{"id":840,"date":"2020-02-21T15:44:38","date_gmt":"2020-02-21T15:44:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.ncl.ac.uk\/childrensliteratureinnewcastle\/?p=840"},"modified":"2020-02-21T15:44:39","modified_gmt":"2020-02-21T15:44:39","slug":"more-than-editorial-working-in-publishing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.ncl.ac.uk\/childrensliteratureinnewcastle\/more-than-editorial-working-in-publishing\/","title":{"rendered":"More than editorial: working in publishing"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

MA student Megan Ayres<\/strong> on her experiences in the children’s publishing industry.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

It could <\/em>just be me, but I feel like a career in publishing is synonymous with images of manuscripts & proof copies strewn artistically across desks, as a dedicated editor sifts and read their way through it to find the Next Big Thing that will catapult an otherwise unknown author into notoriety. Just think of the happy accident that sparked the cultural revolution that is Harry Potter. <\/em>Romantic, I know, but these were images clouding my idea about how my career was going to go after I finished my undergraduate degree in 2016.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Publishing\nis actually a super competitive commercial business with commercial aims and\nattitudes. So, it\u2019s not really a surprise that most of it is centred in London.\nYet through research and sheer refusal to live there I landed a job in a\npublishing house in the Midlands. I moved away from my family ready to enter\nthe book industry working in the production department of a, predominantly,\nchildren\u2019s book publishing company, working to coordinate the manufacturing\nprocess of books. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Firstly, I\u2019d\nlike to stress the difference between trade and mass market literature, since I\nwasn\u2019t myself aware of it when I started. Mass market companies cater to\nconsumer demand \u2013 their main clientele will be retailers like supermarkets,\nplaces that can sell book products inexpensively. They may even have a contract\nwith specific brands, designing and producing material on behalf of them, or\ntaking existing designs and facilitating the production. So, the mass market\npublisher will work with the client in mind, kind of like a takeaway \u2013 the\nrestaurant only produces the food that the customers order. It can be good and\nbad \u2013 more fast-paced but if the customer wants something culturally out of\ndate (pink\/ballerinas\/fairies for girls, blue\/superheroes\/trucks for boys) you\nproduce it. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The ties that\ntrade publishing has to consumer demand is perhaps less simplistic and\nexplicit, even though it\u2019s still there masked under an ethos of independence\nand forward-thinking-ness. This is \u2018traditional\u2019 publishing. To get a sense of\nthat, think of all the books Waterstones sells and the sense of prestige that\ncomes with being \u2018well read\u2019. (What does that even mean anyway??)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I worked in\nthe former environment helping produce mass market books, and I acted as a\nliaison and coordinator for the manufacturing of said books. But these weren\u2019t\nsimple books, they had bells & whistles: sound modules, stationary,\npuppets, stickers… massive books, tiny books, books that didn\u2019t even look\nlike books. It was all very adventurous, which I think is the glory of the mass\nmarket \u2013 you\u2019re so tied to attracting customers that you\u2019re constantly working\nto get that wow-factor. But it means you need the right people \u2013 ones who can\nsource weird components, printers that can produce large quantities, and so on\n\u2013 all at a cheap price. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

My role involved\ncommunicating with international suppliers to negotiate delays, quality issues,\nschedules, and the like. It really built my capacity to talk professionally,\nforge bonds with people on the other side of the world and be firm. It took a lot\nof self-organisation and problem-solving: risk assessing products for children\ncomes with a whole health & safety side that you probably wouldn\u2019t realise.\n<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Publishing\nhouses are multifaceted but working in production means you get to be the\nspider at the centre of the web. I worked directly with the editorial\ndepartment to discuss design & technical issues; for me, resolving these\nissues was always the most gratifying. You could have a really tricky, horrible\nspecification for production but when the book would come in (and we were\nalways the first to see it!) getting the final product in your hands and being\nable to take it to the editorial team to show it off was always a real score. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

I also\nworked with the sales team, which gave me a nice foundation of marketing &\nselling knowledge. It was often a slight battle: they had a tricky job with the\ncustomer on the other end of the line asking for quicker schedules & lower\ncosts \u2013 yet better quality – which obviously wouldn\u2019t always be possible on our\nside of things. But to be honest I always found it kind of fun \u2013 it would keep\nthe day fresh and it was worth it for those moments when you could pull it out\nthe bag for them. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Working in\nproduction means getting to be around and work with a lot of people, which I\nthink is one of the most important skills you can have. I also got to work with\nthe operations and shipping teams, because in order to get to shops they\u2019ve got\nto sail for weeks on the sea first! That comes with its own set of requirements\nabout quantities, pallets, and packing \u2013 all of it burned into my brain. I got\nto produce some things for really big brands and seeing them in shops was\nalways a bit of a smug moment. It’s weird seeing something in the real world\nand knowing you had a hand in it, even a hand no-one really thinks that much\nabout. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ultimately, coming back to university for my Masters has been the right choice for me, no doubt, but I\u2019m deeply appreciative of the experience I\u2019ve had. It’s improved my outlook and way of thinking about work; I have more confidence in myself. It gave me the buzz I needed to choose to come back for my Masters and to focus specifically on children\u2019s literature. I realised how integral the actual process of publication is in impacting the books that are available to children, especially how tied to trend and consumer demand they are. I always thought of publishing as very forward thinking, but there\u2019s a lot more to it than that. This really sparked my academic interest and reignited that sense of intrigue, not just for publishing but for literature in general. Books have such a complicated and multifaceted role within the cultural space. More generally, being in employment full time improved my initiative and work ethic, which is important for postgraduate study! <\/p>\n\n\n\n

For anyone trying to get into publishing, I would say to look outside the box a bit; look at the roles in production, sales, design, & operations. They each play to different strengths and can be really rewarding. Editorial is awesome, no denying, but there are loads of roles out there –  it\u2019s brilliant for anyone who loves fast-paced and innovative environments. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

MA student Megan Ayres on her experiences in the children’s publishing industry. It could just be me, but I feel like a career in publishing is synonymous with images of manuscripts & proof copies strewn artistically across desks, as a dedicated editor sifts and read their way through it to find the Next Big Thing … Continue reading More than editorial: working in publishing<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7893,"featured_media":842,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[275,270,271,269,274,157],"class_list":["post-840","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorised","tag-book-manufacturing","tag-childrens-books","tag-childrens-publishing","tag-ma-in-childrens-literature","tag-mass-market","tag-picturebooks"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ncl.ac.uk\/childrensliteratureinnewcastle\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/840","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ncl.ac.uk\/childrensliteratureinnewcastle\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ncl.ac.uk\/childrensliteratureinnewcastle\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ncl.ac.uk\/childrensliteratureinnewcastle\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7893"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ncl.ac.uk\/childrensliteratureinnewcastle\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=840"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ncl.ac.uk\/childrensliteratureinnewcastle\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/840\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":844,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ncl.ac.uk\/childrensliteratureinnewcastle\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/840\/revisions\/844"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ncl.ac.uk\/childrensliteratureinnewcastle\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/842"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ncl.ac.uk\/childrensliteratureinnewcastle\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=840"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ncl.ac.uk\/childrensliteratureinnewcastle\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=840"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ncl.ac.uk\/childrensliteratureinnewcastle\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=840"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}