http://www.blogcatalog.com/directory/career-jobs

Some link back URL for blogcatalog. Another night of SEO at home alone.

Duckworth Publishers

Last week I had some work experience at Duckworth Publishers. Unfortunately I wasted the first few days wracked with doubt about this whole ‘career in publishing’ venture as I had failed to secure another interview. I had also met up with an old friend for a few beers and he questioned me about my desire to work in publishing - whether or not this is ‘the one’.  I say that as if I’ve had in mind a tonne of careers. Well there has been the astronaut/pilot one which lasted for an afternoon, but there has been a range of jobs ranging from mopping changing room floors to washing dishes, to delivering battered parcels to administrative tedium to falling in love with databases. So my friend had reason to question me and I had reason to question myself.

Of all the jobs in publishing I have applied for I almost prefer not to hear back from them if I’ve been unsuccessful as there is, I tell myself, still hope. When I do receive an email stating that I have been unsuccessful I have to force myself to balance it out by immediately applying for another job. But enough boo-hooing.

I had a great time at Duckworths helping to find bookshops around the world that sell English Language books. I also compiled a list of about 100 sex shops in Amsterdam in preparation for a mail out of Love + Sex with Robots to see if it would tickle their fancy. I’m not sure of the results of that one.

Then I was give some unsolicited manuscripts to read by the Editor and told to read through and reject or keep for further consideration. This was the best bit and I felt like a proper publisher. I won’t disparage anything I read as that would be hypocritical of me seeing as I dabble with about one or two sentences a day in an effort to write short stories, but like knowing when someone or something is ‘the one’ you just know if a book is good. I have of course only ever read published books before this point, and that in itself adds a preconception to a book, I think, and so I was worried about my skills in this area. I wouldn’t say it was easy but anyone who reads knows what good writing is.

From this short week at Duckworths I knew it was definitely editorial and sales that interest me the most. Luckily I will be going back there in September for two more weeks.

P.S. There was this post from another intern at Legend Press recently. You can read it here

Beginning of career and apologies

Some lessons about digital marketing have been learnt this week. I was helping out at CompletelyNovel.com last week and I was spreading the word of the short story competition they are running to launch their website. I was keen to impress, as you can imagine, so I went rampaging off into the blogosphere to spread the word (aka SPAM) writer’s blogs. I would just like to offer an apology to all those blogs I left a comment on as I know it can be annoying. Sorry, I did have good intentions.

Here is a list of them. Please pay a visit as they are good writers.

http://annebrooke.blogspot.com
http://writingandallthat.wordpress.com/
http://lonelysealonelysky.wordpress.com/
http://ireneintheworld.wordpress.com/
http://emma-king-farlow.blogspot.com/
http://christopherhardy.blogspot.com/
http://nikperring.blogspot.com/
http://titaniawrites.blogspot.com/
http://dearkittycolumns.blogspot.com/
http://poppyveins.blogspot.com/
http://lane7.wordpress.com/

Ok, but it was interesting. My task was to essentially ’seed’ people to the CN site; people who will be active in the community. It’s a hard task as it means being active and building relationships with writers and online groups associated with writing/reading/publishing. But that is in essence what publishing is all about.

I am being more cautious about how I go about this as I don’t want to start a career by immediately pissing people off, and it has led me to consider a change of title for this blog. A Career in Publishing perhaps, as hell why not?, I might as well say I am in publishing now and that might translate into some paid work. What’s it called where you project?

Some more work experience

I’m in the middle of a week’s work experience with CompletelyNovel which aims to do for writers what MySpace has done for musicans. It’s really quite fascinating to be with a start-up company and I’ve been spreading the word about their short story competition which will celebrate their public launch in October. They’ve teamed up with SYP who will edit the stories and help choose the winners. Should be a good one.

Publishing Jobs

Oxford Brookes has a renowned Masters programme; they also have a jobs site which advertises some interesting work experience placements as well as jobs I haven’t seen advertised in the usual places. Most jobs are for the Oxford area but some are London based.  Just another place to look really.

http://ah.brookes.ac.uk/publishing/jobs/

Good luck.

Funding for a career in publishing

I don’t know what I’ve been doing to miss this, probably too much blogging, but The Publishing Training Centre in Wandsworth is registered with the Learning Skills Council and therefore entitles you to a Career Development Loan to pay for one of their industry approved courses.  Well, it entitles you to apply for a loan; I haven’t gone through the process myself so I don’t know the details but if there is the possibility of a loan there is also the possibility of a grant.

It could of course be too much for recently graduated students to take on another loan but it would increase the chances of finding employment. And to hell with the consequences of debt.  I’m being sent a pack in the post and I’ll give it a try - today is the day, afterall, of trying to elicit money from the Government.

Has anyone done a course with The Publishing Training Centre? I’d be interested to know what you thought about it.

Cheers. R

Job Seekers Allowance

On Sunday I decided that it was time to sign on and claim my JobSeekers Allowance. It’s been five weeks since I last worked and it’s getting a bit desperate. I haven’t had any luck with regular temp agencies, I think due to bad timing on my part with the summer holidays, and I’m not getting called in for interviews for the jobs I’m applying for.  I hope I’m not sounding sorry for myself because I know these are the consequences of spending 12 months swaning around the globe and then trying to start a career in a highly competitive industry. I was prepared to be in this situation but the reality is of course not the same.

So signing on is actually easier than I thought. You can actually start the process for claiming online and they will call you within two days to ask you some questions and arrange a  ‘Work Focus’ meeting with an adviser. It takes about twenty minutes which is far more ideal than sitting in line at a JobCentre (yes I tried once before a few years ago but couldn’t be bothered with the paperwork in the end). The best thing is that they also back-date the payments from when you last had a work experience placement/job.

I think when I go for my Work Focus meeting (I love the terminology- so positive) I will ask about claiming job seekers whilst on a work experience placement which usually pay travel expenses-it’s probably not viable but worth asking about. I will let you know.

A work experience offer to all from CompletelyNovel

Anyone interested in doing some work experience at CompletelyNovel in August should contact Anna. CompletelyNovel is going to be a place (it’s in its first testing stage I believe) where you can write books, read books, discuss books, buy books, promote books and collaborate on books.

I think this would be an excellent opportunity to gain experience of the innovation in publishing that is so oftern talked about.

Hi - Anna (Director of CompletelyNovel) here. Yes, Miranda is one of a number of work experience placements we are having over the summer and we would like all of them to do some blog posts about their experiences…so watch out for more!
There are still a couple of placements left in August so if anyone is interested…get in touch - anna@completelynovel.com.

A link to the job advert can also be found here.

Thanks Anna.

Publishing work experience

Another work experiencee sharing what they have learnt so far on their placement at CompletelyNovel. Thank you Miranda.

A work experience experience at Puffin

I wish all the best to Davelyn Thompson on her work experience for the Puffin Marketing and Publicity Team - sounds like a fantastic opportunity and hopefully we’ll see some updates of what else goes on during an internship at Puffin.

Bit jealous of Davelyn working on Spinebreakers - looks amazing!