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!

Internship & Job Opportunities...

First of all, here are some graduate job opportunities I’ve come across this week:

• Do you have a passion for children’s books? Make Believe Ideas, a small children’s publisher, has an exciting opening for an Editorial Assistant/Junior Editor. The position is based in Berkhamsted, Hertfordshire and the deadline for applications is Friday 31st July.
• Cambridge University Press has an opening for a Production Assistant (12-month contract) to help provide administrative assistance to their Academic Production team. The position is based in Cambridge and the deadline for applications is Friday 24th July.
• If you’re interested in STM publishing, the Institution of Engineering and Technology is looking to recruit a full-time Editorial and Production Assistant (contract ending in December 2015) to manage the journal peer-review and production processes. The IET’s offices are based in Stevenage, so this is a great opportunity for anyone who lives in Hertfordshire or Bedfordshire.
• SAGE Publications is looking for an Editorial Assistant (Research Methods). This position is based in London and the deadline for applications is Friday 31st July. (To see the details of this position click on the link above, then just scroll down and click on the ‘view all open job positions’ link.)

If you’re looking for publishing internships, here are a few opportunities I’ve found recently:

• Profile Books, a non-fiction publisher based in Central London, runs an eight-week, full-time internship for graduates which is now open for applications. The internship involves working in editorial, administration, marketing and publicity, and all interns are paid a living wage.
• If you’re interested in academic publishing, Rowman & Littlefield International is offering a 6–8 week editorial internship starting in late July/early August. The intern will carry out editorial tasks and provide support to commissioning editors. This is a paid internship based in Kennington, South London and the deadline for applications is Monday 20th July.
• Plexus Publishing, a publisher of illustrated non-fiction books, is looking for an Editorial Assistant Intern to provide administrative and editorial support to their Editorial Director. The internship is based in Clapham, London and the deadline for applications is Friday 31st July.

Career Opportunities!

Here are some entry-level job opportunities I’ve come across recently:

• Endeavour Press, a leading independent digital publisher of fiction and non-fiction based in London, is looking for a full-time Editorial Assistant. The role involves proofreading and formatting manuscripts, writing copy, and commissioning titles. The ideal candidate will be able to start immediately.
• Are you a fan of contemporary literary fiction and classics? Alma Books, an award-winning trade publisher, is looking for a Marketing Assistant to help develop digital and print campaigns. Their offices are based in Richmond, Greater London and the closing date for applications is Friday 17th July.
• If you’re interested in the contracts and rights side of publishing, Thames & Hudson has a great opportunity for a Contracts Assistant to support their Legal & Business Affairs department. Their offices are based in Holborn, London and the deadline for applications is Monday 13th July.

• BioMed Central, a scientific publisher who is owned by Springer and specialises in open access journal publishing, is seeking an Editorial Assistant to join their Journal Editorial Office. The role will involve tasks such as managing the peer-review process and communicating with authors, reviewers and editors. The position is based in London.

• Macmillan Science and Education is looking for an Editorial Assistant to join their Nature Reviews Department. The role will involve providing support to authors, reviewers and editors, as well as other administrative tasks. The position is based at their new King’s Cross offices and the deadline for applications is Wednesday 8th July.

5 Questions Likely to Come Up in a Publishing Interview

After spending the last month applying for editorial assistant job vacancies, I’m pleased to say that a lot of my time recently has been taken up by interviews at a few (pretty big) academic publishing houses.

During these interviews I obviously met a wide variety of professionals in the industry (editors, assistant editors and publishers) from all different publishing houses, but there was one thing I noticed that didn’t vary quite so much: the interview questions.

I found that certain questions just kept reappearing; some I’d envisaged (thankfully) and pre-prepared answers to, others completely stumped me the first time round. So to help you prepare (and preparation is key), here are five questions that I think are extremely likely to come up in a publishing interview and my advice on how to answer them:

1.      What led you to wanting a career in publishing?

This is an obvious question that is bound to come up, but an impressive and original answer needs preparation. Try to come up with something that isn’t just, “I love reading” – that’s not enough. Think about the type of publishing you’re trying to enter into. Why does that particular area interest you? For me, academic publishing became an interest at university after researching lots of literature essays. I got a real buzz out of finding useful, up to date and high-quality scholarly titles, so being a part of the publication process for cutting-edge academic research genuinely excites me. If, alternatively, you’re interested in trade publishing, where, when and why did that interest start? An influential book in your childhood? Or maybe there was one book that changed your outlook on life. The point here is to be original – this is much easier than you think when you’re pursuing a goal you feel really passionate about.

