October’s Job Vacancies

Job vacancies:

• Hachette is seeking an Assistant Project Editor to join their John Murray Learning team. The successful candidate will work across their trade education list providing administrative support and managing a number of projects across a wide range of formats. The closing date for applications is Friday 7th October and position is based in London.
• Penguin is advertising for an Editor to join their audio publishing division. The role will involve casting, scheduling and managing studio bookings, as well as working closely with sound editors to brief production expectations. This position is based in London and the deadline for applications is Monday 17th October.
• Wiley is looking for a Senior Editorial Assistant to provide support to their peer review team. The successful candidate will ensure the smooth progression of journal manuscripts through the peer review process. The role will involve working closely with editors, authors and reviewers. The closing date for applications is Thursday 27th October and the position is based in Oxford/Chichester.
• Oxford University Press is seeking an Assistant Commissioning Editor for Economics. The role will involve overseeing the delivery and publication of around 55 titles a year through frequest liaison with authors and internal departments. The deadline for applications is Tuesday 11th October and the position is based in Oxford.
• Cambridge University Press is advertising for an Editorial Assistant to provide administrative support for a team of commissioning editors working on the life science and astronomy lists. The role will involve administrative tasks, seeking permissions and endorsements, and writing cover copy. The position is based in Cambridge and the closing date for applications is Monday 17th October.

February’s Job Vacancies and Internship Opportunities

Job vacancies:

• Jessica Kingsley Publishers is looking for a Marketing and Publicity Executive to help with marketing campaigns. JKP is a professional publisher who has lists on the autism spectrum, social work, mental health, and counselling. The chosen candidate will be responsible for organising marketing campaigns, attending conferences, and social media marketing. The position is based in London (near King’s Cross) and the closing date for applications is Monday 22nd February.
• If you’re interested in book sales, HarperCollins is seeking a Sales Operations Administrator to support their Sales team and help maintain stock levels. Responsibilities include preparing reports, managing data, analysing stock reports, raising invoices, and updating stock management systems. This role is based in London in the London Bridge Quarter.
• Nature Publishing Group, part of Springer Nature, is looking to recruit an Editorial Assistant. The successful candidate will handle administrative tasks within the Nature Reviews and Nature Protocols team. Specific responsibilities include providing support to authors, checking manuscripts, obtaining rights and permissions, and ensuring databases are updated. This position is based in London, next to King’s Cross, and the deadline for applications is Wednesday 24th February.
• The education publisher, Macmillan Education, is seeking a Part-time Media Assistant to help with the smooth running of their media department. The chosen candidate will assist the Media Producers and Media Team Manager, and will be required to assist on shoots, prepare props, carry out photo research, and help with other project-specific needs. The position is based in London and the closing date for applications is Thursday 18th February.

Internship opportunities:

• Cambridge University Press is offering six-week internships for current or recent Publishing MA students. In their Academic division, there are opportunities available in Marketing, Open Access, and Science Journals. In their Education division, there are vacancies in Commissioning, Design & Content, and Marketing. Interns will be paid a living wage and will need to be available between Monday 16th May and Friday 1st July. The closing date for applications is Tuesday 1st March and the internships are based in Cambridge.
• Hurst Publishers, a non-fiction publisher based in Central London, is offering internships to graduates interested in pursuing a career in publishing. These internships are available throughout the year and generally last around six weeks. To apply, send your CV and covering letter to Jonathan de Peyer (jon@hurstpub.co.uk).
• Oxford University Press has opened its Summer Internship Scheme with a range of opportunities available in different teams. Internships are based in Oxford and will start on Monday 4th July and finish on Friday 26th August. The deadline for applications is Tuesday 1st March.
• Little, Brown Books, a publisher of children’s and young adult fiction, is looking for an Editorial Assistant Intern. The internship will last six months and the successful candidate will gain an insight into children’s publishing. There will be opportunities to learn how to proofread and copy edit, and the role will involve reading submissions and assisting with manuscripts. The position is based in London and the deadline for applications is Thursday 18th February.

