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Part 7 (1/2)

How to Get a Job in Publishing Alison Baverstock 134300K 2022-07-22

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Type of publisher Location Salary and conditions Area of publis.h.i.+ng Position Size of company Culture Opportunities Other Some things to think about: 1. Type of publisher fiction, non-fiction, magazines, journals, educational, children's What are you interested in? What do you enjoy? You spend a lot of time at work so you're going to enjoy it more, be more motivated, and be better at your job if you're working in an area you're interested in.

The first few jobs you take can set you on the path for the future which can be good OR bad. It's often harder to change the area of publis.h.i.+ng you work in once you've got a few years of experience behind you, so best if you can get it right from the start.

After a few years in educational publis.h.i.+ng, I wondered if I might enjoy fiction/trade publis.h.i.+ng more. I looked into it and realised I had to choose between my current junior management role in educational publis.h.i.+ng, or stepping back to an a.s.sistant/executive-level role in fiction, which meant a drop in pay and responsibility. I decided to sit tight, so I have never worked on the popular literature that I enjoy reading myself. If I were to start my career over again, I might hold out for a job in literary fiction, rather than beginning as a book rep for educational publis.h.i.+ng and then following an educational publis.h.i.+ng path. (SUSANNAH) Remember that areas of publis.h.i.+ng which might not sound very glamorous on the surface can actually be fascinating. For all that Susannah has never done media interviews with Gordon Ramsay, she gained huge enjoyment out of working with textbooks and academic authors. There is also an argument that people shouldn't work on products they are too close to . . . the lit theory graduate may write fabulous book blurbs for sociology books but atrocious ones for lit theory books! (This also tells you a lot about why authors shouldn't write their own book blurbs, by the way.) 2. Does it have to be publis.h.i.+ng?

Think about non-publis.h.i.+ng companies which have publis.h.i.+ng-esque jobs: * Newsagents and bookshops are obvious places to work for getting to know the magazine and book trade * Editorial and marketing work can be found in the corporate communication departments of universities, banks, law and large professional firms * Writing and design is a key part of advertising * Charities and direct mail companies create catalogues and other publications * Libraries and education are good related professions * Government sectors of all sizes have publis.h.i.+ng divisions who pump out printed material and websites * Also think about publis.h.i.+ng industry services including training organisations, general organisations that promote reading, book information companies such as Bowker, publis.h.i.+ng industry magazines, library suppliers, mailing houses and so on All these are legitimate careers or great back door entry paths into publis.h.i.+ng (see also Chapter 14).

Although I always planned a career in publis.h.i.+ng, my first job was for a direct marketing agency that specialised in the supply of mailing lists and campaigns to academic and educational publishers. It was an excellent place from which to review the publis.h.i.+ng industry and to decide firstly what kind of firm I wanted to work for, and then which one. And when I applied for my first job, I already knew the person I would be working for. (ALISON) 3. Location: which city, and where in that city?

If you're in the UK and you're serious about a publis.h.i.+ng career, most opportunities can be found in London or the M4/M40 to Oxford belt with a smattering of companies in Edinburgh and the Home Counties. If you're in Australia, it's mainly Sydney, followed by Melbourne, and the other places a long way behind. Big companies can be flexible about location but usually not until you're in a senior role. Would the right job be important enough for you to relocate? Before you answer that, ask yourself: * If you have a partner, will he or she move? Or be prepared for a long-distance relations.h.i.+p?

* What would it be like living away from your parents and siblings and the area you grew up in, if you went to a local university?

* How would you manage building a new friends.h.i.+p circle?

If you live in a small town or the country, the answer to whether or not you're prepared to move almost certainly has to be 'yes' there are very few publis.h.i.+ng opportunities in the country (though there are some, and this can actually be a career advantage to start off with see below). So figuring out where you will live tells you where to hunt for jobs. Once you're got the city/region right, look at location of companies. Long commute? Short commute? Public transport versus driving? Note that many multinationals have small hub offices and sales reps who work from home. Again, this can be a good foot in the door, but you will find as you work up the career ladder that the location issues come up again; promotion opportunities are limited if you're the northern region rep based in Huddersfield, and the head office is in Chichester.

