –can lead to exploitation, and create barriers for
full and equal access to publishing careers. Unpaid work experience is one example;
another is informal routes into industry, which both create and exacerbate the
publishing work force’s skewed demographics, which for too long have remained
overwhelmingly white and privileged.
Books such as this one, then, make important interventions in debunking myths
and clarifying access routes to industry. Through comprehensible explanations
of market sectors, publishing is laid out in this volume as a complex but vibrant
industry, which offers distinct types of job roles, entry points and experiences. ‘How
to Get a Job in Publishing’ is broken down in simple ways that demystify the
industry, while still retaining a sense of excitement about the potential for what it
can offer its workers: satisfying and intellectually stimulating careers, multi-faceted
and team-based challenges, and the opportunity to work with that all important
intellectual property, be it the latest Booker-prize winner, world-saving research
into vaccines or content created around a TikTok sensation –and a host of other
possibilities.
My own publishing-adjacent sector –university courses which offer profession-
ally oriented publishing education as a career route –forms part of How to Get a
Job in Publishing’s overview, and sets out to perform a similar function as the book.
This function is to give real insight into the varying aspects of the industry, to offer
guidance, and to develop skills, knowledge and capabilities. Part of this function is
Foreword: On Publishing Education xi
also –as far as I’m concerned –to encourage a critical reflection on the industry
and your potential place within it. Debunking myths is one thing, but what should
we collectively be doing to make publishing a fairer, more equitable, more environ-
mentally sustainable place –at the same time as understanding and working within
its economic constraints? I no longer work directly within the publishing industry
myself, but educating future publishers makes this an ongoing question for me, and
also means that researching aspects of the functions of the publishing industry –and
its associated book cultures –is similarly imperative an undertaking. As well as the
publishing industry itself, what are the broader impacts and affordances of cultures
created around it and by it? I’ve got big faith in new entrants to the industry –those
of you picking up and reading this book –in responding to these questions while
you find your own career path, and even making the future pathways of those who
follow behind you well signposted.
For publishing can be a bit of an establishment industry, and –as with the
authors of this book and their informative, helpful advice –I’m concerned that
we open it out and make publishing welcoming and available to all. As part of that,
it’s important that we recognise that even once you’ve made your way into the
industry, inequities can continue. As one of the industry workers who contributed
quotations to this volume comments, ‘join a union if there is one.’ I’d add, work
together with colleagues if not to establish one.
My words might seem a slightly negative start to a book which sets out to help
you get a job in publishing. But as the multiple quotations from individuals working
in publishing collected within this book evidence, publishers share an infectious
enthusiasm for the industry and its products. And it’s actually for this reason that
I emphasise some of the socio-political challenges confronting publishing –it’s a
vital industry, still very much at the heart of knowledge creation, information, cul-
ture and entertainment –and it’s therefore crucial that potential entrants to it are
encouraged, helped and offered pathways to successful and fulfilling careers within
it. How to Get a Job in Publishing contributes substantially to this career guidance –
read it with attention.
Professor Claire Squires, Stirling Centre for International
Publishing and Communication, publishing.stir.ac.uk
FOREWORD: ON MAGAZINES
Steve Prentice, Group Managing Director, Special Interest
Group, Bauer Media
My first job in publishing was aged 19, after achieving a couple of very hum-
drum A-level results, as a trainee reporter on the Peterborough Evening Standard.
Salary: £4,800 per year, straight in at the deep end learning how to be a journalist
by covering police calls, births, marriages and deaths, livestock prices and every-
thing in between.
After about six months following a qualified journalist around, I was finally
allowed to write something for the free weekly paper (published every Thursday).
Plus, I got to drive to jobs in a white Mini pool-car with the newspaper’s name
emblazoned on the sides of the car… not so great when covering Fourth Division
away games at Hartlepool, Rochdale and Burnley, believe me.
But what a job! While my friends were bored senseless working in banks,
insurers and engineering firms I was having a ball. The excitement of working to
deadlines, the variety of the stories, the playing a part in making something every
week as I filed my stories to be sub-edited, headlines written, the words turned into
real printed letters stuck to a camera-ready page with melted wax (yes really) and
then sent to the printing press (owned by the same newspaper company).The smell
of the ink, the sound of the machinery, the anticipation of pulling an early copy
off the press, basking in seeing your name in print. And starting with a completely
blank page the next issue.