As always, if you do decide to apply for any of these opportunities and would like some advice on writing stand out covering letters and CVs, please feel free to get in touch: pathwaytopublishing@gmail.com.

December’s Job Vacancies and Internship Opportunities

Starting your job hunt over Christmas? Check out the latest opportunities in publishing:

• The Institute of Engineering and Technology (IET), one of the world’s largest engineering institutions, is looking for an Editorial Assistant to join their Books Editorial and Production team. The role will involve tasks such as, managing the signing of contracts, preparing manuscripts for production, ensuring accurate payment of royalties, and ordering gratis and review copies. The position is based in Stevenage, Hertfordshire.
• Interested in selling books? Bloomsbury is recruiting an International Sales Assistant to work across all of their publishing divisions. The successful candidate will be tasked with selling books in all territories, liaising with customers, providing marketing material, and creating promotional sales kits and regular newsletters. The role is based in London and the closing date for applications is Wednesday 16th December.
• Bloomsbury also has a vacancy for an Assistant Editor to join their Adult Editorial team and work on their award-winning cookery and lifestyle list. The role will involve providing editorial and administrative support, liaising with authors, writing cover copy, assisting Production with reprint corrections, and clearing permissions. The candidate must have a minimum of one year’s editorial experience. The deadline for applications is Friday 18th December.
• Sage Publications, an academic book and journal publisher in business, humanities, social sciences and STM, is looking for an Editorial Assistant. The successful candidate will be working on Sage’s STM journals and the role will involve providing support to two editors, arranging meetings and taking notes, and supporting the launch of new journals. The position is based in London and the closing date for applications is Thursday 10th December.
• Are you passionate about children’s books? HarperCollins is looking for an Editorial Assistant to join their award-winning Children’s team. The position will involve tasks such as, liaising with authors, preparing rejection letters, monitoring submissions, copy writing sales and marketing material, proofreading jacket copy, preparing prelims, and sending cover proofs to authors. The role is based in London and the closing date for applications is Friday 11th December.
• Taylor & Francis Group, a leading academic publisher, has numerous Editorial Assistant vacancies in the following subject areas: Business, Management and Accounting, Geography and Tourism, and Sociology. The roles will involve managing the peer review process, drafting author contracts, preparing manuscripts for handover to production, and writing promotional copy for marketing materials. These positions are all based in Milton Park, Oxfordshire, and the closing date for applications is early January 2016.
• Edward Elgar Publishing is seeking an Assistant Editor with a keen interest in social sciences to join their academic book publishing team. The position will involve guiding proposals through the peer review process, handling contractual arrangements, and other administrative work. The role is based in Cheltenham, Gloucestershire, and the deadline for applications is Friday 11th December.
• Profile Books, a London-based non-fiction publisher, is offering eight-week, full-time internships. They are currently accepting applications for positions opening in May 2016. The internship will cover all areas of publishing including administration, publicity, marketing, and editorial. All interns are paid the London Living Wage. Interviews will take place in January 2016.
• Little, Brown Book Group is running an Editorial Work Experience scheme for graduates looking to build up industry experience on their CVs. Placements last two weeks and will cover all aspects of entry-level work in the publishing industry.
• Little Tiger Press, a small children’s publisher based in London, is offering work experience placements in editorial, design, and marketing and publicity. Unfortunately the placements are unpaid, but expenses of up to £10 per day are covered.

As always, if you do decide to apply for any of these opportunities and would like some advice on how to write stand out covering letters and CVs, please feel free to get in touch: pathwaytopublishing@gmail.com.

