ABOUT

So what do you actually do?

Helping the editorial director and publishing director in any way they require.

What has your career path been?

It was people I met on Twitter who encouraged me to pursue publishing as a career. After doing some research of my own and learning about some of the roles, I applied to both internships and entry level roles, through Creative Access and to any relevant roles I could find. This was while I was still finishing my undergraduate degree in English Literature and Film.

I had an interview or two but with no office experience, I didn't progress. Then, an acquaintance who followed me on Twitter recommended emailing Peepal Tree Press, an indie publishing house in my hometown, Leeds, and the world's leading publisher of Caribbean and Black British literature.

I did a two-month summer internship with them and got to learn a bit more about the processes. I did a master's in English Literature right after my undergrad and while I was still torn between a stable plan B career as a secondary school English teacher, towards the end of my master's I was encouraged to continue to pursue publishing by most people around me.

I was invited to quite a few interviews and ended up landing two internship offers and one entry-level job offer. I ended up going with the internship at 4th Estate and William Collins because I was a huge fan of 4th Estate publishing in particular, and it opened the doors to me landing my current role, my first permanent role in publishing.

What is the best part of your job?

While I am an assistant and a large part of my job is being able to keep the publishing process running smoothly, almost each task still requires some level of creativity.

I feel like I get to still flex my critical thinking muscles and I love getting involved in strategy and editorial discussions which I'm frequently a part of and with a couple of projects a leader of. It never feels like I'm simply an assistant.

Why do you do your job?

I've always loved books and reading but I didn't really know publishing existed as an industry and that a career in it was viable until about 2017.

I was a huge fan of the Mostly Lit podcast (a former literature and pop culture podcast hosted by Black British Millennials) at the time and they really revived my passion for literature, lulling me out of my slump induced from academia. And through listening to them I was introduced to other Black British millennials working in the creative industries on Twitter and I quickly began interacting, asking questions and forming relationships with a handful of people.

One piece of advice for someone starting in your role?

If you manage to land an editorial assistant at a major publishing house then congratulations! It's still the most competitive entry level role in publishing.

Every imprint and division is different and editors work in their own unique ways but learn how your manager(s) work, what their tastes are, become familiar with their lists (the books they've published before) and once you find your feet try to anticipate some of their needs. For example: the tasks they always dread doing - is there a simpler way of doing it?

If you're interested in advancing and having a successful career in editorial, it might be a good idea to think of projects of your own. Of course you will have to remain consistent with your regular tasks, but having ideas of books you think they might like to acquire or authors you'd like to commission can be great practise if anything. You never know, something might come out of it.

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DAY IN THE LIFE

My day depends on whichever tasks set by my managers are a priority at the time.

First thing I do when I start in the morning is go through my inbox and read every email has been sent since the last working day and complete any urgent tasks. On some days I'll have to attend meetings in the mornings which can last from half an hour to an hour. I also have a weekly catch-up with both of my managers. Some of my tasks include working on cover copy and cover briefs, which are forms we fill out and send to the production and art and design teams for both the front cover copy and the blurb copy.

I also work a lot on updating the TIS (Title Information Sheets) which are crucial for the sales team to sell to retailers but also incredibly important as they feed out through Biblio (a metadata and management database) to retailers' websites.

I also often work on producing 'costings', which are reports based on numerous details about a book and help us decide how and whether we should attempt to acquire it, as well as coordinating getting the titles we do acquire set up and ready to work on.

I also work on sending out advance copies of books to potential readers. And something I've been doing increasingly is working on several, what we call 'handovers', where I take a book through the publishing process, liaising with the production department to ensure that all the material for the book is as we want it.

There will be numerous miscellaneous tasks which can come up on any particular day. Every day is varied and fun!