I’m now a group managing director for Bauer –the ‘monster’ publisher
mentioned in Chapter 6. I have worked on evening newspapers, national newspapers,
magazines and websites, as an editor and publisher for three of the largest UK
publishers: Emap,Time Inc and Bauer, from titles like Classic Cars to Country Life to
Horse & Hound to Today’s Golfer to cyclingweekly.com. And through all those years,
navigating all those roles, from journalist to ‘senior management,’ I can honestly say
it’s still a blast and a great career choice.
Foreword: On Magazines xiii
I still get a buzz seeing the latest issues arrive and love the almost instant data-
driven reaction when a piece of digital content hits the spot. As I write this I can
see a huddle of three videographers, not long out of university, putting together the
latest video road test for the MotorCycle News website… publishing has come a long
way from starting a career on free newspapers.
As an industry we are going through an intense period of change as digital con-
sumption through our phones and tablets becomes ubiquitous and magazine sales
inevitably diminish. The global pandemic and the rise in energy prices means we
have to change even faster. But with this change comes opportunity.The communi-
ties our once print-only titles serve are still in rude health. Film lovers still want to
know about the latest movies, golfers still want to shoot lower scores and equestrians
still want the inside line on three-day eventing. Investment in technology means
we can now serve these communities on digital platforms, consuming our content
however, wherever and whenever they like.
Specialist teams of journalists are brilliantly placed to give readers behind-the-
scenes access to events such as the Open Golf Championship, British Fashion Week
and the Oscars; during the pandemic we saw an explosion in demand for craft,
gardening and walking content.
Consumers remain willing to subscribe to high-quality content; advertisers, cru-
cially, continue to see value in accessing those readers.
This does not relate solely to special interest brands and audiences –technology
is bringing together readers and advertisers across the board and publishers who
do this brilliantly are thriving in news, mass-market, premium and business-to-
business sectors. As an industry we are developing engaging new products which
are generating revenue from content, playing a key role in recommending the best
products for consumers to buy, launching events, streams of video and TV con-
tent, paid-for newsletters and becoming major players in new territories such as
the United States. The multi-channel publishing world is more complex than ever,
driven by technology platforms and the digitisation of content. The huge hype
surrounding Wordle, and its subsequent acquisition by the New York Times, was a
brilliant example of how technology is fully integrated into the publishing world.
In turn this activity has created new opportunities. We are hiring! We’re hiring
affiliate content writers, developers, project managers, sales leads, business analysts,
platform experts, product managers, proposition managers, email marketing
executives, digital publishers, paywall experts, videographers, PPC executives, data
scientists, audience development execs… The routes into publishing are more
varied than ever before.
So, I hear you ask (after all, you did buy this book) how can you land a role in
the exciting new world of publishing? This book will help you enormously, as will
your qualifications, and here’s some key advice: this industry loves a doer. Are you
prepared to roll up your sleeves and make things happen? Can you cut through
problems and provide solutions? And crucially, how can you evidence of this at CV
and interview stage?
xiv Foreword: On Magazines
If you’re a writer, where’s your portfolio? Where have you worked over the
summer? You want to be a social media marketer? Show us your Instagram feed!
Better still, show us the Instagram feed you created for the charity you worked at
last summer! What did you do over and above your degree course that shows your
versatility? Playing roles in university societies, groups, the content and subject of
your sixth-form EPQ, and your volunteering history are all great things to show
your willingness to get stuck in. This will always trump a candidate with the best
degree at the best university but no real-world experience. Qualifications get you
through the door, but the winning interview is the one where you can show what
steps you have already taken.
The world of publishing is no doubt challenging. There are easier industries
to join (although after recent world events that is arguable) and it (probably)
won’t make you rich. But it’s fascinating, vibrant and highly creative, and perhaps
one of the few industries where communication, creativity and business come
together on an industrial scale. It’s come a long way from covering Peterborough
United v Rochdale on a freezing Monday night. And I still love every single
minute of it.
Steve Prentice, Bauer Media UK bauermedia.co.uk
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
Alison would like to thank her family, students and colleagues at Kingston University
and many publishing friends. Above all, she is appreciative of having worked in a
really fascinating and utterly worthwhile industry for most of her life.
Susannah thanks her dear family –Rik, Leo, Max and Isolda.You have been beside
me while I worked on this book, providing endless cups of tea and encouragement.