October’s Job Vacancies and Internship Opportunities

Job vacancies

• Cambridge University Press is seeking a Designer to work on their English Language Teaching (ELT) books. The role involves creating cutting-edge covers, text layouts and digital concept designs. The position is based in Cambridge and the closing date for applications is Wednesday 28th October.
• The Children’s Group within Quarto Publishing is looking for a Design Assistant. The chosen candidate will be working on their children’s fiction and picture books and should have a thorough knowledge of InDesign, Photoshop and Acrobat. The deadline for applications is Friday 23rd October and the position is based in London.
• Bluebird, an imprint of Pan Macmillan which publishes wellness and lifestyle books, is advertising for a Junior Publicist. The role involves planning PR campaigns for Bluebird titles across all media platforms and building relationships with media contacts to maximise publicity. The position is based at Pan Macmillan’s King’s Cross office and the closing date for applications is Wednesday 21st October.
• Floris Books, an independent publisher based in Edinburgh, has a vacancy for an Editorial Assistant. The successful candidate will be editing and proofreading manuscripts, helping to maintain editorial schedules, assessing manuscripts, liaising with authors, and briefing design and production on cover designs and cover blurbs. The position is based in Edinburgh and the closing date for applications is Friday 30th October.

Internship opportunities

• Jacqui Small Publishing, an imprint of Quarto Publishing based in London, is offering an eight-week editorial internship. The placement will involve gaining picture permissions, editing text and liaising with authors. The deadline for applications is Tuesday 20th October with a suggested start date of Monday 26th October. For more information please contact Hannah.bugg@quartouk.com.
• Story Terrace, a book publisher specialising in biographies, is seeking a part-time editorial intern for a minimum of two months to support their managing editor in London. The internship will involve assisting with the editing of books, writing blog posts and updating their website. Travel expenses and lunch are paid, and the closing date for applications is Monday 19th October. Applications should be sent to Emily McCracken, the managing editor, at emily@storyterrace.com.
• Sheldrake Press, a London-based book publisher, is offering publishing traineeships. The placements will cover all aspects of publishing, including editorial, sales and marketing, production and rights. Travel and lunch expenses will be paid and the closing date for applications is Friday 6th November.
• Sweet & Maxwell, one of the UK’s leading legal publishers, is running an editorial work placement scheme. Placements involve supporting editors, proofreading, copy editing and administrative support, and usually last two weeks. Sweet & Maxwell are looking for applicants interested in undertaking placements throughout November and from mid-January 2016 onwards. If you’d like to apply, send your CV and covering letter to smg.workplacementscheme@thomsonreuters.com.

If you do decide to apply for any of these opportunities and would like some advice on writing stand out covering letters and CVs, please feel free to email me: pathwaytopublishing@gmail.com. I’m more than happy to help!

The Start of a Career: My First Six Weeks as an Editorial Assistant at Palgrave Macmillan

With a dry mouth, sweaty palms and shaking hands, I sat in the reception at Palgrave Macmillan, waiting to embark on my career in publishing. I had mixed emotions; from excitement and eager anticipation, to nervousness and a crippling fear.

What if I’d made the wrong decision? What if this industry wasn’t for me? What if I ended up hating the role?

That moment was six weeks ago. And those fears – those last minute shreds of doubt – they did not become a reality.

Instead, six weeks from that moment, I can now say that my decision to go into publishing and accept the role at Palgrave has been the best decision I’ve made in a long time. Choosing this career path may have meant completely going against what my parents wanted, but despite how agonising it was, I'm glad I made that choice because, finally, I made a decision – a decision that was right for me.

The past six weeks have been a HUGE learning curve. From meeting the editorial team and starting to build good working relationships, to being introduced to authors and becoming a part of the publishing process for their titles – I’m really surprised at how much I’ve learnt at Palgrave already. I now have a real appreciation for the work that goes into the publication of each and every book.

But just in case you’re wondering what my role as an Editorial Assistant actually involves, here are just a few of my main responsibilities which I’ve been getting to grips with during my first six weeks in the role:

• Managing the peer review process – As Palgrave is an academic publisher, their book proposals go through a peer review process in order to ensure that material is of a high quality and is suitable for publication. Managing this process involves approaching academics in the field to supply us with reviews of book proposals. I also organise payment for academics who provide us with reviews (either in cash or in books). This is a task I really enjoy; it’s interesting to read the feedback from academics and see whether a book idea is actually viable.