Another thing to consider about location is that sometimes it can work the other way; the pool of graduates prepared to work in publis.h.i.+ng for less money and in a remote location can be smaller than those applying for work in a metropolis and so you're more likely to get a job in the country/a remote area. In Australia, it's quite common for people who want to work in newspapers to move to a country town for a few years and get a start at a regional newspaper and then move back to the city with great experience. If this is something that might work for you, it's worth browsing regional job ads and thinking about local newspapers, newsletters and magazines, regional head offices with corporate communications, universities and colleges in regional areas with editing, design and writing work, and so on.

4. Salary Well, no-one should go into publis.h.i.+ng for the money. Let's say that again: no-one should go into publis.h.i.+ng for the money! But you do need to know what you can expect, what's realistic and what's not, and whether you can live on it.

Broadly, bigger companies tend to pay slightly more; magazines tend to pay more than books; companies located in bigger cities tend to pay more than those in the regions.

Good ways to research what's reasonable include: * Ask your friends and making adjustments for industry, size of company, experience and training.

* Google general industry information and salary surveys. See if any have been carried out recently by your national professional a.s.sociation of publishers.

* Talk to recruitment agents who may or may not tell you anything, and will tell you 'it all depends', but may also provide some level of helpful information.

* Ask companies when they interview you. See salary discussion below in the interview section. You'll find trends emerging which will help you figure out the rough going rate.

As well as salary, consider other conditions including: * Bonus/incentive schemes Traditionally more common in sales roles and increasingly found in areas such as marketing, editorial and, in some progressive companies, right through the company. Schemes are performance-based and might be for just you, or you and the team you're part of. So if you do well against the target you're being measured on, you get a bit extra. A typical bonus might be a certain amount for every percentage point of sales over the team target, for example. Bonuses are worked out at end of the calendar or financial year. The best kind aren't capped so if you or your team have a great year, you get a juicy reward! The key thing about bonuses is they're exactly conditional on performance; so one year you might earn an extra big stack on top of your salary, and the next, nothing. If a company is talking a lot about its bonus scheme, a good thing to ask is 'how many times in the last five years have bonuses been paid' which is the same thing as asking how many times your group has. .h.i.t its sales/performance targets.

* Commission Usually paid monthly to sales reps also performance-based and can replace part of the salary. So instead of being paid a certain set amount each year, a sales rep might get paid half that, plus monthly commissions worked out by how many sales are made. This can be a bit scary if the economy goes down and no-one is buying, or the product you are trying to sell isn't good, it's your take-home pay that suffers. On the other hand, the potential is there to earn loads of commission. Commission-only sales roles are unusual in book publis.h.i.+ng.

(Note that terminology for bonuses and commissions can overlap make sure you clarify exactly what you're prepared to take.) * Pension schemes/extra superannuation This can seem pretty distant if you're in your 20s, but extra pension is something you will appreciate one day. Some companies offer a matching scheme where if you put a bit in, they will too.

* Holiday and sick leave allowances All companies must offer legal minimums; some companies include extra leave as part of generous working conditions. If they do, they're usually pretty proud of them and will highlight the good conditions for you.

* Other benefits These include share schemes, health insurance schemes, flexible hours/working from home, creche and family facilities, financial support/flexibility for study and so on obviously some of these are things you'll look for if they're relevant for you.

In general, good conditions aren't something people consider when they're job hunting; maybe they should be. A company that invests in good conditions for staff will often have a happy work environment where you'll enjoy spending your time.

If you're graduating from university and this is your first full-time job, starting salaries can seem enormous, compared to student allowances/the pittance you've been managing on until now. This is almost certainly an illusion. Remember that once you're working full-time you'll have all kinds of extra costs like travel, business clothes, lunches and so on. You might also want to upgrade where you've been living/your evening haunts, buy a car, and so on.

On the other hand, if you're coming from another industry, especially something more business-y such as finance or insurance, starting salaries can seem very low.

5. Area of publis.h.i.+ng/department Where do you want to work? Sales, marketing, editorial, design or somewhere else? Would you rather work for the right company in the wrong job and hope to move over, or wait until the right job function comes along, even in a company you don't like the look of?

This really depends on the company and how sharp you can be about looking great in a job that you secretly see as a bit of a stop-gap. In many companies, once you're in, you can move around easily.

I applied for anything which had 'a.s.sistant' or 'Administration' in the t.i.tle it didn't matter what area or publis.h.i.+ng house. Once you've got that proverbial foot in the door, moving around and up a company is that much easier.

(MEREDITH REES, HIGHER EDUCATION DEVELOPMENT EDITOR, AUSTRALIA).