Steve thanks his darling wife Helen, who puts up with him going missing for
hours on end: sometimes this is what he has been doing.:
As a team we think we have embodied many of the good practices outlined
within this book. We have worked as a team, mentored each other through indi-
vidual professional and personal blockages (the value of mentoring is not just for
the young) and combined our experience. Somehow, and as with our first edition,
working in different time-zones has provided an added spur to making the most of
our online meetings –and getting things done by the next one.
General Thanks
It’s an honour to introduce this amazing industry to those thinking about where
they might like to start their career, both through this book and through our
teaching. Our thanks to students from Kingston University and the University of
Melbourne –we love seeing how you are thriving as publishers, marketers, writers,
editors, artists, bloggers and more.
We thank friends we’ve worked with near and far, mentors and colleagues, and
those who have contributed comments and ideas including: Alex (where there’s no
surname the contributor has asked for it not to be used), Alicia Cohen, Alison Lawson,
Allison McMullin, Amanda Cheung, Amy Flower, Andy Jones, Anna, Anna O’Brien,
Anthony Forbes Watson, Averill Chase, Beth Driscoll, Camha Pham, Caroline
newgenprepdf
xvi Acknowledgements
When you first tell people you want to work in publishing, magazines or the
booktrade, you’re virtually guaranteed to hear this: get real. It’s practically impossible to
get into, and you’ve got no chance. Or perhaps, more politely, Oh! Um. Good luck. Often
you’re told that, in any case, even if you could, there’s no point: computers are taking
over and the book is dead.
Are they right? Well, yes, jobs in publishing are highly sought after. And yes, the
industry is changing.
What they don’t know is this: you have this book. We know publishing. We
know how the industry works, and when you’ve read this book, you’ll have a
vastly better idea too, giving you a keen edge over those who don’t. We know what
employers look for, what various roles involve, what it takes to succeed.
The future of publishing belongs to you and to people like you: young, born
digital, not soaked in decades of assumptions about how things should be done and
what people want.
So despite this avalanche of negativity, we maintain if you really, really want to,
you can make it, and that it’s worth the effort to find a place within the world of
publishing.
DOI: 10.4324/9781003273424-1
2 Introduction
they commission may take many different forms –with both current models and
new options to come. Publishers look for experts who can distil thinking around a
new topic that needs to be understood; they commission material that resonates for
children, their parents and carers; they seek spot writers whose work nails an issue
within today’s society –and may become emblematic of widespread empathy. This
is important work.
That interface has evolved, but in some ways it has remained remarkably
consistent. I quote Martial in the 1st century of the Christian era, saying
how books were more convenient than scrolls because you could hold them
with one hand. ...The basic technology hasn’t changed in 2,000 years.There’s
been a lot of discussion about e-books and how they would either kill off the
book or develop into fascinating multimedia objects, but actually neither of
these things have happened. Kindles are like books in format and size and in
what they want to do. They haven’t revolutionised the interface. They want
to be books.
Emma Smith, Professor of Shakespeare Studies, Oxford University1
We all love books. We can all –even scared kids from the country –find our
family, and I think that is what brings us together. We find people who get
us. Find people who get excited about the written world. Share your passion.
Helen O’Dare, author and publishing maven, Australia
wider booktrade including booksellers, both traditional and those reaching markets
through other retail channels and new routes to market.
Note
1 Books do extraordinary work, but we can overstate their importance, Guardian 30 April 2022.
1
WHY PUBLISHING AND WHY YOU?
Keep going! If you are sure you want to get into publishing and you think
you can do it, it might take you months and months and months.You might
be on the dole, living in your parents’ house. It might take luck, and you may
need help from family and friends with connections or other ways to help. It
may take hundreds of applications.
Stephanie Carey, Associate Commissioning Editor Joffe Books (London)
We wrote this book to do two things: to help you decide whether you want to
work in publishing; and if you do, to help you get a job.
There are three of us: Alison based in the United Kingdom, Susannah (Australia
then United Kingdom then Australia) and Steve (previously United Kingdom, now
Australia) –three guides for the price of one (you’re welcome). We all love this
industry, have enjoyed working within it for many years, and want to demon-
strate why publishing can offer such an enjoyable career. Between us we’ve worked
in every kind of publishing houses in many different countries, and numerous
published products, from magazines, books and newspapers to blogs and websites;
and as we’ve researched this book we have consulted hundreds of people. So what
DOI: 10.4324/9781003273424-2
6 Why Publishing and Why You?
you’re about to read is broad –and internationally based, and applies across different
types of publishing and cultural settings.