• Preparing manuscripts for handover to Production – This is probably the most important and time consuming task I’m responsible for. When a manuscript comes in from an author, it is my job to prepare it for handover to Production. This involves checking that all permissions have been correctly obtained (on images, tables and figures), preparing the handover forms for Design and Production (including the chosen cover image), checking the word count and that all chapters are present, assessing the quality of the language to allocate the correct level of copy-editing required, and putting together the prelims. This can be a lengthy process, but it’s so rewarding to hand a manuscript over to Production and then see the book slowly start to take shape.
• Cover image research – All of our standard monographs generally have an image-based front cover design and it is one of my responsibilities to carry out image research and get authors thinking about potential images for the cover of their book. I would say this is definitely one of the most fun parts of my job. It’s going to be so exciting to see a book published with a cover image I’ve researched and found myself – hopefully this moment won’t be too far away!

• Proofing, editing and finalising cover copy – Most of our authors write the cover blurb for their book themselves. Once we’ve received this, it is my job to proof and edit the cover copy, and then get it finalised by my line manager. The finalised cover copy is sent to Design to lay up on the cover proofs which I then have to check again one last time. As someone who’s always enjoyed proofreading and copy-editing, this is one of my favourite tasks. I find it extremely satisfying to correct book blurbs and make sure that cover proofs are error free.
  
  

As you can see, my responsibilities as an Editorial Assistant are extremely varied, but that’s what I enjoy most about my role. Although this does make it stressful at times, it’s rewarding to work so closely with authors on all aspects of their book and see it evolve into the final product.

If you are considering applying for an Editorial Assistant position, I hope this post has given you more of an insight into what a role like this would actually involve. Academic publishing is such a rewarding and fascinating industry, I really would encourage you to just go for it!

Success! How I Secured My First Job in Publishing as an Editorial Assistant

My hunt for my first job in publishing officially started when I finished university in May, and after trawling through publishers’ websites, sending out triple-checked covering letters and CVs, and interviewing at a few pretty big academic publishing houses, I’ve recently accepted my first publishing job at Palgrave Macmillan as an Editorial Assistant. I feel like my hard work has finally paid off and I cannot wait to take the first step in my publishing career in a couple of weeks’ time.

But just in case you’re wondering how I reached this point (and how you can too), here are some of the most important things I did which helped me land my first publishing job:

Researched the industry

Technically, the process began for me during my first year at university three years ago when I was already considering the possibility of a career in publishing. Knowing very little about the publishing industry at the time, I decided my first step would be to start doing some research. The first, and by far the most useful, book I came across was How to Get a Job in Publishing by Alison Baverstock, Susannah Bowen and Steve Carey. This book provided me with the introduction to the industry I really needed. It discusses all the different types of publishing (trade, professional, education, academic, journal and magazine) as well as the different job roles within publishing (editorial, sales, marketing, production and rights), helping you to find out which areas of the industry might best suit your skills and interests. It also has some great advice on how to find internships, write flawless covering letters and CVs, and impress in interviews, as well as lots of useful tips from professionals inside the industry. So this book really is a great place to start if you’re eager for a career in publishing – it definitely helped me land my first job in the industry!

Completed internships

After reading the book mentioned above, I realised that completing an internship or gaining work experience was a must if I wanted to have any chance of finding a job in this notoriously competitive industry. I was lucky enough to complete two editorial internships at a small academic publishing house during my summers away from university, and these placements really were invaluable. Although unpaid, interning gave me a thorough insight into the editorial side of academic publishing and helped me catch the eye of prospective employers when I started applying for jobs after university. They were also a great way of proving my unwavering commitment to the industry.

