How I Got Into Publishing: Liza DeBlock
Last month, we were joined by our wonderful intern, Kiya Evans. Every morning we would talk about daily tasks, but the conversation inevitably turned towards the publishing industry and how to land a job. I am going to share my personal experience of how I came to be at Mushens Entertainment, and give some tips that I hope anyone trying to break into publishing will find useful!
I always wanted to work in publishing. It was my dream job - imagine, getting paid to read! But, quite frankly, I was too scared to try it. I was intimidated by the sheer volume of people that wanted to work in this industry. So, I remained in academia to continue my love of learning. However, I was unhappy during my postgraduate degree and finally admitted to myself that academia was not the route for me. But I had no clue about how was I going to break into what seemed like an impenetrable fortress. How do you get into publishing?!
I googled that very question. Various options appeared: Masters degrees, internships, the SYP website, shorter courses on the publishing industry, and much more. There are many routes into publishing and every person’s experience is unique to them. What I did, was immediately sign up for the SYP. I used their job forum to apply for a few internships, and I also applied for the Columbia Publishing Course which was commencing its inaugural year at Oxford.
I threw my energy into applications and clinched my first internship at Mira Trenchard Literary Scouting. Mira is amazing and taught me so much about the industry in just a few weeks. I completed the Frankfurt Book Fair scheduling for her clients which turned out to be the best way to learn about the industry. I also completed my first reader’s report on Laura Purcell’s The Silent Companions!
I then attended the Columbia Publishing Course and learned more about the industry in three weeks than I ever thought imaginable. The course allowed me to explore every part of the publishing sector through lectures from leading professionals (Juliet even spoke on the agents panel). Then, I went back to finish my postgraduate degree while acting as a remote reading intern for a literary agency in New York City. This kept one foot in the publishing world until I graduated. Afterwards, I moved to Oxford with my husband and completed a two week work experience at Felicity Bryan Associates. With all that experience, I hit a point where I was done with internships and financially needed a job.
I began applying for jobs. So many people wanted the same positions as I did and it felt hard to even get noticed. But I worked on my CV, tweaked my cover letter and eventually won interviews. I interviewed and made it to final rounds but continued to come up short. It was incredibly frustrating and I’ll admit that I wanted to quit. However, I’ve always wanted to work with books and I wasn’t going to take no for an answer. I kept applying. I stalked publisher and agency websites until I sent a speculative email to Eccles Fisher Associates, a literary scouting company. My email hit at just the right time. I interviewed and that was it. I’d finally made it in. Nine months later I realised that I liked the agenting side of the industry. Lucky for me, Juliet and her then business partner remembered me from a previous interview I’d had with them - and their assistant was leaving. I interviewed and have been with Juliet ever since.
All in all, it took me about five months of job searching to land my first job. There were a lot of ups and downs, and many things I wish I’d known at the time. To help you in your search, here are some hints and tips about the job/internship search, application, and interview process that helped me in the long run. I hope they will help you too!
Tips for internship/job hunting:
Join Twitter: Editors, agents, and everyone in publishing is on Twitter. They advertise jobs and internships all the time. Follow publishing houses’ specific jobs/careers Twitter accounts, as well as PubInterns, #JobsInPublishing, Creative Access, the SYP, and many more.
Apply for internships across the sector: Internships are meant for you to gain experience but also learn what you do or do not like about working in an agency verses a literary scout verses a publishing house. You may go in thinking you are dead set on working in editorial but come out realising that you love marketing, or that you’re well suited to the life of a scout.
Apply to jobs you actually want: Only go after different areas in the publishing sector that interest you. People think that they just need ‘to get in’ and then they can move freely about the industry to a job they always wanted. It’s not as simple as that and you don’t want to be stuck doing something you don’t like.
Tips for your application:
Be organised: I kept a spreadsheet of jobs I’d applied to with the date sent, and the closing date of the job. This helped me keep track of what I’d already applied to and have a sense of when I would hear back. You should also apply for a job as soon as you can. Don’t wait until the last minute to apply. Polish your application and get it in!
Do your research: Show that you’ve done your homework and say why specifically you want to work for them. Also, know what kind of a job you’re applying for. For example, if it’s a position at a scouting agency, don’t walk in asking what specific authors they represent or books they publish – they do neither.
Show you can do the job: One of the main reasons people fail at getting jobs is that they don’t show they can actually do the job at hand. A friend of mine wasn’t getting interviews so I read her cover letter and told her exactly why. She spent nearly the whole letter extoling the publishing industry and her passion for it and had a small paragraph about her actual experience. We tweaked the letter so that her opener said why she loved publishing, and that particular house/imprint/list/agency, then the majority of the letter was spent on demonstrating her skills and how they specifically fit with the job advertisement. After that, she started to get interviews!
Tips for your interview:
Once again, do your research: Ask who you are interviewing with, research their books or their authors, see what they’ve recently sold or acquired, know what you’re walking into.
Be prepared: Go in with your CV printed out, and your cover letter. These are easy to refer back to so you know exactly what you’ve previously said. I would also make a ‘cheat sheet’ of my research on who the interview was with, with their books and authors I liked. Having that handy sheet will help you so much when your brain is fuzzy on the adrenaline of an interview!
Get ready to answer a lot of questions: You have to show you can do the job by answering related questions, giving examples of times you’ve done something or another, and you’ll always be asked what you’re reading. If you don’t have direct experience handling a certain situation, relate it to a time when you’ve done something similar. Highlight your transferable skills!
Get ready to ask a lot of questions: Eventually, you’ll be asked if you have any questions. Always prepare some! I would ask exactly what a normal day in the office looked like, who I would be directly reporting to, what more they wanted from the position in the future, and why they liked their own jobs.
Be kind: After your interview, always email and thank them for their time. If you don’t get a job, you should still always email and thank them for their time. I cannot emphasise this enough! While this is a big industry, it is also very, very small and people will remember you. Making a good impression can help you land further internships, interviews, and even jobs.
Keep going: If you don’t get something, keep applying for more. Rejection can be a really disheartening and negative experience, but learn something from every application or interview, and turn it into a positive. Take what you’ve learned and it will benefit you in the long run!
Good luck, and I hope to see you around the industry soon!