Buying this book doesn’t guarantee you a job in publishing. Even if it did, however
well you prepare, however often you read it from cover to cover, you just won’t
enjoy working in it unless you’re inspired and excited by ideas, able to take leaps
of imagination and think about doing things differently. Publishing is an entrepre-
neurial profession; it needs people interested in ideas and willing to think about
what excites consumers, why and how –and to keep on doing so.
Having made this key point, let’s give you ten good reasons to work in publishing.
Read them and see whether this is the industry for you.
I can remember the format of almost every book I have enjoyed; I like their
feel, their smell and heaviness –and I feel slightly panicky if I suddenly realise
that I have time available, and nothing to read. I can still remember spending
my first book token, and using it for a boxed set of Paddington Bear books. I
read Hardy’s Tess of the D’Urbervilles as a homesick sixteen-year old, exiled to
France on an exchange, and was utterly engrossed. I never throw my books
away, but regard them as the most important kind of decoration –indeed the
first thing I do on going into a new home is to look at the books on display.
Alison
Why Publishing and Why You? 7
Reading has always been my thing, and I’m thrilled to have built a career and
a life around words –as a reader, a writer, a podcaster, a marketer, a publishing
professional. Books were my first friends and I expect them to be my last
companions.
Susannah
Reading was just about all I used to do as a young teenager (it still is). I
worked in my dad’s fruit and veg shop, and he used to find a shop full of
unserved customers, with me engrossed in reading the newspaper we used
to wrap stuff in.
Steve
To each of us, it’s a huge bonus to be able to work with a product we value and
respect so much, and all of us feel proud to say what we do when asked.
The immediacy of publishing still grabs me. In particular, the power of the
printed word is still glamorous and magical.You put a magazine together, and
then a couple of weeks later you go into the local newsagent and there it is
on the shelf –wow! And the thrill of seeing your own words in a book (this
is getting a bit meta, isn’t it?) has never worn off.
Steve
the charitable sector and the media; whose star is rising and whose falling, and that
is interesting information. Feeling ‘current’ is a satisfying reason in itself for being
in publishing.
People love books and magazines –the written word on paper. Just about every
book is now available as an e-book, and in addition to e-book readers you can read
on your phone or tablet or laptop, but people still buy print books –for reading in
bed, in the bath, at the beach –or to fully own something initially read as an e-book.
Think about the concept of the ‘eternal format’; a product that achieves a basic
shape which is then tweaked and experimented with, but stays basically the same
forever. The sandwich, the flush lavatory and the Post-It note are examples. The
basic codex is another. New publishing formats come and go all the time, but they
all approximate the look and feel of the basic codex, and indeed are judged by how
well they perform compared to the versatile functionality of print books.
Publishing offers the opportunity to meet interesting people –and this is not just
confined to those working within the world of celebrity publishing. Publishing
offers you the chance to meet people making a difference in the world, whatever
they write about.
One of Alison’s early jobs was with Macmillan’s medical, scientific and technical
division, and here she came across a group of doctors whose hospital received the
United Kingdom’s first AIDS patients, and hence were involved from the start in
firstly trying to identify, and later treat, the condition. Similarly, she worked with
researchers at the Royal Marsden Hospital who have since completed pioneering
work in cancer treatment.
Publishing offers endless opportunities to meet interesting people –and the
general knowledge you pick up along the way builds your general knowledge!
Some take this a stage further. There are many publishing romances and
relationships.And management issues of how partners working for rival organisations
share information at home have in general been handled in a civilised fashion,
without –as far as we are aware –any high-profile legal cases.
There is a wider point here: you should be careful what you say; relationships
are widely spread, and sympathies endure long after they are over. People within
the industry tend to job-hop within publishing, rather than industry-hop, and you
never know whom you are talking to.
If you’re a dentist and mention that fact at a party, people tend to respond by
telling you they don’t like dentists. Doctors get pestered by people who want an
instant diagnosis for a pain in the knee that has been troubling them. Teachers get
told they have long holidays; ministers of religion that it must be good to only have
to work one day of the week.
Tell someone at a party that you work in publishing, and they will not wait for
you to explain that it’s selling high-priced monographs to academics in Japan –they
immediately conjure up a mental image of you lunching with Margaret Atwood
and scanning news websites for potential bestsellers. ‘That must be fascinating’
is the inevitable first response. Then they tell you all about the book they have
in them!
