Jobs & Careers with Piers Linney - 71

FOCUS :

PUBLISHING
s your idea of heaven
taking a weighty tome
to bed, or devouring
every page of a glossy
magazine? If you love
words and your home
looks like a library, maybe you should
consider a career in publishing. With
more than 195,000 employees, and an
annual turnover of £10.1billion gross
value added (GVA), the publishing
world is known for being a cut-throat
industry that is difficult to get into, but
it can also be very rewarding for those
who have a flair with words, an eye for
design and a love of all things literary.
But before you embark into this field
thinking it's all glamour and The Devil
Wears Prada, it's important to realise
that most salaries in this industry aren't
huge. Then there's getting a job in the
first place. It's an industry that's greatly
in demand, for both school leavers and
graduates, and is heavily oversubscribed.
There are jobs in book, magazine and
newspaper publishing, in both creative
and business areas, but they're far more
scarce than in previous years. Online
opportunities are more common these
days. Because there will probably be
hundreds of applicants for every job
vacancy, you'll need to be able to stand
out from the crowd, and be extremely
determined to succeed.
The good news is that once you've got
your foot in the door, it's an interesting
industry to work in. Whether you focus
on books, magazines or newspapers,
there are a wide variety of roles on offer,
including design, writing and production
- plus jobs behind the scenes, in finance,
HR and sales. Whatever area you work
in, helping to create a publication from
scratch is a satisfying process, and seeing
'your' book or magazine on a shelf is a
very rewarding feeling.
Qualifications are important in this
field, but experience will stand you in
great stead for securing a full-time job.
Take work experience wherever you can,
and look laterally for opportunities - for
instance, through temping agencies that
supply publishing houses with secretaries.
Don't be afraid to take a job that isn't on
your perfect title - it's getting in that is
the hard part; moving across departments
or to different magazines is much easier.
Here, we take a closer look at three
different job options...

Editorial/publishing assistant
This is the most common route of entry into this field. Depending upon
the publication (book, magazine, journal or newspaper) and the size of
the company, the role can vary greatly. It may be a wholly administrative
position, or one where you're writing features for a magazine, or a
post where you're writing blogs online and looking after social media.
Because it's such a fiercely competitive industry, many of these
roles will require a qualification or degree in English, media studies
or journalism. Having said that, you can get in without them if you're
tenacious and can prove you have the necessary skills and personality
to succeed. The best way to find a job is to get some work experience
- it's likely to be unpaid, but what you learn will be crucial for securing
a similar position later, and may even lead to a full-time job.
* You'll need: to have demonstrable proof
that you can write, organise your time
EARN:
and have a can-do attitude, whether it's
from £16,000.
helping look after celebrities or doing the
Contact the magazine
photocopying. You'll also need to be good at
or book publishing house
dealing with all sorts of people, calm under
directly to ask about
work experience
pressure, and able to work to tight deadlines
opportunities.
- especially if you want to work on a daily
newspaper or weekly magazine.

Visit
www.gorkanajobs.
co.uk
for job vacancies

Commissioning editor
As a commissioning editor, you will play a key part in the success
of a book publishing company. It will be your job to make sure the
company stays profitable by selecting new authors and titles that
will sell well. You will also monitor the performance of published titles.
* You'll need: a relevant degree. You should
also have excellent spoken and written
communication skills, be good at planning,
EARN:
from £18,000.
have a head for figures, and have excellent
Put your CV on www.
organisational skills. To become
bookcareers.com and
a commissioning editor, the usual route
try The Guardian for
would be to start out in a more junior role
vacancies.
in a publishing company, and gradually
work your way up.

Production manager
The production process is one of the most technical areas of the
publishing industry. If you're working for a magazine, you'll be the one
responsible for making sure all the editorial and advertising pages come
together and get to the printer on time. In the book industry, it involves
taking a book through from manuscript to finished copy and is concerned
with the aspects of typesetting, printing and binding. Everyday tasks
involve liaising with typesetters, repro houses, printers and editorial
staff to ensure that the magazine or book is produced correctly and
delivered on time. You will also have to work with editorial and design
departments in order to ensure that the magazine or book has the
desired appearance. It is important to stay on top of the schedule as
so many different people and departments
are involved, so you'll need excellent time
and project management skills.
EARN:
* You'll need: excellent attention to detail,
from around
good administrative and numerical skills
£20,000,
for creating orders and approving quotes.
rising with
Time management and the ability to work
experience.
calmly under pressure are crucial here as
production deadlines are often very tight.

J O B S & C A R E E R S /// 0 7 1
http://www.gorkanajobs http://www.co.uk http://www.bookcareers.com
Jobs & Careers with Piers Linney

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