2.     Why do you want to work for this particular publishing house?

When answering this question, make sure you show off all the research you’ve done on the publishing house. Find their mission statement, browse their website, see if they’ve been in the news recently, read a couple of their recently released titles. After carrying out this research, what did you find that particularly excites you about the publisher? For me personally, a career at Palgrave Macmillan interested me not only because they’re a prestigious and highly-regarded academic publisher, but also because they’re extremely innovative and forward-thinking with projects like Palgrave Pivot, Palgrave Open and Palgrave Connect. So find something specific that attracts you to this particular publishing house and use it to show your genuine excitement at the possibility of a career there.

3.     What do you think are the main job responsibilities for this editorial assistant position and what skills do you possess which will allow you to carry out these responsibilities successfully?

This was a question I actually quite liked as it gave me the chance to demonstrate two things. First, that I had a clear understanding of what the role would involve (publishers like this), and second, how suitable I was for the position. When preparing for your interview it really is worth going through the job description and finding the main responsibilities you will be tasked with. Once you’ve picked out the main ones, ask yourself what skills will each of these responsibilities require? Then come up with examples of where you’ve previously used each of these skills. So, for example, one of the job responsibilities for an editorial assistant at Palgrave Macmillan was managing editorial processes and the peer review process. A task like this obviously requires great organisation and time management skills, so I took examples from my time as an editorial intern when I often had to juggle a variety of tasks given to me by project editors. So approach this question logically; make sure you know exactly what the role will involve, think about the skills needed to carry out these responsibilities, and have examples ready to demonstrate these skills.

4.     Which publishing houses are our main competitors and are any of them doing something you think we should be doing?

The competitors question came up during my interviews at Cambridge University Press and Palgrave Macmillan. Although I was aware of their main competitors and could easily list them, the second part of the question gave me a slight panic attack. But after taking a few moments to actually think, I came up with a pretty good answer. I knew from my research that academic publishing is currently undergoing immense change because publishers are making the conscious effort to become more digitally focused. This reminded me of the competing eBook digital platforms that numerous academic publishers now offer to universities (Palgrave Connect from Palgrave Macmillan and University Publishing Online from Cambridge University Press). So I based my answers around comparisons of these platforms and came up with some good areas for improvement. Remember, publishers ask questions like this one to test your knowledge of the industry, so it’s a great way to show you’re keeping up with current trends. My advice is to not only research the publishing house you’re interviewing at, but also one or two of their main competitors. Make sure you have an idea of how competing publishers are trying to outdo each other!

5.     Do you have any areas of weakness? If so, what are they?

This is a pretty standard question for any interview, but it was one I’d completely forgotten to prepare for. First off, make sure you actually give them a weakness – we all have more than one. Then, try to emphasise that it is a weakness, but a weakness you’re working on. Give an example of how you’ve recently made an effort to improve in this area. This says a lot about you as an individual.

Ace these likely questions and you might just ace the interview! There’s really no excuse not to have an impressive answer to each of these questions. Preparation really is key!

Career Opportunities for You...

Here are some exciting career opportunities I’ve come across this week that might interest you:

• Are you an avid reader of non-fiction? Profile Books, an award-winning non-fiction publisher based in Central London, has a vacancy for a Marketing, Publicity and Digital Sales Assistant. The deadline for applications is Friday 26th June.
• If you’re interested in academic publishing, Palgrave Macmillan is looking for an Editorial Assistant to support their Language and Linguistics book programme. The position is based at their new King’s Cross offices and the deadline for applications is Monday 29th June.
• A new vacancy at Bloomsbury appeared on their website today for an Editorial Assistant within their academic division. The position involves providing support to editors working on the Classical Studies & Archaeology and Religious Studies lists. The deadline for applications is Thursday 27th June.
• SAGE Publications is looking for a Marketing Assistant to work in their journals marketing team. The position is based in London and the deadline for applications is Friday 26th June. (To see the details of this position click on the link above, then just scroll down and click on the ‘view all open job positions’ link.)
• Are you interested in open access publishing? Oxford University Press has an opening for a Publishing Assistant who will work on their open access monographs and law journals. The deadline for applications is Monday 29th June.