Working in Book Publishing- An Interview with Paula Saunders

Paula Saunders has spent nearly 20 years in the book publishing industry and currently works as a consultant. She graduated from Exeter University with a joint honours degree in History and Politics and had a notion of becoming a journalist.

After attending a milk round interview with WHSmith with little enthusiasm she was offered a position as a Graduate Trainee and seconded to the distribution division based in Leicester which provided a good introduction to the world of publishing. After just two years she decided to make the move to London and took a drop in salary to get a foot on the ladder in an actual Publishing company, joining Reed Books / Octopus Publishing as a Sales Co-ordinator.

From then she rose to become Sales Adminstration Manager (supporting the sales team) and Sales Rep covering the Central Southern Counties) before leaving to join an independent Publishing company - Frances Lincoln.

Working under the eponymous Frances Lincoln, Paula was appointed Sales and Marketing Director, before being appointed to the board as International Sales and Marketing Director, a newly created role, which involved taking on responsibility for the Rights, Export, UK Trade and Publicity Departments.

Since having her daughter, she has taken a break from the Industry to join a charitable organisation called Arts & Business and worked with The Reading Agency on a project called Book & Business which inspired her return to Publishing.

More recently she has worked as a consultant, for clients including NESTA, and working on projects such as Literature Matters - which is a project to raise awareness during initial teacher training of the breadth of children's literature and school libraries and the role of the School Library Service in supporting the promotion of children's books.

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Paula, could you please select two of your previous positions and tell us a little about the day-to-day responsibilities?

Sale Representative for Reed Illustrated Books :

I was offered this position when two divisions merged. Whilst I only did the job for less than two years, the experience I gained was immense. I took over the central southern counties - a territory previously covered by two reps, and had to create a journey plan to ensure that all the Publisher's new titles were shown to the key bookshops - chain and independent - within a specified sales cycle. Whist the job was quite pressurised - aggressive targets to be met etc, there was quite a lot of scope to work on your own initiative, approaching new customers , setting up regional publicity in association with the marketing department etc. At the start of my career, I had never envisaged that I would take on a sales role such as this, but it certainly enabled me to move into a more challenging role in rights / export.

International Sales and Marketing Director :

A new position created to pull together a range of departments including UK Sales, Export, Rights and Publicity and Marketing Departments. My role involved maximising frontlist and backlist sales by setting and achieving targets - I was responsible for a global turnover in excess of £5m. The company published both adult illustrated books ( gardening / cookery/ mind body spirit etc and children's books.) I was appointed to the board and required to present reports on the sales strategy at board meetings and to the bank. Whilst more of my time became tied up in financial reporting at this stage, I still sold to certain key accounts and handled certain key account sales myself. I travelled to territories such as the US and Australia and arranged and attended key UK and International Book Fairs. On a day to day basis, I might be required to attend an Acquisitions Meeting, where we would make decisions on whether to proceed with new titles, or attend a Production Meeting to be updated on the status of titles in production ; whether they would meet delivery deadlines etc. Marketing Meetings would involve planning the latest publicity and marketing campaigns for new titles and deciding where to allocate resources. Additional a fair amount of my time might be tied up with staff issues, motivating and appraising staff etc.

You mention roles within publishing of which readers might previously have been unaware. Could you highlight the key areas that you think graduates should consider beyond editorial?

I think the vast proportion of people applying for jobs in publishing wish to get in to editorial and often think they can get in via different departments and move across to editorial, which is of course possible sometimes. I would just suggest people wanting to work in publishing are more open minded about other roles such as working in the Production Department, Publicity and Marketing or UK, Export or Rights Departments. If you have languages, even if you may not see yourself as a 'sales type' a job in the rights department may be for you. The job usually involves a lot of travel and building up relationships with international customers in allocated territories.

I guess I fell into sales. When I was a graduate I would never have thought that I would have ended up selling for a living, but whilst I could never see myself selling double-glazing or insurance. I have loved selling books and would advise people not to make assumptions on what a sales role might be like within a publishing company. It is a much softer sell and is a role that interacts with most other departments in the company. In certain key roles I was able to influence the Publishing Programme and work quite closely with authors. The job became much wider than presenting new titles to customers.

Where should students go to find out about positions and opportunities in the industry?

