Does anyone work in publishing?

[SlackSally]

I've been rejected from two institutions after applying to do a primary PGCE. Obviously I'm very disappointed and after such effort on my part only for disappointment I'm feeling very disillusioned with the idea of teaching and at the moment don't feel I would want to try again next year.

My degree is in English and I love books and reading so I'm trying to find out more about working in the publishing industry. I only want general information: how does one get started? is experience essential? what is the pay like? do you enjoy your job? etc etc.

Thank you for your time.

I did a number of years ago

I worked in the sales & marketing dept, piss easy work for piss poor pay.

I did enjoy it but was rather young and shy, would probably enjoy it more now.

I went in through the admin/secretarial route.

Good luck

I do. Pay is notoriously bad to start, (say 14K-18K at entry level) although is better in larger companies (although obviously, more competition to get in to them), it does get better the longer you stick it out. Basically, there are hundreds of fresh young grads with arts degrees who want to work in publishing, so no incentive to improve initial conditions. Apart from pay, the working environment is generally a nice one - creative, interesting people, working with a product you like (hopefully), depending on what you do there's the possibility of travel (if that's of interest), work generally needs an eye for detail, being good at spotting consistency/inconsistency, a bit of financial aptitude etc. I think the thing a lot of people forget about publishing, is that it's a business, and is about making and selling things primarily.
There are roles in

• choosing/creating the products (editorial & design)
• ensuring the products get made (production)
• letting people know the products exist (marketing)
• selling the products (sales & rights)
• ensuring the funds are available for all of above (finance)
• keeping the business within the law (legal)
• keeping it all going (administration & management)

Getting into it, you need to set yourself apart from the hordes somehow - sorry to be blunt, but liking books and reading is 90% of the population. Working in a bookstore is a good start, lots of big publishers take people on for free labour work experience, especially in the summer, so setting it up in a couple of months would be good timing. If you do any volunteer work on newsletters or could do some training in specialist publishing software that would be an advantage.

Have a look at this for some more info.

Hi
I have been in publishing for 10 years and love it. I would recommend reading up on the industry. Giles Clark: Inside book publishing is a good book. You could get some work experience to start with or apply for an Assistant job and once you are in, you can then decide what area you want to work in.
All the best