About Me

After completing my A Levels and having no idea what career path I wanted to go down, I ended up taking the first job I could find working as an accounts assistant in an accountancy practice. Two years later, I found myself stuck in a rut. I didn’t enjoy my job, I had no passion for the work I was doing, and the idea of a lifetime career in accountancy was starting to fill me with dread.

Change

It wasn’t until I reached a low point in my life that (finally) I decided it was time for change. A friend recently reminded me of this quote by Tony Robbins: ‘Change happens when the pain of staying the same is greater than the pain of change.’ And I genuinely feel like this was the point I reached when I decided to make a change and choose a completely different career path.

My pathway to publishing

So what led me to publishing? Before taking the plunge and quitting my job I started researching other career options based more around my interests. I’d always enjoyed reading, loved studying English literature at school, and was also a bit of a grammar, spelling and punctuation geek, so an editorial career in publishing was a massively exciting and refreshing prospect for me. On researching the industry, I noticed that the majority of entry-level editorial jobs asked for a degree which led me to taking my next step…

Quitting my job

After carrying out this research, I decided it was time to quit my job and study English literature at university. Surprisingly for me, this decision actually became a fairly easy one to make. Firstly, I was pretty excited by the prospect of studying English literature at a higher level. Secondly, I realised that a degree in this subject would stand me in good stead for a publishing career on graduation. And finally, it just felt like the right decision for me. I was finally doing something based on my own passions and interests, and this actually made me excited for the future.

Fast forward to my time at university

Whilst at university I developed an interest in academic publishing. Call me weird, but the thing I enjoyed most about writing literature essays was actually reading all the academic research beforehand (plus reading the primary texts – obviously!). This newfound interest got me searching for editorial internships specifically in academic publishing, and I was lucky enough to spend both of my summers whilst at university interning in the editorial department of a well-regarded academic publisher.

The present

After three pretty stressful years at university, I will be graduating in September with First-Class Honours in English literature. As well as this, I’m extremely proud to say that my publishing career has officially begun! I’m currently working as an Editorial Assistant at Palgrave Macmillan – an absolute dream come true for me.

Thank you for taking the time to read my blog. I genuinely hope it will help and inspire anyone considering a career in publishing.

Gemma