How to Get a Job in Publishing Part 7

Type of publisher Location Salary and conditions Area of publishing 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 publishing 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 publishing, I wondered if I might enjoy fiction/trade publishing more. I looked into it and realised I had to choose between my current junior management role in educational publishing, 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 publishing and then following an educational publishing path. (SUSANNAH) Remember that areas of publishing 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 publishing?

Think about non-publishing companies which have publishing-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 publishing divisions who pump out printed material and websites * Also think about publishing industry services including training organisations, general organisations that promote reading, book information companies such as Bowker, publishing industry magazines, library suppliers, mailing houses and so on All these are legitimate careers or great back door entry paths into publishing (see also Chapter 14).

Although I always planned a career in publishing, 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 publishing 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 publishing 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 relationship?

* 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 friendship 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 publishing 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 publishing 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 publishing for the money. Let's say that again: no-one should go into publishing 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 publishing.

(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 publishing/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 publishing 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/publishing 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 publishing 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 publishing 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 publishing 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 publishing 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 publishing 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 publishing 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/internships, 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 publishing.

More reading.

www.bookcareers.com www.careersonline.com.au www.careersa-z.co.uk.

www.prospects.ac.uk http://jobstar.org/index.php www.services.unimelb.edu.au/careers/student/index.html.

Lees, How to Get a Job You'll Love, McGraw-Hill, 2006.

Bolles, What Color Is Your Parachute?, Ten Speed Press, 2006.

Chapter Eleven.

How to create a stunning CV.

This chapter is all about creating a great general CV that you can use as a basis for job hunting. Chapter 12 shows you how to write a job application letter and adapt your CV to the job you are applying for.

Your CV is your introduction. Done well, it makes your future employer (think positive!) go further and find out more about you. It's a display of the most appealing, interesting, relevant and attractive things about you not every detail, just the key things that show you at your best.

If you were a shop, your CV would be your shop window, and getting an employer interested enough to invite you for interview is like enticing them to step inside.

Remember: your CV gets you the interview; the interview gets you the job.

Your CV should: * Include key details, representative of the rest of you: your education your experience your skills It should give just enough to show you could be the right person for the job, and it's worth interviewing you.

* Have just the headlines, not the whole story in excruciating detail. Too much info in a CV looks cluttered and can be hard to understand without context.

* Look great, ie: easy on the eye easy to find core information attractive layout free from grammatical and spelling typos It sounds very obvious, but an application letter full of typos for a publishing job is not a good start. (LIZ SMALL, PUBLISHING SCOTLAND) Stick to these basic rules and you're well on the way to creating a great CV.

One thing to say about the mechanics of putting your CV together is that there are fairly standard templates around with small variations to choose from and show your individuality. This is good advice. CVs are emphatically not the place to get creative. You should stand out from the crowd through flawless language, spelling and grammar and by creating a superb piece of communication, especially in a words-driven industry such as publishing. Don't use multicoloured paper; don't demonstrate just how many typefaces your computer has; don't be 'different'.

There are hundreds of books on how to put together a CV, and even more opinions from agencies and friends who offer conflicting advice about how important it is to put employment first then education, or the other way around; about having really cla.s.sy headers or keeping it simple; about layouts, colours and so on.

None of this matters. What does matter, however, are the following: The Seven Golden Rules of CVs 1. Be clear, neatly laid out, and with a legible font professional in appearance.

2. Show off your absolutely flawless spelling and grammar and plain English language, too, not packed with jargon.

3. Contain all the key information and nothing more.

4. Be three pages at absolute most two is better.

5. Give your best reasons for getting the job. Focus on what you know about the company and job and tweak your CV to fit.

6. Add nothing you don't want to be asked about. Omit school results, middle names that embarra.s.s you, peculiar interests (maze designing, penguin baiting, you name it) . . . If in doubt, leave it out.

7. Be safe, friendly and pleasant. You want to come across as someone they might want to employ. Don't worry about looking bland; you can show your fascinating style and personality at interview. If you don't get that far, all the interestingness is for nothing.

Non-publishing jobs such as sales a.s.sistants in vacuum cleaner companies may attract 10 or 20 applications. Not surprisingly, perhaps, you're not competing against a high number of people. Many jobs in publishing, however, see 200 or more CVs land on the desk of the advertiser. The record we've heard of is 566 for an editorial a.s.sistant job.

So how much attention does each CV and covering letter get? Well, it's measured in seconds, not minutes.