Publishing is fascinated with ‘the ones that got away,’ ideas that were presented to
a number of publishing houses but whose merits were only spotted by one house,
and relatively late in the day. Harry Potter, for instance, was turned down by many
other more famous houses before being taken on by Bloomsbury. Stephen King
was repeatedly turned down by publishers; Lord of the Flies, Life of Pi and Twilight are
all on the list of bestsellers initially rejected.
Based on this, there is a large, and growing, strand of publishing that copies what
already exists. Many houses bring out their own versions of good sellers, or package
their books to look like what has already been successful; witness the stream of Sally
Rooney look-alikes, or the different genres of fiction that can be judged on cover
appearance without needing to read the blurb.
Why Publishing and Why You? 13
Copying can yield profits, and all creative industries work like this –artists copy
each other, and journalists are more likely to believe each other (what they see
in other media) than their publicity contacts. But really good publishers can spot
a good idea that is fresh and turn it into something others want to own, read or
access. Once an idea is up and running it can look like it was always appealing; an
effective publisher can spot something in unpromising material.
For example, Piatkus Books spotted a story on the slush pile from someone who
had felt she had lived before. They engaged a ghost writer, retold the story, and the
book is now the best documented example of a previous life. In other words, they
were able to look beyond the poorly drafted first manuscript to spot an idea that
others would be interested in hearing more about. And Charles Monteith, a junior
editor at Faber, noticed that the first chapter of the manuscript of Lord of the Flies
was yellow and worn, but the rest of it was untouched. He started with Chapter 2 –
and discovered a classic.The book was published in 1954, minus the off-putting first
chapter, and has gone on to sell millions.
So if you are a stickybeak and can smell what’s in the air before others do, what
other qualities do you need? You need to be:
• Not overly sensitive. You’ll do work for which you don’t get the credit.
Think about how that might feel. Imagine, for example, you work for a maga-
zine company and come up with a great idea for a new magazine. But the
publisher decides you don’t have the experience to edit it, and you see your
vision distorted. Or perhaps, even worse, your vision is taken on by someone
else and turned into a glorious success, for which you get minimal credit. It can
happen, and if such an experience would turn you bitter and twisted –rather
than inspiring you to come up with another idea, and another, until you get to
be in that chair –then think hard about potentially exposing yourself to such
treatment.
There are a few things to be aware of that could otherwise take a while to
work out: a) Publishing, and general publishing in particular, is tribal and
inward-looking, so either be happy to play the game or work out how you
can turn your lack of these attributes to your advantage. b) The book’s been
around for a long time and growth is sluggish which means that you have to
combine geniality with high levels of competitiveness with your colleagues,
to flourish. c) Publishing is about people, not books. d) Change jobs every 3-
5 years without fail. e) Seek out the visionaries and make the effort to work
for the best people.
Anthony Forbes Watson, former Managing director of Penguin UK
In conclusion, how does publishing sound to you now? We hope we’ve tested some
of your assumptions and perhaps made you think about how well suited you are to
it as a career.
Note
1 The Questionnaire: Leïla Slimani, FT Magazine, 6–7 August 2022.
2
THIS PUBLISHING BUSINESS
In this chapter we introduce you to the publishing industry and the issues it faces.
You need to understand the business of publishing –and it is, above all, a business.
You also need to have an understanding of, and to form your own views on, trends
and challenges.
Having an enthusiasm for books and/or magazines is a good place to start,
and we assume throughout that you have that. But it’s not nearly enough: it is
what philosophers like to call a ‘necessary but not sufficient condition.’ To impress
someone considering you for a job, you need them to know that you understand
that this is a business, not just a nice place to work or somewhere to indulge your
love of reading at someone else’s expense. Feedback from those who have had
recent interviews for publishing jobs is that a common question is this: ‘Tell me
about some of the challenges facing the publishing industry.’
This chapter considers trends and issues that those who work within publishing are
dealing with. If they’re not interesting enough for you to want to devote your life
to them, then publishing is not for you. And it’s a good thing you find that out now,
rather than fighting to get into an industry that, honestly, you won’t enjoy.
Conversely, it’s a good sign if you have things to say about these trends, anecdotes
that relate to them, and bring your personal experience. Even better if you furi-
ously disagree with us on any of what follows. Good! That shows you’re thinking
independently and have strong views. And, if you need it, just to get you started on
DOI: 10.4324/9781003273424-3
16 This Publishing Business
the process, we present here questions with which you can challenge yourself –and
which can serve as practice for interviews. Having a view that you can articulate
and support is far more important in an interview than being right –and after all, if
these questions had simple, clear, correct answers you wouldn’t get them thrown at
you in your interview.They don’t tend to ask the easy ones, except to help you relax.