The main places that companies advertise positions are The Bookseller ( http://www.thebookseller.com) , Publishing News ( http://www.publishingnews.co.uk) and in newspapers such as The Guardian (Mondays) and Independent (Wednesdays) amongst others. It is also worth approaching specialist recruitment agencies - many advertise on The Bookseller website - e.g. Judy Fisher, JFL Search and Recruitment, KP Publishing and Inspired Selection. Whilst many of the agencies tend to focus on positions where some experience is required, positions for graduates will come up. It is also worth applying for work experience with companies, sending in cv's to the Personnel Departments. I would also suggest applying for work experience with smaller companies as you will get a good overview of how a publishing company works perhaps more easily. It is worth getting hold of a copy of The Writers and Artists Yearbook, as this lists all the main publishers, contact names / addresses etc. Whilst it is time consuming to send your cv in on spec to a range of publishers, if the timing is right you may be lucky if a relevant starting position comes up. I have certainly had CV's arrive on spec, on my desk, at times positions have become vacant, and so called people in for interview.

Many publishing companies send staff on courses at The Publishing Training Centre and their website (http://www.train4publishing.co.uk) has a good guide to Careers in Publishing and Higher Education Courses in Publishing.

A book worth getting hold of is Inside Book Publishing by Giles Clark, and if you have a basis understanding of how the industry works, I would recommend Publishing for Profit by Thomas Woll.

What are the 5 key rules for graduates applying for jobs in publishing?

Get up to speed with the main trends in the Industry , who the key players are, who owns who etc. Checking out the latest news on The Bookseller is a good way to be kept aware of the main issues that affect the trade and you can sign up for daily updates. You can also sign up for news alerts on http://www.booktrade.info and check out the Publishing News website - http://www.publishingnews.co.uk. You should be able to demonstrate knowledge of the industry.

Any relevant work experience you have will help your application - e.g applying for a sales / publicity position it would be well-received if you have worked in a bookshop , or had a placement in a Publishing Company. This would be seen to have given you an insight into how a publishing company functions, and make your cv stand out. Not all work experience can be that challenging and can be frustrating at times, but in my experience if graduates show themselves to be flexible and keen to learn, opportunities to get more involved in the interesting things will become available quite quickly. I have certainly offered job to graduates who undertook work experience in my department ir recommended them for other positions.

Research the companies you approach effectively. Certainly if you attend an interview you should get hold of their catalogues and possibly company reports in advance. This will enable you to be better informed and ask pertinent questions about the publishing programme.

Ensure you send in a concise CV with a hand written covering letter when applying for jobs / work experience. Obvious I know, but ensure the cv is well written and spelling is correct.

Be persistent. You will get knock backs. It is a hard industry to break into, but persistence will win out if you follow rules 1 to 4!

What is the single thing you most wish applicants would NOT do or say?

If I had a penny for every time on a CV I have received, 'My interests include reading / I have a passion for literature', I would be very rich indeed. I think that is a given if you are applying for a job in Publishing.

I have also interviewed many people for sales / rights / publicity positions who immediately told me that they really wanted to get into editorial. Whilst that may be your ambition, it is not a way to charm your interviewer !

Are there any technical skills or types of experience which might give applicants an edge over the competition?

As stated above, relevant work experience would definitely give an edge. If you can , ensure you request a reference to take away with you when your work experience comes to an end. This can always be attached to a cv or brought along to an interview. Good computer skills will be required. Otherwise, most technical training would be acquired within a company. The Publishing Centre run some great courses that would definitely give you an edge, but could be costly.

Is there any advice you wish you'd been given at the beginning of your career?

Not to be afraid to ask questions, and if not clear on instructions that have been given, to immediately ask for clarification. It is an industry that has a lot of jargon / terms attached to it and a lot of knowledge can be falsely assumed of new people.

To aim to learn as much as possible about how other departments work, and not just focus on the particular area you work in. To be as inquisitive as possible. Knowledge is power!

Which project or publication have you most admired in the last few years?

It is certainly not original , but I'd have to say, having worked in childrens books for much of my career - the first Harry Potter Book. It is increasingly hard to interest boys of a certain age in reading, and this was a book that drew them back into the bookshops and re-ignited their interest and passion for books. It was also one of the first books published with two covers, one to appeal to adults, ones to children and was sold and marketed into both sections. I do not think it is particularly well written when you compare the writing to Philip Pullman's for example, but for the affect it and the subsequent books had on children's book sales, one has to be thankful.

Could you tell us your favourite publishing term?

Blad - which stands for sample pages of a book to show what the binding, text and images will look like.