In magazine publishing, if we advertised for an editorial a.s.sistant we would get 300 or 400 applications. After a while I got clever about it and made it harder for employees to apply, by asking for a 1, 000-word written piece on the role of contemporary magazines, or something like that. That used to cut it down to around 20 good applications. (STEVE) Rejoice when you find it hard to apply for a job: the higher the hurdle, the better, because the more people will give up and eliminate themselves before they get to the starting block. If a job ad is tough to apply for and needs you to do a bunch of work, it's really worth gritting your teeth and getting on with, as you're much more likely to be considered.

In general if you're competing against 200 other CVs, yours needs to be easy to flick through and the most relevant details must jump up.

Your CV is actually working on two levels: 1. It has to stand up to the quick glance through so that it gets put in the 'Yes' or 'Perhaps' pile 2. It will get a longer, detailed examination as recruiters decide whether to call you for interview Getting through the first, quick-glance stage gets you from the full pile of 200, 300 or more CVs to a long list of perhaps 20, 30 or 50. Progressing from that long list to shortlist interview stage means you're in the last 5 or 10 CVs.

Alright, let's get started.

Layout, paper and appearance Font Pick something easy to read, preferably not Times New Roman since that's the default on Word and therefore what people without imagination use. If you can find out what their house font is, it's a good idea to use it back to them you look like you fit in already!

Go with a serif or sans serif font. Serif fonts are those with little feet on the letters, traditionally easier to read, such as * Georgia * Garamond * Palatino Sans serif fonts are those without little feet, traditionally cleaner looking. Try * Verdana * Trebuchet MS * Arial Whatever font you prefer is fine, though check with your Honest Friend1 that it's readable. There's a whole unconvincing debate about women liking sans serif and men liking serif (or was it vice versa?). Don't worry about that; just pick something readable that works for you.

Don't get into lots of different fonts for headings and body text, it just gets confusing and looks messy. If you do go for a different font for headings, make sure it's readable we said this before but it's important.

Typefaces also become dated very quickly. So, for this reason, don't use Comic Sans MS. It's about as groovy as wearing a tie with Bart Simpson on it.

Paper Plain white A4 is fine. You might go for a slightly thicker paper or creamier colour; nothing more complex than that though. Stapled is fine; don't use a paperclip (papers separate out) or bind (impossible to split pages out and photocopy it also makes you look inflexible, as if the same CV has been over-manicured for impact; a CV should change with each application).

The entire CV should be just two or three pages; absolutely no more. We've never met a CV where it wasn't possible to chop out some irrelevant or unnecessary information. If you can't bear to trim anything, give it to your Honest Friend to help you cross bits out.

Some people like a t.i.tle page with your name and contact details, before getting into the nitty-gritty. If you're going to do this, we suggest also having something to grab the attention, such as a summary of your experience and what you're looking for, and your mission statement. The first page is obviously the first thing to get attention and a page with nothing but 'Emma Woodhouse' is a waste of that attention, when you could be driving home something about yourself.

CV.

Emma Woodhouse Address and tel details Summary: * A keen and bright graduate looking for a career in publishing * Experience in sales, marketing and customer service * BA (First Cla.s.s) from Oxford Brookes University; MA in Publishing Studies, Kingston University If you want to get straight into it with the body of the CV, that's fine too.

CV.

Emma Woodhouse Address and tel details Summary: * A keen and bright graduate looking for a career in publishing * Experience in sales, marketing and customer service * BA (First Cla.s.s) from Oxford Brookes University; MA in Publishing Studies, Kingston University Experience: * And so on Headings can be centred or aligned left. Body text should be aligned left. Right justify makes things stand out if you use it sparingly. Whatever style you choose, be consistent. Avoid justifying the full text; it's alienating.

Your name Remember, put nothing on your CV you wouldn't be happy to discuss at interview. So don't include middle names or nicknames if they embarra.s.s you. On the other hand, the details kindly donated by your parents may be just the things to attract initial interest: My first job in publishing was at Andre Deutsch. I was twenty-one, relatively new to London and didn't know how to use apostrophes. I got the job mainly because Tom Rosenthal (then Chairman of Deutsch) is a huge fan of James Joyce and my name is Anna Livia Plurabelle the 'floozy in the jacuzzi' in Finnegans Wake. It also helped that I lived on Deronda Road another literary reference.

(ANNA KIERNAN, COURSE DIRECTOR, MA IN PUBLISHING, KINGSTON UNIVERSITY, UK).

However, if you have a gender non-specific name, or your daily-use name is a nickname that's not intuitive, you might like to explain yourself. It's not a legal doc.u.ment, so your name doesn't need to be what's on your birth certificate it should be whatever you like to be known as.