Be careful, though it's often easier to move between sales and marketing and between editorial/production/publis.h.i.+ng than it is to swap between those two sectors, especially in the magazine sector where sales is quite far away from editorial functions.

6. Position This really depends on your level of experience and training, and what you're prepared to do. Most graduate/entry-level jobs will be called 'a.s.sistant', 'officer', 'executive' and involve a certain amount of standing by the fax machine, filling in at reception, sticking labels on books and other ba.n.a.l work. If you're moving into publis.h.i.+ng from another industry and have some work experience behind you, you'll be looking for a role where you can use that experience as well as break yourself gently into the industry. Be reasonable; there is really no point deciding that you want your first job to be a commissioning editor or marketing manager, because it almost certainly won't happen without you serving a few years as a.s.sociate editor/editorial a.s.sistant/marketing a.s.sistant first. This can work the other way too; employers will think you're a bit odd if you're applying for jobs that are clearly too junior for you. Balance is the key!

7. Big company/small company Most large publis.h.i.+ng houses are local divisions of multinational corporations, such as Penguin, Random House or McGraw-Hill. Broadly, in a large company (say, 30 or more staff), you're more likely to: * Work in one job area, because the company is well resourced so you might snare a role as one of eight editorial a.s.sistants, where you work with, say, the popular science editor with research and reviewing, and don't have too much to do with other subject areas or job functions * Get structured opportunity for promotion * Get average or above-average (for the industry) rate of pay and conditions and well-organised bonus schemes * Get involved in structured business planning, decisions and practices In smaller publis.h.i.+ng houses you're more likely to: * Get wider experience so your job might be sales, marketing and editorial a.s.sistant, working across a variety of job functions * Get below-average salary * Experience publis.h.i.+ng at its most creative where books get published because of gut feel, ideology or government support I got a job in Tokyo, working for an art/graphic design book publisher by answering a newspaper ad. I had already moved to Tokyo to live. I was the 'international division', which meant I did everything that required the English language that included inviting and coordinating contributors to the books from around the world, editing and proofreading, marketing, sales and international distribution (ie attending trade fairs etc) (STEPHANIE JOHNSTON, DIRECTOR, WAKEFIELD PRESS, AUSTRALIA).

8. Culture This is a tough one, and hard to gauge before you get a job, and even harder if you've not worked full-time before. People often know what kind of culture they don't want to work in stuffy, overly structured and where new ideas are quashed.

What kind of culture might you feel comfortable in?

9. Opportunities Do you want to progress quickly in your career? You might look for a company that offers a formal advancement plan (more likely to be a bigger company), or consider a less formal company where advancement happens if you do a good job. Most companies will say they offer potential for career advancement but this is not always the case see Chapter 16 for more on this.

I started at Black Inc. in 2001 as a publis.h.i.+ng a.s.sistant, doing editorial work, publicity, administration . . . you name it! Five years later I became managing director. You could say that I have grown up with the company.

(SOPHY WILLIAMS, MANAGING DIRECTOR, BLACK, INC, AUSTRALIA).

If you have a particular career goal in mind, think about what type of company you should work for to help you achieve this.

I started in publis.h.i.+ng as a sales rep in Melbourne, Australia. I was always interested in working in the UK so I made sure I worked for an international company and made myself known to the UK managers whenever the opportunity came up. In time I was able to step straight into a great job in the UK. I certainly wouldn't have been able to do this in a locally-owned company. (SUSANNAH) A word of warning. If you're in a job at the moment, or have some experience though previous jobs/interns.h.i.+ps, be wary of oversimplifying based on your experiences which can make you sound over idealistic or just naive. Don't fall into the trap of 'I loved/hated that job in the large magazine publisher, so I need to find work with/ absolutely avoid another large magazine publisher.' Apart from avoiding presenting yourself as a negative person, it pays you to think about why you loved/hated the job; and as well as things like type of company, don't forget: * What kind of work you were doing * What your boss was like * The challenges you had * Opportunities for promotion, pay rises, travel, variation of role * Physical environment nice office s.p.a.ce, ease of transport, proximity to shops etc * What kind of emotional s.p.a.ce you were in at the time All of these factors influence how much you enjoy your current job.

OK, so now you've got some ideas about what you're looking for. Figuring out what job you want and where is the first step in your plan to getting your job in publis.h.i.+ng.