Questions: How varied is your own reading? How do your choices indicate that you
have a heart for understanding issues of diversity and inclusivity –and backgrounds
other than your own? What titles/publications have you read recently because you
need to know what others are talking about? Whose voice do you still need to hear?
See also Chapter 3, Equity, Diversity, Inclusion and Belonging in Publishing.
Publishing had a good pandemic. Books sell well during economic difficul-
ties. They are perceived as a treat, are relatively low in price and excellent value
for money (how many hours’ pleasure will you get from a good book versus a
good movie?), and throughout history, low- cost treats have done well during
major conflicts and other cataclysmic events. Many people had more time to read
during the pandemic and enjoyed the experience. As a result, publishers who could
manage delivery, regularly reported best ever financial results during the peak of
the pandemic.
But this has brought other significant long-term difficulties. Retail outlets have
had a tough time, and bookshops that were not able to offer delivery as part of their
service have found their businesses, and customer relationships, under immense
pressure.
We could take education as an example. Many schools were closed during
the pandemic, and education was largely online and home-based. This led to
the identification of some major social inequalities; those without online access
and room to learn at home were seriously disadvantaged. Some educational
publishers sought to fill the gap and provide free resources to schools without
the means to purchase, but then found they reaped a longer-term benefit, when
schools opened again and teachers had money to spend. Resources for sale to
parents at home who could afford them did well –and in the first weeks of lock-
down, some of the bestselling titles were those bought by home-educators. But
this advantaged children whose parents were able to order online, or had books
at home already. As a direct consequence, in the United Kingdom the National
Literacy Trust encouraged publishers to donate books, which could be added
to the food/supply parcels being circulated to those without means. Presenting
books as life essentials in this way may positively affect how they are perceived
longer term.
Publishing is necessarily optimistic –you’re throwing books out there and
hoping people catch them and develop an appetite for more. And that’s all the more
reason to spend time considering what happens when things go wrong. Disasters
can create opportunities, so that, for example, you might be able to re-market a
backlist title suddenly made relevant due to a particular situation in society –or just
the enduring truths of the human condition described.
Question: Give an example of a book you have read, or are aware of, that gave you
insight into a political or societal situation that subsequently really happened.
traditional publishers to spot trends or products with a track record and hence
worthy of future investment –paranormal romance and fantasy are two notable
examples –and created business opportunities to sell services.
It has taken time, but finally the traditional industry, at first highly resistant to the
concept and likely value of self-publishing, has come to realise that authors with the
gumption to self-publish may be demonstrating the kind of proactivity publishers
can use.
At the same time, anyone who has gone down the self-publishing route, and the
easy availability of services to support it, has gained a newfound respect for the role
of the editor, up to now largely invisible!
Is print dead?
Forget publishing, so goes the common wisdom: print is dead.
Tosh. The term ‘publishing’ itself comes from making public: publishers develop
information and entertainment (‘content’) into whatever format people find it
attractive to purchase, use and share. And there are so many ways content can be
shared now: books, in a variety of formats; print magazines; websites; television and
film; blogs and social media, podcasts, bite-sized video snippets… This is the ‘Age
of also’: there’s no one way to present anything. The most useful attitude for you to
approach all this is flexible curiosity.
One of the first decisions a publisher must make is the format in which to
present material. But print is no longer the only, or even necessarily the best, first
option. Instead, a publisher must think first of the customers and readers, and then
work backwards to understand what medium or, more likely, media best serves that
market –and therefore makes most money for the publisher, so you can build on
the success and either develop more for the same market and fund other options.
As a consequence of this research, you may decide to publish an e-book first, to
build your audience; then a paperback if interest builds. Or maybe an online news-
letter becomes a seasonal limited edition hardback.
And here’s a question: what is reading anyway? Have you ‘read’ a book if you heard
it as an audiobook? What counts as reading a magazine, when hardly anyone ever
ploughs through it from front cover to back? Does it count as reading a newspaper
if you access a tiny fraction of it online? Publishing has always thrived on innovation
and new technology, yet our basic concepts and terminology remain remarkably
stable.
Questions: Have you ever ‘read’ a book again, in a different format (e.g. as an audio-
book or seen an adaptation on stage)? What was the significance of your second or
subsequent experience? Did you see the story in a new way?
This Publishing Business 19
Questions: If you could buy one imprint, or publishing house, which would it be
and why?