Contact details Address, telephone including area code, mobile, e-mail. Say which is most convenient for potential employers to contact you on: Work telephone (please use with caution) Home telephone (with answerphone) Mobile telephone (switched off during the day) Home e-mail (the best way of reaching me) Or even better, only list the number you want them to call you on.

Spell everything out in full and include area codes: Street, not St, and so on.

* If you have a little brother or permanently stoned flatmate who answers your home phone and mumbles or loses messages, only include your mobile number.

* If your e-mail is amusing or in any way inappropriate, change it to something more professional (emma.woodhouse@ or emma1982@ are fine, slinkygirl82@ is not). If you're in a job elsewhere, make sure you use a personal e-mail address; it's very unprofessional to use your work e-mail to apply for a new job (and your work managers might read your e-mails, too).

* If you list your mobile, be prepared for calls at all times when you're shopping, about to go into the movies or at your current job! Have a respectable voice-mail message; and carry a pen, paper and diary so you can set up interviews when you get that unexpected call.

Career summary/employment objective/career objective/mission statement These are all different, if only slightly, in function and purpose. Most people only have one of them and put them right at the top.

These serve two purposes, each with different emphasis: * Describing the role you're looking for. You can get specific or reasonably general not too general. Like this: Seeking a graduate position in marketing or sales Keen to secure a role as Publishing a.s.sistant with XYZ Magazines * Describing yourself. This is where things can go pear-shaped. Avoid HR jargon. Try this: Energetic Publishing Studies graduate Creative and confident marketing professional * Use plain English: short, simple words Don't overdo it; one or two adjectives is much more powerful than three or four. 'Focused, motivated and conscientious' sounds over the top when you run them all together but any one of them would be OK.

I cannot stress enough that using the cliched jargon found in certain business books and expounded by many careers advisors is a mistake in an industry that is powered by words and expression. They mean nothing and fool no-one. Be yourself and don't a.s.sume that you need to have a five-year personal plan to impress people. At the same time, it's best not to go for a job in the sales department and talk about how long you have dreamed of becoming an editor. Or about the ma.n.u.script you've been working on for the past ten years.

(JESSICA, AUSTRALIA).

Choose whether you want career summary or career objectives. (There is another option, the mission statement. We're against this, for reasons we discuss below.) Career summary wraps up what you've been doing: Career Summary: * A keen and bright graduate looking for a career in publishing * Experience in sales, marketing and customer service * BA from Monash University; MA in Publishing and Communication, University of Melbourne This can work really well if you've got a good range of relevant experience or skills for the role you're applying for. Note that as well as neatly summarising the candidate's background, this career summary also includes a short note on what they are looking for ('looking for a career in publishing').

Career objective/employment objective Slightly different, in that it focuses on what job you're looking for rather than what you've been doing though should still include elements of both: Career Objective: To pursue a career in publishing through a Sales and Marketing a.s.sistant role in a major trade publishing company. To refine the skills I have acquired throughout my industry experience and studies, in a fast-paced, rewarding environment.

You could personalise this further with the name of the company where you're applying for your job.

Mission statement We're against, since they usually end up as a bunch of meaningless adjectives in search of a job to do. Like this: Aspirational, proactive self-starter with successful work background; focused, motivated and conscientious team player seeks a substantial new challenge.

Who could be against any of that? And that's the point. This communicates nothing to someone reading your CV who has never met you, other than perhaps indicating that you take yourself a little too seriously. Much better to use your skills and background to explain what kind of person you are and where your strengths are. Try instead: Motivated, creative and conscientious team player An astute and successful Marketing Executive looking for a substantial new challenge A broadly skilled graduate with successful work experience in several sectors. Skilled in research, support and communication. Postgraduate and undergraduate degrees in literature, psychology and communication Checklist for career objective/summary/mission statement Keep it short Use plain English (short, common words, not 'fancy' ones) Avoid jargon and strings of adjectives Bullet points/numbered lists rather than full sentences are fine Remember, you may need to talk about anything on your CV including this section. What you write is an invitation to the interviewer to ask you to say more. After all, they have to ask something!

* If a recruiter rings your mobile when you're in the supermarket and asks you to describe yourself, what you've written in your career summary is roughly what you need to articulate * If you're in an interview and they say, 'Your CV says you're creative. What are some examples of your creativity at work?' you need to have a good answer Your career summary/mission statement should be about you, not about putting together a string of long words that you think will get you a job.