There are a few things to think about, however, before you start applying for internships or work experience. First, these placements are often unpaid, so they might not be an option for everyone. Second, as tempting as it is, don’t just apply for every single opportunity you come across. You should think about which type of publishing you want to go into and which department you want to work in. Yes, any experience is good experience, but it will be much more valuable in the future if it’s an area you actually want to work in! You might want to look for marketing internships at non-fiction trade publishers, for example. So once you’ve considered what areas you’re interested in, try and find a handful of small publishing houses within these areas (don’t just go for the big names), see what internship/work experience opportunities they offer, and tailor your covering letter and CV for every role you apply for. This method brought me some great results and gave me lots of relevant industry experience.

Created standout covering letters and CVs

Once I’d completed a couple of internships and finished university, I was ready to start applying for full-time jobs in publishing – this meant creating the perfect covering letter and CV for each role I applied for.

With my covering letter, I didn’t want it to look like I was just sending out the same standard letter to each publishing house. So instead, in every letter I sent out, I not only highlighted my relevant publishing experience, but also emphasised my knowledge of, and interest in, the particular publishing house I was applying to. In my covering letter for the position at Palgrave Macmillan, for instance, I mentioned a title of theirs which I’d read at university and I also congratulated them on the success of their new Palgrave Pivot book format. So your covering letter should demonstrate both your suitability for the role and your interest in the publishing house. Is there a title of theirs you recently enjoyed reading? What excites you about this particular publishing house? Have they won any awards recently? Make the publisher feel like you really want to work there. Just think, if you were reading the hundreds of covering letters that came in for one vacancy, what would impress you?

Alternatively with my CV, I made sure to draw attention to my relevant editorial internships and include detailed descriptions of what these placements involved. I also referred back to the job description for each role I applied for to see what specific skills they were asking for and then added examples of where I’d previously demonstrated these skills to my CV.

So make your covering letters and CVs stand out by tailoring them for every role you apply for. Although it is time consuming, making an effort like this will really increase your chances of being invited to an interview. It’s definitely worth it!

Prepared thoroughly for interviews

Averill Chase, a now retired publishing professional, gives the following advice to publishing interviewees: “sell yourself – no-one else will”. I loved coming across this quote. It made me think, how well could I actually talk about me? Could I explain how suitable I was for an editorial assistant position persuasively and effectively? The starting point for my interview preparation was, therefore, to focus on ME. This meant making sure I could talk positively about myself and could discuss in detail all my skills and experience relevant for the position. I practised this simply by talking to myself out loud!

Once I was confident that I could sell myself well, I spent the rest of my time doing more research on the publishing house. I made sure that I’d read a few of their titles, that I could demonstrate a familiarity with the list I’d be working on, and that I was aware of their new and innovative projects. I also researched the company’s values and memorised their mission statement so I could make brief references to these during my interview.

Next I prepared a list of questions ready to ask the interviewer. These included one about the job role, one about the interviewer’s own publishing career, and one about the publishing house itself. Some questions I asked were:

• What will be my biggest challenge in this position?
• What’s your own experience of working at this publishing house in terms of career progression and company culture?
• Are there any areas of your list which you’re currently trying to develop?

My final bit of interview prep involved guessing questions that might come up and having answers ready for them. You can read more about this in my previous blog post: 5 questions likely to come up in a publishing interview.

Started writing this blog!

Finally, I think setting up this blog whilst job hunting actually helped me secure my first publishing position. During my second interview at Palgrave Macmillan, I was asked whether there were any projects I was working on outside of university, giving me the perfect opportunity to talk about my blog. The interviewer seemed really impressed when I explained how I was writing about my pursuit of a publishing career whilst trying to help other people with similar aspirations to me. So this blog might have just set me apart from the other candidates I was up against! If you’re thinking about setting up a blog related to publishing, reviewing books is a great way to show that you’re keeping up with the latest and most popular books gracing the shelves.

So they were some of the most important steps I took which helped me land my first job in publishing. Maybe they’ll do the same for you!