Where is the best place to work? With a big firm comes the satisfaction of a
name others recognise, better pay and more job security (well, until the next man-
agement restructure). On the other hand, you can find yourself siloed in the par-
ticular function for which you were recruited, and isolated from understanding the
greater industry.You can become a small fish in a big pond.
Working for a small publisher you get the chance to learn about everything, to be
intimately involved in all the successes and failures –and maybe the chance to work
on your own personal passion. Seriously consider a placement or work experience
with a small company, where you are exposed to all aspects of the industry. A small
firm relies on all hands on deck, and you can feel pleasingly needed.
As a compromise, advice that is often offered to those starting out, is to try to
work for a large organisation before taking that thinking to a smaller one, or starting
an enterprise yourself.
Question: An experience of working for a high street retailer made one of us think
they wanted to work for a small organisation, where there was less standardisation
and more reliance on individual initiative. Have you had a similar experience, and
how has this affected your thinking? Where do you sit on the line between prefer-
ring large or small organisations?
The pay within the publishing industry has often been its downfall.You have
to love the industry, warts and all. Do the time, develop and grow your skills,
be interested and engaging with what you do, and be patient. Your salary
increases as you move up -assuming you want a career path? The difficult
thing these days is when people leave, often their roles aren’t replaced and
restructures take place regularly to cover the work. Are you prepared to take
on multiple roles for incremental pay increases?
Rachael McDiarmid, Director, RM Marketing Services, Australia
Question: Think now, how much does money and what it can bring (security, life-
style) matter to you?
Questions: How much do you want to know about the author of books you love?
How do you feel about authors who write long introductions to their own work?
Does the text belong to us all, and therefore we make our own interpretation, or do
you find this helpful? Editors are conscious that the ‘intrusive author’ is not always
appreciated within a text. Does this make sense to you?
22 This Publishing Business
Question: Who should have the final say in how a book is presented?
This Publishing Business 23
Question: Can you identify examples of niches that are either newly identified and
exploited, or as yet undiscovered? What unusual interests do you have, or know
of others having, and how well served are they by published information and
associated stories?
Question: As a student (at any stage, from school to university) what formats were
your learning materials delivered in? What worked best for you in accessibility and
learning?
24 This Publishing Business
Question: What book would you recommend that everyone read? Which book had
the biggest impact on you?
Questions: Where/how have you bought a book recently and what inspired your
purchase? How quickly were you able to get your hands on what you wanted, and
did this influence where you made your purchase?
Questions:What book covers do you admire? What trends do you see in book cover
design?
Does this mean the quality of what is being produced is lowered, and poorer titles
are commissioned because ‘that’s what the market wants’? Do ‘better books’ get less
profile, and marketing spend, than they deserve?
This is an issue everyone within the company you work for has a strong view
on: approach with caution.You also need to work out your own position. How vital
26 This Publishing Business
is it to work on titles you believe in and feel proud of? Can you sleep at night if
you’re contributing to the lowering of standards in publishing? Or do all products
have a market, and does offering reading material in a format that resembles other
publications spark a reading habit in people otherwise untempted? Perhaps readers
should make up their own mind, and if they want what you’re offering, then that’s
up to them?
Questions: Whose book would you refuse to be associated with? And isn’t that
suppressing free speech?
In summary, if you have confident answers to these questions, then we’ve done
a poor job of explaining the issues, because these are all issues that publishers the
world over are wrestling with. They don’t have answers, so why should you? But at
least knowing that there are questions, and knowing the variety of views on each,
gives you a head start (and perhaps also a headache).
3
EQUITY, DIVERSITY, INCLUSION AND
BELONGING IN PUBLISHING
In this chapter we ask you to reflect on what equity, diversity and inclusion mean
to you, however you identify and whatever experiences you have had. Maybe you
identify as LGBTIQ+or as a person of colour, or live with a disability or difference,
or maybe you don’t but are looking to find out more about how to be the best ally
you can be, or maybe you’re not sure what all this talk about diversity means and
don’t see how it can ever be relevant to you. Whatever your situation, this chapter
is for you.
DOI: 10.4324/9781003273424-4
28 Equity, Diversity, Inclusion and Belonging in Publishing
*****
"Ah", sanoo hän sitten itsekseen, "mitäs tässä nyt. Pitää olla mies
eikä olla tietonaankaan, jatkaa vain elämää niinkuin ennenkin.
Vähän paremmastikin, ehkä. Nyt olette täsmälleen yhtä hyviä Helmin
kanssa. Kummallakaan ei pitäisi olla sanomista."
Helmin viaksi jää vain se, että hän ei ollut puhunut asioita heti
alussa suoraan, mutta nyt Heikki senkin koetti ymmärtää. Eihän ollut
pakkokaan: "Vaikka toisen sylistä." Olihan Heikille jo ennen
avioliittoa tarjottu ero, hänen olisi pitänyt siitä ymmärtää.
Heikki."
"Valjastakaa!"
"Voi, äiti hyvä. Enhän minä voi syyttää muita kuin itseäni. Olihan
minulla vapaan ihmisen tahto."
"Ei äiti sitä pelkää. Itsehän minä olen itselleni ristin rakentanut ja
minunhan se on kannettavakin."
Ja vasta nyt hän kysyy itseltään: Miksi minä juuri tänne ensiksi
ajoin?
Niin, hänenhän piti etsiä Heikki. Täällä tiedetään, missä hän on.
Heikin ei ole pakko varastaa itselleen onneaan; jos niin tarvitaan, niin
hän, Helmi, kyllä hiljaisesti vetäytyy syrjään, vetäytyy eleittä ja sanaa
puhumatta. Sehän on hänen velvollisuutensakin.
*****
"Enkä minä voi kertoa muuta kuin että Heikki kävi täällä toissa
päivänä ja lähti sitten jonnekin."
Se oli siis sanottu. Helmi tuntee, kuinka kylmä hiki nousee otsalle
ja kuinka käsi vavahtaa. Tuli mitä tuli, hän on nyt tehnyt minkä
omasta puolestaan voi.
Ranta-Konkkalan Ailin katse käy poissaolevaksi. Ajatukset
uinailevat jossakin kaukana, vain verevä ja täyteläinen ruumis on
tässä huoneessa. Älä kysele minulta mitään, Saaren tyttö; toissa
päivänä hän oli luonani, tänään hän on uni, jonka joskus olen
nähnyt. Katsele vain minua sinisillä silmilläsi, ei minussa muuta
syntiä ole kuin se, että hiljaisesti olen häntä ajatellut ja hetken saanut
kuvitella hänet omakseni. Sinä, Saaren Helmi, kaksinkertaisesti
harhautunut, sinä perit kuitenkin onnesi ja annat sen toisellekin. Etkö
näe minun sormustani, minullahan on jo eräs, jonka sekavia asioita
Konkkalan manttaali saa paikata.
*****
Ja hän kulkee taas pitkin katuja. Joku tuttava tulee häntä vastaan
ja ihmettelee.
"Onko se Heikki?"
Vasta nyt hän kääntää päänsä ja kavahtaa seisomaan.
Ja sitten:
"Tulin vain katsomaan", jatkaa hän, "tuletko kotiin. Vai etkö aio
enää tullakaan?"
Mutta häneltä ei tahdo sana tulla suusta. Sitä on niin hyvä vaatia
muilta, mutta kun itse joutuu tilivelvolliseksi, niin istu nyt tässä ja
koeta esittää asiasi mahdollisimman edullisessa valossa.
"Älä siitä itseäsi syytä", sanoo hän hiljaa ja laskee kätensä miehen
olalle.
"Ellei minulla olisi ollut mitä on ollut, niin et sinä olisi uhitellut
itseäsi tuollaisiin kiusauksiin."
Tällaista puhetta ei Suontaan Heikki varsin ymmärrä. Ei hän
myöskään ymmärrä sitä, että tällaisia teitä päästään selvyyteen ja
kirkkauteen. Hän vain näkee, kuinka Helmin kyyneleet kasvavat
täydeksi itkuksi, ja tuntee, miten käsivarret kiertyvät yhä kiinteämmin
hänen kaulansa ympärille, ja sanomaton onnen tunne täyttää hänen
mielensä.
"Sinä lupasit kerran muistuttaa minua siitä kun sanoin vieväni sinut
vaikka toisen sylistä", sanoi hän, "etkä kuitenkaan ole muistuttanut,
vaan kärsinyt. Tarvitsenko sen enempiä selityksiä! Mutta anna sinä
minulle anteeksi."
"Pitäisihän sinun tietää se, etten muuta voi vaikka tahtoisinkin. Voi,
Heikki, rakasta minua tällaisena, vain tavallisena, puutteellisena
ihmisenä."
*****
Updated editions will replace the previous one—the old editions will
be renamed.